Not Kubrick's best

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2003)

I'm afraid that "A Clockwork Orange" doesn't hold up as well for me now, nearly 10 years after I last saw it. It's very talky (not dialogue but narration, which rarely works), the compositions are overly formal and static, and Malcom McDowell's
performance is not nearly as impressive now that I've see "O Lucky Man!".
Worse, Burgess's language sounds much too stilted, and his story is simplistic. While the film still makes it as a black comedy, it's simply not as funny as "Dr. Strangelove"; I get the feeling that Kubrick had no sympathy for the material's moralistic tone.
Of course, that criticism is made in light of Kubrick's early masterpieces and his later, mature works. I am convinced that "Strangelove," "2001," and, yes (and especially), "Eyes Wide Shut" are masterpieces, and I think that Kubrick's
formalism and abstraction matured into a powerful narrative and intellectual
force after this film. "A Clockwork Orange," though, is neither as deep nor as evocative as I remembered; maybe it's just not as timeless as those others.