Not a clockwork movie

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2000)

The effort of Kubrick to embed symbolism in every detail is obvious from the beginning. About the brutality and sex, while in 1971 this might have been a shocking movie, nowadays it is nothing special. What is interesting though is the way these scenes are presented, with the environment (sound, face expressions, scenery) contradicting with what is actually happening, trying to disorient the viewer and make him think if in his actual life he pays attention to the bare event or to the package that goes with it. What a contradiction is Beethoven's 9th with murder and rape, as even the protagonist admits in the film. In general this is a movie worked out in detail, but I think so much importance is given in the depth of particular scenes that the flow of the film is affected and it loses its coherency, making it difficult for a not determined viewer to sit and watch. This of course doesn't remove from The Clockwork Orange the masterpiece status, but suggests that the unprepared pay attention to the inner meaning of this film.