"Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh."

Rating: 10/10 (24 March 2014)

One of the first things that will strike anyone watching "A Clockwork Orange" today is how thoroughly modern it looks. If not for the presence of the youthful face of established thespian Malcolm McDowell, one could be forgiven the assumption that the movie was made far more recently than 1971. Unlike many of its contemporaries, "A Clockwork Orange" is in no way dated, and the issues it addresses are as urgent today as they were three decades ago. How many other films from the early '70s can make this statement?
Applying his own distinctive visual style to Burgess' future dystopia, Kubrick's movie hit the sensibilities of UK cinema-goers like a sledgehammer. Its design had an immediate impact on contemporary culture, with the central image of a trussed-up Malcolm McDowell, his eyes prised open, one of the most arresting in 20th century cinema.
A simple tale at heart, "A Clockwork Orange" introduces Alex and his little coterie of droogs, a violently amoral gang that enjoys inflicting violence for its own sake, particularly after a few glasses of intoxicating milk plus.
Like Burgess' novel, Kubrick's movie is related in three distinct parts. In the first, we glimpse an average twenty-four hours in Alex's life, which comprises rape, violence against rival gangs and innocent people, and a side order of Beethoven. Alex's betrayal by his embittered gang members and his subsequent imprisonment ultimately leads to his willing participation in the Ludovico Technique, a kind of aversion therapy that causes him to retch helplessly at the mere thought of violence or sex. Released back into the wild in the third act, Alex's inability to defend himself leaves him vulnerable to abuse from all quarters, including his old droogs (who have now been assimilated into society as brutal members of the police), and an eccentric writer who attempts to force him to commit suicide by playing Beethoven at full blast.
Like the book, Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" is a meditation on the notion of free will and morality (Kubrick himself described it as "a running lecture on free will"). It's worth noting, however, that Kubrick's adaptation actually tones down some of the more violent excesses of Burgess' book, with the underage girls Alex encounters in the original text made considerably older for the film. Nevertheless, there's an irreverent, blackly comic tone to Kubrick's film, and it's this that I suspect audiences were most shocked and surprised by.
It's a film that makes you ponder and question, like most great films do. It questions the ethics of choice and the human mind. It's one of the most controversial films and books ever, but it's still worth checking out.