One of Kubrick's best

Rating: 10/10 (24 January 2002)

From the cold, haunting, electronic opening theme of A Clockwork Orange (written and directed by Stanely Kubrick), you can tell immediately that this will be a very unsettling film. Alex's (played by Malcolm McDowell) leering stare into the camera, as it slowly zooms away, is very menacing, and you can tell instantly that this isn't a fellow to be messed with! Through the narration, he tells you of his gang or his droogs as he calls them, and his fondness for something called 'ultra-violence'. We then come to the first scene, where he and his gang savagely beat up a defenceless old drunkard. Then they get into a fight with another gang, which is played to classical musical, but strangely enough, it seems to fit in perfectly with the violence on screen, which I think is part of Stanely Kubrick's skill as a director. After that, they steal a car, and go joy riding down a country lane, with little regard at all to any other people on the road. They then come to a quiet house, owned by a writer and his wife, which they have chosen for what Alex calls, 'Surprise visit'. What this surprise visit consists of is forcing their way into the house, trashing up there home, and in between beating up the writer, raping his wife in front of him, Alex cheerfully sings, 'Singin'' in the Rain'. It's such a horrible, disconcerting, violent scene that it's really very difficult to watch, and all this happens in the first few opening scenes! But it isn't as bleak as this the whole way through. There are some nice, comical touches to it, such as Alex's slimy parole officer, who at the end of every sentences says, `Yes?', and tries on several occasions to touch Alex up. Also, when Alex eventually goes to prison for killing a lady, the warden (played by Michael Bates) seems as if he's stepped straight out of the set of 'Porridge', as he's very similar Mr. MacKay, albeit he swears a whole lot more! There's also the prison priest, who's a rather amusing character, too. However, the most complicated character in the whole film is Alex. Although he has committed some awful crimes, for some reason, and I think this is partly down to Malcolm MacDowell's acting, and Stanely Kubrick's direction, you not only feel sorry for him, but you identify and sympathise with him. Alex is, essentially, still a child, as he lives with his parents, and goes to school. Also, when he's told that one of his victims is now dead, he's speechless, almost as if it's never occurred to him that somebody could die from his actions. He keeps a pet too, a snake called Basil, which although is an usual animal to have, it does show that he has a sensitive side. Also, there is a far darker side to his personality, too. When he reads the Bible, he fantasies about torturing Jesus, and leading many of the battles that happened in the Old Testemant, but has an angelic look on his face while reading it, making the priest think he's had some sort of religious enlightenment! The main thing that you wonder when watching this film is what kind of society created Alex, and during his time in prison, that question is answered. The government is clearly a near state totalitarian state, and consider Alex to be a petty criminal, more concerned about political prisoners. When Alex undergoes the Ludovico treatment, where he's forced to watch violent images of murders, rapes, and even footage from concentration camps, all to the music of Bethoven, in order to make him a 'better person'. However, as the priest says, he has no choice on whether to be good or not, and that's essentially what makes us human. Without the choice, we cease to be human beings, which is one of the many deep themes of the film. Also, we get the impression that Alex has been through all this before, as his prohibition officer hints that he's been in trouble before, and at the end of the film, it appears that he's back to his old self again. In short, I think A Clockwork Orange is possibly one of Stanely Kubrick's greatest films, and is also one of the best films ever made. It's a dark, twisted masterpiece of cinema. It's a bit heavy going, but it's well worth watching!