Well Well Welly Well Well What's it Going to Be Then Eh?

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2003)

What a day it has been my droogies, for I have completed the novel (in just under a week at that) and viewed Stanely Kubrick's take on it in the same waking day. I, sadly saw the film before reading the book but to my advantage, the first and only time that I had seen the film was nearly a year and a half ago. However, while reading the book I know what is going to come next and I cannot use my imagination to create my own image of the characters and their surroundings. Fortunatly, Stanley Kubrick did a wonderful job with the characters and I believe, the story as well. I do not believe that anyone else aside from Malcom McDowell could have filled the big and blood coated shoes of Alex as well as he. His performance in the film is marvelous and unforgetteble. I had planned to read the book and had it in my possession when a friend of mine encouraged me to read it, yet mentioned that the film did the book no justice. I disagree, for I think the film follows the book very well with the exception of a few bits and pieces and age differences (though we can't very well have a group of men raping a ten year old girl on screen can we?) which, actually, takes away from the power of the book. The fact being, in the book Alex is 15 years old and the film shows him as much older, not much, 3 or 4 years perhaps but still, a great difference. One difference that fell ill with me (Spoilers) was the discovery by Alexander that Alex was the one whom had been in on the brutal rape of his wife all those years ago. The discovery in the book is slow and picked up through Alex's use of language to Alexander. This was one of my favorite parts of the book and was saddened at not finding it done in the film. The language used in the book is so wonderfully used and executed and leaves such an impact, i figure that it could be rather hard to put onscreen and to be completely understood by the audience in just two hours. The book allows you to learn the language as you go along and now, I find myself speaking in minor nadsat in daily conversation. For instance, someone asks how I am doing and I give them a "Real horrorshow" and kind of chuckle a malankey bit. My suggestion: Read the book first and watch the movie. I believe that Stanley Kubrick has done a very good job at adapting this book and producing this film on its behalf. Wonderfully directed, acted, scored, and shot, I really like this story a lot, but that's another story with politics and such that I do not feel like getting into at the moment.