Stanley Kubrick's last great film!

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 1999)

One of the things that has always amazed me about Stanley Kubrick is his ability to show something amazing, beautiful, or sick, without the aid of special effects or visual pyrotechnics. He sees the world through the camera lens for what it really is. One of the greatest examples of which is his scathing satire, "A Clockwork Orange". Here, we see a world not too other worldly from our own. It's riddled with derilict buildings, wicked gangs, and a government that can do nothing to change it all. The most frightening aspect of the film is the examination and study of the main character, Alex. He is a vicious, violent criminal who kills, robs, and rapes. In the rape scene while singing 'Singin' in the Rain', he wears a long, protruding 'Pinnochio' nose, as an example of a man with no conscience. His parents do nothing to raise him, and he doesn't go to school. Later, he attacks his own gang members, gleefully slashing the hand of one of them. Here, all the details of a criminal have been laid out. Now comes the second half of the film. Instead of keeping him in prison, he is given a treatment making him sick every time he sees or is exposed to violence, sex, and his true love, Beethoven. He is cured, or so it is said. After being released back into the world, those he did harm to now have a chance of retaliation. After it's all over, the drugs wear off, and he becomes his old self again, revealing he never was cured to begin with. What makes this film so stunning and so powerful is that it doesn't go over the top or exaggerate. It merely looks on at the real world, and foreshadows things to come. It's actually really creepy. But Kubrick tells the story through the eyes of the criminal, making it somewhat easier to watch, even though we should be terrified and disgusted. Kubrick's choice of music is superb, so good that I bought the soundtrack and frequently listen to it. Ultimately, "A Clockwork Orange" satirizes the world we live in today, and leaves us not only with an anti-violence message, but pops a difficult question upon the audience, which would you rather? A criminal, or a 'clockwork orange', a criminal crippled within reflex mechanisms?