negative reviews miss the mark

Rating: Null/10 (8 December 2004)

Anybody who thinks ACO is a disgusting film and that Kubrick was merely trying to offend or shock really has a lot to learn about film, literature and the windows they can be upon society and the human heart. First, it was based upon the brilliant novel by Anthony Burgess; Stanley Kubrick did not create the story from whole cloth. Second, it is true that much of the violence in the film is shocking and disturbing. But to dismiss those scenes as simply showing violence for the sake of violence is to deny a fundamental truth of modern human society: horrific and sadistic violence and cruelty exist in it and we must confront that terrible truth if we are ever to truly know ourselves. By using violence Burgess and Kubrick were trying to convey something much more profound about the role of crime and punishment in the modern state, personal redemption and the importance of free will and moral choice in the individual (see my comments of Nov. 14th for a more detailed treatment of these themes). Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and Tolstoy's War and Peace depict acts of horrific violence and wanton cruelty as well, yet we would not dismiss two of the greatest novels ever written as shock art or "attention grabbers." The fact is that ACO is one of the greatest, most fascinating and most important films ever made by one of the titanic directors of our time. It is impossible to look away: the beautifully lush still shots and pans, the hypnotic and perfectly placed haunting music, and the cold, bleak desolation of the modern totalitarian state intricately interwoven with Stanley's wonderfully black sense of humor. It is a masterpiece that will endure for all time. Violence and man's continuing inhumanity to his fellow man is a reality of modern human society. So too is the frightening power of the state to ostensibly correct such conditions in the name of the common good. Never before or since has a film portrayed these complex and difficult themes with more import or power.