Product: A Clockwork Orange [VHS] (1972)
Rating: 2.0
Not Kubrick's Best
Being a great admirer of Anthony Burgess' novel I have to say that I was extremely disappointed with Kubrick's film of it. In my opinion the project was scuppered from the outset by the poor casting: the actors playing the droogs are plainly much too old to be portraying teenagers. I was also disturbed by the way Kubrick deliberately made all of Alex's victims more 'obnoxious' than they are in the novel; the implication appeared to be that we shouldn't feel any pity for the people who suffer at Alex's hands because they were all 'asking for it.' Such an attitude is completely inexcusable. It is no surprise that Burgess was very unhappy with the film and spent the rest of his lifetime distancing himself from it; a serious statement about the importance of free-will had been distorted beyond all recognition into a vindication of the behaviour of the main character.What troubles me the most however is the way that this film is considered by many of the previous reviewers to be the epitome of "cool." I may be missing something here but at what point did sexual violence and murder become fashionable? If Kubrick had not removed the books more disturbing aspects (such as Alex's rape of two 10 year-old girls) would the film's many devotees still be so fanatical in their adulation? Or are people prepared to blindly accept anything that is presented to them by a so-called "genius film-maker"? Judging by the number of ecstatic reviews that the truly awful "Eyes Wide Shut" has received, my inclination is to favour the latter judgement.