My favourite Kubrick

Rating: 10/10 (18 August 1999)

Based on Anthony Burgess' excellent novel, A Clockwork Orange is a masterpiece. A dark vision of the future, with ultra-violent youth ruling the streets and people being afraid to leave their houses after dark. Alex, a leader of such a gang gets caught after committing an "accidental" murder, and after two years of prison sentence, he is chosen to be reformed by a new method called Ludovico's technique, which is claimed to turn bad people into good people.
I think every director runs a risk when adapting a great novel, but the way Stanley Kubrick did it seems to be THE way. He kept the best scenes of the story, created a semi-dreamlike visual environment, added an terrific soundtrack, chose the suitable actors (nearly everybody who had more than two lines was memorable), and ran the whole thing with his usual precision. The only weaker point was the sex scene between Alex and the two devotchkas from the record store (but it would be a bit difficult to adopt the violent scene from the book with Alex of 15 and the girls like 10).
I don't know which movie should I consider as Kubrick's best, but this one is definitely my favourite. The first time I saw it, I just couldn't believe the soundtrack. Though it owes much to the novel, it transcends to an audio/visual experience only a movie can give you. I think Kubrick made the right decision which scenes to include. I'm glad he completely omitted the last chapter of the book. Also, this films features probably the most menacing last line in movie history.
Finally, there seems to be a common misunderstanding: many people seem to think that Ludovico's technique turned Alex into a good person, as promised. Wrong. Alex' body was conditioned to react to violence with sickness, but our humble narrator's personality hardly changed at all.