Visually exciting, thematically reprehensible

Rating: Null/10 (29 August 1999)

It entailed a great amount of effort on my part to finally see this film. It remains unobtainable here in Britain though I've heard strong rumours that a re-release is imminent. I ordered the video from Amazon.com after having traded in my VCR for a model compatible with NTSC format tapes as well as PAL (the standard format here in the UK.) Was it worth it? Sadly no.
I'm afraid I have to agree with Roger Ebert (for probably the first time ever) when he describes ACO as "...an ideological mess...a paranoid right-wing fantasy masquerading as an Orwellian warning..."

Kubrick kicks Burgess's intentions into touch early on and turns the entire film into a vindication of Alex. All authority figures are portrayed as obnoxious, faceless caricatures. Without exception, each of Alex's 'victims' are more 'unpleasant' than they are in the book, presumably in an attempt to justify their treatment: the cat-lady is changed from a frail old lady into a rich-bitch yoga freak; Alex's brutal rape of two 10-year girls is turned into a high-speed orgy with two willing teenage participants. The misogyny rampant throughout the film is especially shocking; Kubrick's obsession with displaying nubile, large-bosomed girls in various forms of undress would appear to suggest that his key influences were not, as previously thought, Max Ophuls and Sergei Eisenstein, but rather Russ Meyer and Benny Hill.

Leaving aside its dubious morality, I would agree that there is much to admire in the film. Malcolm McDowell gives a dynamic performance (despite being 10 years too old for the role) and should have got the Oscar. The camera-work and use of music is as good as anything that Kubrick has ever done. However, I have tried and, so far, failed to fathom why this film is as highly regarded as it is. Most of its most ardent admirers do however appear to be young males. Why should this be? Perhaps, rather like the men who claim to buy Playboy magazine for the John Updike short story, it allows them an opportunity to revel in sex and violence with the comforting pretence that they're viewing 'a social satire by a major film-maker.'