Product: A Clockwork Orange [VHS] (1972)
Rating: 4.0
Clockwork Orange is not about violence, or even the future. It's about the past. 'Alex' representing Britain of the past.
Most say, 'Kubrick was right' the world would become more violent, not less. Some warn us to be vigilant, and on the look out for big-brother. One reviewer wrote, 'A film for half-baked sociologists'. Critic Roger Ebert didn't like this movie, saying it's message is, "in a world where society is criminal, the citizen might as well be criminal, too". I think, this movie tries to give voice to a hidden drama. It's meaningless, except as an allegory. Clockwork Orange is not about crime or violence, or even the future. When the movie begins, it's about the past. 'Alex' representing Britain of the past.Alex steals and plunders, storing the booty in his drawer at night. A World War is reduced to: a fight between Alex and his gang wearing Bobby-hats and billy clubs and Billy and his boys dressed in German war paraphernalia.The powers that be decide 'Alex' is in need of reform. He's strapped in a chair (similar to one once used to test viewers emotional responses during movie making) for aversion therapy. He's shown footage of Nazi atrocities while being made to feel bad, "I can't stop watching"! Alex exclaims.Alex is tested - he's made to lick another man's boot and he is found unable to approach a beautiful naked woman - then he's released.Alex comes across every person he's done wrong to in the past. Each extracts their vengeance, and of course Alex is now unable to defend himself.In the end (after Alex's unforeseen breakdown), to save face, the political class presses Alex to admit, he has been cured of his cure. As an aside Alex says, "I was cured alright" (He seems enamored by women again)