"As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures"

Rating: 10/10 (7 February 2002)

It's got to be handed to Kubrick; no other director can be cited as making so many back-to-back classics in his working career. His ability to move seamlessly from genre to genre, still covering the themes of man's metamorphosis, his place in the universe and his desire to choose between right and wrong, is something some filmmakers never manage. If his previous film 2001: A Space Odyssey was his attempt to look at man's place in existence, the surely A Clockwork Orange is a look at man's place in society, not in any Ken Loach, lower class, upper class rivalry way, but in how man functions in society. The question raised by Kubrick and writer Anthony Burgess is `if man cannot freely choose between right or wrong does he cease to be a man?' Kubrick and Burgess seem to be in agreement, yes! But whereas Burgess' novel showed us that, given time, the person will soon grow-up and decide for themselves, once and for all, what path to choose in life. But because Kubrick missed the last chapter of the book, the film takes on an entirely different agenda.
The year is now 2002, we have sailed through the year that Kubrick made famous with his watershed sci-fi picture, and we stand looking out at an uncertain future, and one thing that stands out, is the shocking similarities between the fantasy of A Clockwork Orange, and the reality of the everyday world. Hooligans are everywhere, teenage louts that have elderly people too terrified to leave their homes after dark, our countries are run by lying, back-stabbing politicians who are always out for their own gain, and now scientists are looking into new treatments for the correction and rehabilitation of violent offenders. It's not hard to see the pompous politicians of A Clockwork Orange and not subliminally think of Jack Straw or Tony Blair stood at the podium. And this is the talent of Stanley Kubrick, his ability to build lasting images through his own visual sense. Everything about his movies takes on a certain iconography, they not only represent the style of the times they where made and simultaneously dictate the style of when they are set, I mean, who wasn't just a bit let down by the year 2001's less than glorious look in comparison to Kubrick's vision, in the same way we are perturbed by A Clockwork Orange's dilapidated future.
Kubrick turns Burgess' themes into a full scale plan of attack, complimenting his message by utilizing all the camera and editing effects that went into the grandeur of 2001, but simplifying them to conform to both the idea of A Clockwork Orange, and the film's limited budget. The use of slow-motion and ultra-speed works well, even if the laughable high-speed sex orgy looks like a throw back to the days of Benny Hill, and some people have trouble with the use of back projection and process shots, but all of these help build the world of the film, and help dictate the skewed perception of Alex (McDowell). Both the character of Alex and the way in which McDowell portrays him is unbelievably complex, guiding the audience through this world with his narration, he makes the audience one of his `droogs' which means that we like Alex right from the start, his actions may appal us, but at this stage he's our only ally. This is another one of Kubrick's trump cards, because if we like Alex, then we will feel for him as his victims take their revenge, and that's when the film has you, when you start to feel sympathy for this amoral character.
`What's it going to be then?' is the future of A Clockwork Orange almost upon us, is Kubrick such a master film-maker that his films have the ability to predict time? Well, since none of us are now actually revolving in a space station to the haunting echo of `The Blue Danube' I would say no. But it is impossible to watch the images of restrained violence and political corruption of A Clockwork Orange and not be drawn in, and more importantly not you leave feeling overwhelmed by the attention to detail and iconic, haunting images that Kubrick shows us. Pop-art fantasy, or harsh political indictment, you decide. 10/10