Satire As Subtle As A Flying Mallet

Rating: 6/10 (13 April 2010)

This is a great example of how time can create a mass consensus.We don't watch films like The Godfather,Citizen Kane,or Schindlers List and decide for ourselves what we think of them.Its just predetermined that these films are classics and above the normal critical process.
A Clockwork Orange is the case in front of us here.First there is the bravura technical skill of the film.Lets talk about it.Kubrick is in complete command here.Every extended tracking shot,every perfectly composed frame,every close up,every piece of music in a scene is exactly as the director intended it to be.Few filmmakers ever could create as singular a vision as Stanley Kubrick does in almost every film he made.
The problem here is the unwillingness of Kubrick to allow the audience to think for itself or come to a conclusion about anything in the film without shouting it from the rooftop,and shoving our face in it,again,and again and again.Yes,the film is brutal satire.We aren't meant to sympathize with Alex.We aren't meant to sympathize with anyone in the film.And this is hammered home to us continually,with extreme closeups of bulging eyes and faces shaking as if from palsy.We cant let the audience figure out for themselves what the tone and point of view of a scene is.We must let them know beyond the shadow of a doubt.A perfect example of this is when Alex is carried into the house of the man he had brutalized years before,whose wife he had raped while singing "Singing In The Rain".The man doesn't make the connection about who he is,until Alex is taking a bath,and starts singing the song again.Five seconds of this,and a quick reaction shot of the victim would have told you all you needed to know.But no,the song goes on for at least two minutes,and the man starts getting the bulging eyes and uncontrollable shaking.This whole thing extends to the next scene where the man is watching Alex eat.And it goes on forever,with no new information being given to us.
As I stated at the beginning,this film is the recipient of reflexive acknowledged classic status.I think that if we look at this film with objective eyes almost 40 years later,we see a film of great technical skill,with major narrative flaws.Kubrick showed us in film after film how misanthropic he was.This movie is the perfect example of this.