The film doesn't do justice to a great book

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2004)

I thought that Anthony Burgess' "Clockwork Orange" was one of the most brilliant and disturbing books I've ever read, so I was very eager to see Stanley Kubrick's cinematic take. Sadly, while I thought that the film was worth a look in the end I was underwhelmed. It's very well made, as befits a Kubrick film, with great eye for composition, camera shots, etc., and it boasts a fantastic central performance from Malcolm McDowell as Alex, although he's obviously too old to play a 14-year-old. But any message the film was trying to convey was completely lost in ridiculous lurid production design that I found shockingly dated. You don't need to have seen Austin Powers movies to giggle at the 70s fashions gone barking mad. The film's "ultra-violent" tag looks just as hopelessly dated. I'm not desensitised to screen violence and rape, but here it just looks cartoonish and frankly ridiculous; therefore I felt there was no real impact to Alex's crimes. It also doesn't help that Alex is made to be the only character who seems alive and vibrant amongst the unlikeable, personality-free drones. Oh, and did I mention that practically everyone overacts like there's no tomorrow? In the end, the film IMO is nothing more than a curious relic.