Product: A Clockwork Orange [VHS] (1972)
Rating: 4.0
The Clockwork keeps on ticking . . .
35 years ago, give or take a month or two, I walked into an small theatre in Isla Vista, CA, not knowing what to expect. Other than having TRIED to read Burgess' wonderful novel, I had no inkling as to the story-line or its possible treatments. Now, seeing the movie again, whole, as it was intended by the director--and having managed many years ago to finally read Burgess' book--I believe no other treatment of the novel could do it justice. More importantly, it remains as timeless as other masterpieces of film, like Casa Blanca. Although I had not seen the movie since its release, my mind has been ever full of snippets of the film, intersecting sometimes with newspaper reports or clips of video from the news. Not as matches but as proleptic comments, anticipatory criticisms of a world losing its grip on what it means to BE human. And, as has been pointed out, the great 9th of Ludwig Van will never quite be the same . . . nor will the William Tell Overture.