Dated

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2003)

Story takes place in the future. It's about Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his "droggs" (friends) who go about and rape, rob and kill people just for kicks. Alex is caught and goes through a sadistic form of therapy to cure his violent impulses. It works...or does it?
This was considered a masterpiece in 1971. It was pretty strong stuff (the original rating was X in the US and it was banned completely in Britain) and introduced the term "ultraviolence" into our language. I loved it all the times I saw it in the 1980s (at least 7 times). I did think it was sexist (notice the decor at the bar) but found the ideas and themes fascinating.
Seen now it's very dated. The violence in it is not even remotely shocking anymore and the ideas and ultimate message in the film (which totally changes the ending of the book) are old hat by now. To put in bluntly the film bores me now. It is extremely well made by Kubrick (the sequence with the "William Tell Overture" was great and how can you resist Beethoeven?) and powerfully acted (McDowell was just perfect) but it drags and I'm more bored than anything by it now. Perhaps I saw it too much in the 80s...
I'm giving it a 7--for its time it was very powerful...sadly, it just doesn't hold up.
And I know I'm going to hear from those Kubrick fanatics who thinks everything he did was genius (even "The Shining"). Let the attacks begin!