A Clockwork Orange maybe one of the most highly debated, criticized and loved movie. However, watching it 30 years after it was created and over 40 years after it was written, clearly shows it as dated and even slight. It seems to be a story mostly about the celebration of an attitude rather than the perils of social engineering that Anthony Burgess, the author and a famous linguist, was trying to portray.
Malcolm McDowell is Alex DeLarge, a young hoodlum in London who is wasting his life and that of his friends by drowning himself in drugs, alcohol and senseless violence specially targetted at women. Soon he finds himself in prison for life. He learns of a treatment that could cure his violent and sexual impulses. He decides to give it a shot in order to get out of the prison. However, as expected, things don't quite work out that well.
Mr. Kubrick gets to exploit here three aspects of his own character. Misanthropy, Misogyny and Linguistic Beauty. It is amazing to see how a man who has such a complete and relentlessly dark view of the world around him has such appreciation for cinematic and linguistic beauty.
The film of course celebrates and showcases, Alex's wild desires and motives or the lack of them. It clearly glorifies his lifestyle in some sense. If there was an attempt to show how horrible he was then I missed it. The film was banned in England and several other countries for many years mostly for its depiction of senseless violence against women.
It's linguistic superiority is unmatched -- however that comes directly from Mr. Burgess and not from Kubrick.
One must see A Clockwork Orange. Not only to see what was considered banal in the 70s but also to see how movies like people age and lose relevance.
Malcolm McDowell is Alex DeLarge, a young hoodlum in London who is wasting his life and that of his friends by drowning himself in drugs, alcohol and senseless violence specially targetted at women. Soon he finds himself in prison for life. He learns of a treatment that could cure his violent and sexual impulses. He decides to give it a shot in order to get out of the prison. However, as expected, things don't quite work out that well.
Mr. Kubrick gets to exploit here three aspects of his own character. Misanthropy, Misogyny and Linguistic Beauty. It is amazing to see how a man who has such a complete and relentlessly dark view of the world around him has such appreciation for cinematic and linguistic beauty.
The film of course celebrates and showcases, Alex's wild desires and motives or the lack of them. It clearly glorifies his lifestyle in some sense. If there was an attempt to show how horrible he was then I missed it. The film was banned in England and several other countries for many years mostly for its depiction of senseless violence against women.
It's linguistic superiority is unmatched -- however that comes directly from Mr. Burgess and not from Kubrick.
One must see A Clockwork Orange. Not only to see what was considered banal in the 70s but also to see how movies like people age and lose relevance.