Ultra-Violent, Ultra-Brilliant

Rating: Null/10 (23 September 2003)

Not being a huge fan of Kubrick's, the only film I had ever seen of his being 'The Shining', I was quite surprised with what was to come while watching A Clockwork Orange. Having heard about the movie from a friend of mine, I thought it might have been a rather boring one. But I was pleasantly surprised. This movie conjured up images and concepts I had never felt/heard before. It opened up my senses to a whole new world. I was astounded, to say the least! Malcolm McDowell's outstanding portrayal of the young Alex De Large was one of the best I have ever seen. He made the character come to life in such a sarcastic, playful way, which at some scenes, you hated him and, in others, such as the Ludovico and Police-droogs-violence scene, you felt empathy for the poor lad. Stanley Kubrick had a very unique way of interpreting the book, written by Anthony Burgess. Kubrick created such a colourful and somewhat perfect atmosphere whereas Burgess gave a bleak, uneventful atmosphere to southern England. Kubrick's bright use of colour and symmetry gave the film a somewhat perfect, mechanical overtone. I especially liked the score, as it consisted of classical music, and some ultra-modern electronic music, possibly to capture the futuristic setting. I also loved the queer language Alex and his droogs spoke in. Called NADSAT, it is derived from Russian and English rhyming-slang, and it's a very clever language at that. It showed Burgess' intelligence to use such a colourful language, also, to describe otherwise mundane words, such as rape, (In-out-in-out), violence, (ultra-violence) girl, (devotchka) and boy (malchick).
Overall, if you want to see the world and movies in a different and frightfully delicious light, see this movie!