A Clockwork Orange
Chad'z rating: ***1/2 (out of 4 = very good)
1971, R, 136 minutes [2 hours, 16 minutes]
[science fiction]
starring: Malcolm McDowell (Alex), Patrick Magee (Mr. Frank Alexander), Anthony Sharp (Minister of the Interior), Michael Bates (Chief Guard), written, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess.
"A Clockwork Orange" may be the epitome of the idea of portraying a theme through allegory. The only problem is that sometimes the allegory becomes blatant, but the story told is still interesting because of its bizarre nature.
The film takes place in an alternate reality, where crime is out of control and technology seems both advanced yet ancient at the same time. We don't know how the world got this way, it is just implied and assumed as Gothic, sci-fi tale.
We meet the four "Droogs" as lead by Alex (McDowell), a sadistic hoodlum with a sharp wit and quick reflexes. The Droogs go around beating up bums for pleasure, fighting with other gangs simply because of rivalry, and have even more fun by storming the countryside and raping a woman while forcing her husband to look on. This is a very disturbing picture, not in just the graphicness, but because of the pleasure they take in their actions. Kubrick uses this to emphasize the human element by paradoxically dehumanizing the characters.
A "Julius Ceaser" plot develops when the Droogs betray Alex and lead him to be captured by the police. Almost instantly the film starts to lose its artistic edge, as everything seems "normal" compared to the surrealistic opening. Alex is sentenced to prison, but we don't get a surrealistic, brutal image of prison. Instead, Alex studies with the prison chaplin, and reads the Old Testament because of its many violent tales of war.
The real theme of the story starts to develop when Alex volunteers for a psychological "cure" created by the government to reduce crime. The treatment's premise seems promising, as it will subconsciously stop Alex from committing crime, but in effect, he loses his sense of true free will. Some will argue man has no free will to begin with, and this film serves as a battleground for such philosophical arguments.
When Alex finds himself wandering the streets, the earlier Gothic mood seems to be gone. Through a series of events that are almost mirror images of the beginning of the story, Alex becomes the victim.
As moving as "A Clockwork Orange" is, it could have been even more powerful had it not be so gratuitous in some respects. I found the much of the nudity and sexual innuendo quite excessive. I loved the dark, twisted mood that opens the film, but why wasn't the atmosphere as surrealistic throughout? Still, the film's ability to make for such a grand theme despite its shock value is remarkable.
e-mail: ChadPolenz@aol.com (C) 1997 Chad Polenz
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