Product: A Clockwork Orange (1972)
Rating: 2.0
Not Kubrick's Best
Very disappointing film. I feel that it was scuppered from the outset by the casting: the actors playing the droogs are plainly much too old to be playing teenagers. What's most bothersome however is the way Kubrick soft-pedalled the more unpleasant aspects of the book. Without exception, all Alex's victims are more 'obnoxious' than they are in the novel, as if Kubrick was attempting to 'justify' their treatment at his hands. This attitude is completely inexcusable. It is no wonder that Burgess was very unhappy with the film and chose to distance himself from it: a book about the importance of free-will had been altered beyond recognition into nothing more than a vindication of its main character.Reading the previous reviews, I am troubled by how this film is almost universally regarded as the epitome of "cool.".END