Kubrick Pulls Off The Nearly Impossible

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2011)

Often times it's a smart decision read the book prior to watching the film it has been based on. It helps get a further understanding of the characters and their situations or dilemmas. This has to be one of the only films I would advise you to do the opposite.
I've seen the movie many, many times. What can I say about it? Well, I don't want to give any of it away, so I'll just tell you that on the exterior of the film, it follows a rather simple storyline. But it's the interior, the part that makes you think (a part, unfortunately, that many films lack,) that makes it a required viewing for every hardcore cinema fan, or even a casual viewer.
As I've stated previously, I've viewed this work of art multiple times, but haven't once read the book. I figure, it might help me find an even deeper meaning in the story, why not? Let me tell you, the book, which is written by Anthony Burgess, is one of the toughest reads I've ever had. Not because is was disorganized, inept, or illogical. It wasn't. It's because of how it's written entirely in first person, as it should be, and the bizarre dialect which the narrator speaks in, which is English with Russian and other terms you won't find in any dictionary. If you haven't seen the film before reading the novel, I can't possibly see how you could understand, or merely comprehend, any of it. How Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest filmmakers to ever walk the earth, took this very complex novel made up of what I can only explain as poetic gibberish and make such a clear and focused movie that stands the test of time as one of the greatest moments in film history only leaves me to respect the man even more.
(And in no way am I bashing the Burgess novel, which deserves to be in a class of its own based on the original and audacity that author had in crafting a beautiful collage of words and thought.)