Singin' In The Rain!

Rating: 7/10 (19 November 2004)

Strangely (and scarily) enough the song "Singin' In th Rain" was temporarily stuck in my head. You'd understand why after watching this film. A Clockwork Orange is an early Stanley Kubrick work and keeps with his bizarre filmatic perspective.
In some of the more shocking scenes of violence (even for today much less for 1971) the audience follows the horrid acts of a bunch of hoodlums in a strange fantasy world. The portrayed date of the film is subject to debate, possessing many of the conveniences of today yet a setting that seems altogether remote and distant in time. Irregardless, A Clockwork Orange focuses on one individual in particular, 'Alex' de Large (Malcolm McDowell) and his exploits of society in order to satiate his teenage darkly desires. The film starts off with an almost abandonment or anarchy to life, a take or do-as-you-please philosophy (hedonism in short).
We watch as the misguided youth commits all sorts of atrocities at his every whim. He then undergoes a metamorphosis where he is no longer the "afflictor" but the afflicted. And in perhaps one of more ironic injustices of a comedic sort, Alex becomes a mistaken hero who further continues to exploit society, not with his vices, but this time with his false virtues. Society is the victim of its own system in producing miscreants who later become ill-gotten champions. Quite a disturbing look at things that don't seem too far off the beaten path, even if a bit exaggerated! 7/10