One of the most over-rated films ever

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 1999)

I really do not see the great appeal of the movie version of "A Clockwork Orange". I have never read the book, but I bet many others have not either. It seems to me that a lot of people who urge other watchers of the film to ignore the violent parts and to concentrate on the storyline -- it seems that they themselves miss the point of the movie. The book is apparently different, but the film makes no moral claims as to the character Alex, other than the weak assertion that he is evil. As the last shot shows, Alex in the movie has not been changed by the therapy, nor by those who attempt revenge on him. This doesn't seem too profound to me, and I am glad a much greater film, "The French Connection", which makes no attempts (and therefore doesn't fail in its attempt) at moralizing, beat out "A Clockwork Orange" for Best Picture. Please, people -- if you're going to say stuff like, "BEST FILM EVER. PERIOD," then at least pick a film that has a pulse. "A Clockwork Orange" utilizes those classic Kubrick-style wide-angle shots that are wonderful for the eye, but which also lack "feeling". In other words, they worked very well in the sterile atmosphere of "2001:A Space Odyssey" but did not work so well in the human world of "A Clockwork Orange". Another thing: what's up with that scene in which Alex and his Droogs are riding through the country in their car? Those are some pretty cheesy effects -- the use of an obviously stationary car in front of a moving picture, to give the entirely unrealistic effect of a moving car. And the drunkard in the second scene on the street: could he be any more of a caricature, waving his bottle in his hand wildly, while slumped against pavement and singing an old diddy? Sometime I will read the book, so Kubrick's sometimes amateurish adaptation will be cleansed from my memory.