A Gen-X Fairytale, several decades early

Rating: 10/10 (28 March 1999)

Oh, my droogies, a horrorshow peek at the old ultraviolence to which our humble near future is heir...
Once again, Kubrick took a novel and adapted it with utter faith to the screen, while simultaneously creating a visual style that was utterly unique. On top of it all, he gives us the character of Alex -- thug, rapist, delinquent, unrepentent little s**t -- and makes us like him, even as he attacks, injures, rapes and kills...
This film (and the novel), you see, really isn't about Alex and his Droogies. It's about us -- our attitudes toward crime and punishment, and our weird ambivalence and denial. We love to claim to want to see justice done, but never make us admit that all we really want is revenge. We can't admit that -- it would just make us the same as the criminals. However, the "Ludovicko technique" seen in the film, the Pavlovian reprogramming of criminals, really would be the ultimate solution to crime. Turning the violent into little clockwork oranges -- objects that look organic on the outside but are mechanical on the inside -- would solve a lot of problems. However, it's a concept that'll never fly. Not because it's cruel to the criminals, altough lipservice is paid to that idea. No -- it's because it denies society the opportunity to smack the doo-doo out of the nasty little thugs. But, see the comments on hypocrisy, above...
And all of this is in the movie implicitly, never explicit. (The high point: when Alex encounters his former gang mates, now "reformed," working as policemen -- and behaving exactly the same as before.)
The formula of crime and punishment is really a perpetuating loop, not a one-way track, but the punishers can never admit to their own criminal behavior. This equation is hiding in the structure of the film, which is a classic fairy tale -- hero journeys outward and passes three obstacles (or gate keepers or trolls or whatever), then journeys back in a diminished state, and encounters the same three whatevers for some instant karma. The concept was the genius of Anthony Burgess, but the faithful execution (pardon the expression) was pure Kubrick...
Final notes: the film is funny, stuffed with little in-jokes (keep your eyes open in the record store for some self-references, as well as a collection of names that actually became bands later) and the use of music and wide-angle lenses has no equal in cinema. The opening shot is one of the more memorable images in film, the closing shot is a subtle "up yours" to Ken Russell, and everything in between will stick with you forever...