BIG'S BIG MOVIE LIST

Kubrick is one of the great artists – and I use the term artist to extend to all crafters and creators of art and expressive media in the twentieth century – that I may, after considerable effort and study, finally understand. His best work, to me, is like seeing the golden ratio in a sunflower or a seashell: there is a serious beauty and complexity at play that I only partially understand at this point in my life. Like I said, there may come a day where I'll look up from some faded arcane tome, cough the dust from my floor-length beard, and weep a single salty tear at the realization that, against all odds and reason, I finally “get it”, but at this point in time, Kubrick's work exists on a separate wavelength than my own.

 

     I saw “A Clockwork Orange” in my mid-teens on a weathered VHS. While I found it visually compelling (like most of Kubrick's work. Up to that point I think I had only seen “Full Metal Jacket”) the overarching message wouldn't really resonate with me until this recent viewing/review, when I would be forced to take a closer look under the Kubrick hood. The name “A Clockwork Orange” is said to refer to a gambling machine (called “fruit machines” because of the iconic fruit symbols on the spinning reels of traditional slot machines), and extends to describe the nature of the main character as he progresses from an animalistic criminal to a frigid machine, or a “clockwork orange”.

 

    Charistmatic Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is little more than a

ne'er-do-well thug terrorizing people nightly on the streets of a dystopian London. He and his roving band of “droogs” Georgie, Pete, and Dimitri or “Dim” carouse and commit crimes dressed in matching uniforms (like “The Warriors”) of black dress hats, suspenders and combat boots, at times clashing with other uniformed gangs. Alex is living a glorified life of sex, drugs, and violence – just having it all, basically – when a routine home invasion/homicide goes sideways on him and he is detained by police, Alex is sentenced to 14 years in prison. Its not long before word gets out of a new experimental treatment for criminality that may not only cure Alex of his brutal ways, but commute his sentence and have him released from prison in a matter of weeks. Alex eagerly volunteers for the experiment – an aversion therapy aimed at conditioning Alex against violence – and while the experiment could ultimately be deemed a success, it has some unintended consequences for Alex as he attempts to return to his life in London.

 

    This movie immediately garners favor with me because I believe it is, in part, a critique of mid-century psychiatry and the “costs” of treating mental illness. It also receives immediate points for being Kubrick, a director for which I have a tremendous amount of respect. Filmed almost entirely using natural light, the movie is shot using some diverse, creative methods, and the whole thing is placed against a musical backdrop that fluctuates between classical symphony and new-age synth (which is too perfect, considering one of the overarching themes of the film is youth versus age).

    My only true points against this movie are for its frequent, prolonged rape scenes. Some may not agree with me, but I think that the more uncomfortable elements of life (such as rape) can have a place in cinema, but when the depiction is gratuitous or overly glorified i'm reflexively put off. One could make the argument that because I have grown accustomed to and at times enjoy gratuitous violence in films that I can't really draw a line with rape, but I can, and do, draw that line. Rape aside, this film is a classic, voted Entertainment Weekly's 2/25 Most Controversial Movies of All Time (the film was actually banned in the UK for decades due to some copycat crimes) #70 on the American Film Institute Greatest Movies of All Time, and #4 AFI Greatest Sci Fi Movie of All Time.