"I want the rest of my life to be one act of goodness".

Rating: 9/10 (31 March 2011)

I thought I'd be clever and post a review of "A Clockwork Orange" using the language of our humble narrator Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), but I guess it didn't go over well with the folks that pass muster on this site the first time around. I have to presume that too many of my words looked like spelling errors, so I'll have to be somewhat more cautious this time and enclose them in quotes when necessary.
This is one of those films that hits you at a visceral level, like a good kick to the guts ('gutty wuts'), or possibly even lower, like in the 'yarbles' (you can figure it out). Actually, the language is one of the things I enjoyed most about both the Anthony Burgess novel and it's adaptation here. I grew up speaking Polish before starting school, and a lot of the words used by Alex and his pals derive from the Slavic. Take 'droogs' for example; the word 'drugy' means other, and Alex hung around a lot with his pals, the other guys. I thought Burgess' use of language was a hoot, and still get a kick out of it.
But you probably won't view favorably the way the picture deals with Alex's preoccupation with the old ultra-violence. Director Kubrick relies on a bit of Ludwig Van in a lot of the violent scenes, lending a surreal air to the events on screen. Fortunately, the story didn't mess with Beethoven's reputation during the 'Singin' in the Rain' scene as it punctuated each downbeat with a kick in the, you know, 'gutty wuts'. Cringe worthy scenes juxtaposed with a surreal hint of over the top excess, that's the way to enjoy your 'molloko vellocet', or glass of milk if that be your pleasure.
I don't think this is the kind of film one comes away with saying they enjoyed it, but it certainly gives you something to think about. Within the context of the story, Alex comes full circle, starting out as a victim of the violent modern age, succumbing to government administered experiments in mind control, and coming out cured in a way that presumably makes him more incorrigible than ever. Turning bad into good just never seems to work out the way one plans.