OK time to delve into the classics and go back in time for my next choice of film review, which is A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of the novel by Anthony Burgess, which remains to this day one of the most controversial films in modern cinema. So let's have a look at it....
Right, in an effort to try and keep the plot synopsis DOWN a little bit, I will try and condense the plot summary into three paragraphs (and not four!) so here goes:
So the film is based in the not too distant future in London (although when is not too sure) where the film's main character, Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is the leader of a gang, which he calls his "droogs" sit in a milkbar contemplating what to do with their evening. What ensues is a night of carnage and chaos, where first Alex and his gang beat up an old tramp, then they fight with a rival gang, and to top it off they steal a motor car and drive off to find a house so they can do a break-in. Alex stops the car outside a house, and pretends that he is in need of medical assistance in order to break into a couple's house (Alex and his gang also put on masks to conceal their faces). Once inside Alex beats the man, Alexander (Patrick McGee), who is a writer, and he rapes his wife (Adrienne Corri) while singing out "Singing in the rain". After his night of evil mischief, Alex and his droogs return to the milkbar, where Alex has a dispute with one of his gang, Dim (Warren Clarke), but they put it aside and head home.
The next day Alex is paid a visit by a probation officer, Mr Deltoid (Aubrey Morris) who is aware of Alex's violent nights out and he warns him not to slip up. For the rest of the day Alex plays truant from school and picks up two girls in a record store and takes them back home and has sex with them. Later on Alex meets up with his droogs again, but one of the gang, Georgie (James Marcus) show discontent over Alex's leadership and insists that Alex give them all fairer share of the money when they go out stealing. Alex decides to keep them in order by kicking Georgie into the water while they walk along the flatblock marina, as well as cutting Dim's hand to prove a point that he is the leader. Georgie then tells Alex of his idea to rob a health farm mansion, which is full of money, and later on they go there. Alex at first is unsuccessful in his attempt to get in, as the cat-woman (Miriam Karlin) refuses to let him in, but he soon climbs up through a window. The cat-woman is furious as she charges at him with a small statue of Beethoven, Alex picks up a large piece of phallic sculpture and he bludgeons her with it. On leaving the mansion, Georgie, Dim and Pete (the quiet one, played by Michael Tarn) wait outside and Dim smashes him in the face with a milk bottle, as they leave Alex flailing on the ground as the police arrive.
After Alex has been taken to the police station, Mr Deltoid visits him and tells Alex that the cat-woman he hit with the sculpture has died. Alex is soon sentenced to prison to serve a 14 year sentence. Two years into his sentence, Alex learns of a new treatment that the Government is set to introduce, called the Ludivico technique, which is an aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals. On a visit from the Minister of the Interior (Anthony Sharp) Alex seizes the chance to volunteer, and he soon undergoes the treatment. For his treatment, Alex is put in a straight jacket and forced to watch violent films, while he has special eye equipment clamped to his eyelids to keep them open. Alex soon starts to feel the effects of treatment as he feels sick when he watches the violence on screen. Two weeks later, Alex is put on display at a presentation held by the Minister, where they display that Alex is incapable of violence, as he is taunted by a stage actor, and tempted by a topless woman (Virginia Wetherell, great naps!) he feels sick when he feels the temptation of anger and desire. After this, Alex is released back into society this is when his problems really begin as he struggles with his condition and meets some old enemies....
(OK plot summary done, that was not too bad)
A Clockwork Orange to this day remains one of my favourite films, and there is no doubt that it is an uncomfortable film to watch, especially as the main character, Alex is so ruthlessly amoral for the first hour or so. Alex is very much like a gleefully violent urchin, who runs through the night, beating, raping and robbing people just as he sees fit. And it is one of the film and the book's most successful themes that despite his shocking behaviour as the film progress you come to like Alex and even pity him, especially as he is sent out back into society after having undergone the treatment. And Alex in the book makes that journey from a violent sociopath into a young man who by the end of the book realises it is time that he leave behind his violent life and try to grow up. However in Stanley Kubrick's film the last chapter of the book wasn't covered, as the American edition (which he had read) ommitted the final chapter.
The film also keeps close to the ideals of religion and it is one of the funnier aspects of the film where we see Alex in his bedroom near the start of the film where he plays Beethoven's 9th symphony on his record, and we see he has a statue of four naked Jesus's all holding hands. Kubrick also makes an amusing scene out of this as he shows different shots of the statues while Beethoven's 2nd movement plays along with it. However Alex later on in prison reads the bible and also fantasises of being involved in the fights back in the days of the Roman empire, while also having his every sexual whim being met by semi naked hand maidens (and there is plenty of nudity in the film that's for sure!). But the film's most important theme is of course choice, and how Alex is left with little choice once he has undergone the treatment, the acts of violence he has committed and seeing violence makes him feel sick and it ultimately pushes Alex nearly over the edge.
But getting onto the performances, overall they are excellent, and the best performance by far is of course from Malcolm McDowell as Alex. McDowell's Alex is a wide-eyed, carefree mischievous bastard, who tooks pleasure in beating people up and having random sex with women, even if its rape. But as the film progresses McDowell does succeed in making Alex more
sympathetic, once he becomes a victim of the Government and a target for
his old gang members. McDowell has many great highlights in the film, but one of the one's that stand out is of course his scene where he sings "Singin in the rain" while he beats up Alexander in his house and sexually assaults his wife. The scene itself is both really creative and very unsettling to watch, especially as he taunts Alexander by dropping his trousers and pants and kneeling into Alexander saying "viddy well, little brother, viddy well!".
McDowell's experience of making the film was far from easy of course, as he had to endure a number of ordeals, the main one being the scene where Alex undergoes the treatment, and the eye equipment used in the film left McDowell in great pain as both of his corneas were scratched. McDowell also had several members of the cast and crew spit on him in the scene where Deltoid spits in his face, and perhaps most dangerously of all in the scene where Alex is held under water and beaten by Georgie and Dim, McDowell was held down for over a minute, where he nearly suffocated. Regardless of that though for McDowell the film remains a real highlight of his career.
The film's use of Burgess's made-up dialogue, Nadsat spoken by Alex and his droogs, provides plenty of great lines of dialogue for Alex, such as when he breaks into the cat-woman's mansion and he says "Hi hi hi there. At last we meet, our brief govoreet through the letter hole was shall we say less satisfactory??? Yes?". This scene also features an improvised piece of dialogue from McDowell, when the cat-woman asks what the hell is doing there and he says "well, madam, I'm a student taking part in an international contest, to see who can get the most points for selling magazines!". McDowell also has plenty other great lines such as when he drives the stolen car at the beginning "the Durango 95 purred away real horrorshow, with a nice warm vibraty feeling all through your gutti-wuts". Another great line is when Alex confronts the rival gang leader at the start of the film, "well if it isn't fat Billy Goat, Billy Boy in poison! How are thou? Come and get one in the yarbels! If you have any yarbels, you great eunich jelly thou!". And also when he and his droogs return to the milkbar after their night of carnage at the beginning, Alex says "we were all feeling a bit shagged, fagged and fashed, it having been a night of no small energy expenditure, oh my brothers!".
Of the supporting cast, Warren Clarke is also excellent as the aptly named, Dim, who is basicaly an overweight giggling imbecile, who delights in dishing out the old "ultraviolence". Clarke also get's some great lines of Nadsat, especially when he argues with Alex near the beginning, after he blows a big raspberry in the milk bar, when one of the women sings a line of Ode to joy in German (from Beethoven's 9th symphony). Dim says to Alex "yarbels! Great big bolshie yarblockos to you! I'll meet with chain or nozh or britva anytime!". And later on in the film, Dim as a policeman drags Alex out to the woods with fellow ex-droog turned copper, Georgie, and beats him, and says "this is to make sure you stay cured!".
Anthony Sharp as the Minister also puts in a really good performance, playing the Minister as a pompous man with a large ego, who is determined to make the Ludivico technique a success in the public eye. Aubrey Morris also delivers a funny performance as Mr Deltoid, Alex's over zealous probation officer. Morris also delivers some great dialogue, especially in the scene where he warns Alex, "there was a bit of a nastiness last night yes???? Some very extreme nastiness yes????" and "I warn you little, Alex, being a good friend to you as always, the one man in this sick and sore community that wants to save you from yourself!". Also amusingly in that scene Morris is scene drinking a glass of milk which he fails to notice has some dentures in them until its too late! Michael Bates is also hilarious as the chief prison guard Barnes, who is like something out of Dad's army, as he is quite comical in some scenes. My favourite scene with him is where the inmates attend a church service, and they are about to sign a hymn and Barnes shouts "and lets all have a little reverance you bastards!".
And finally on the cast front I can't leave without mentioning Patrick MaGee who is great as Alexander, the tormented writer, who Alex leaves physically disabled and in a wheelchair after his attack. MaGee is particularly good when he starts to become really unhinged in the film, especially when he hears Alex later on, when he takes him into his house out of pity after he has been released into society, who lies in his bath singing "Singin in the rain", he starts to lose it big time. MaGee's best scene is of course when Alex sits in his dining room and eats spaghetti, Alexander realises who he is, and tries to contain his growing rage, and he yells "food all right?????!!!", and then "try the wine!!".
And I cannot finish up without mentioning Stanely Kubrick who with A Clockwork Orange made one of his very best and most inventive films. Kubrick employs his usual trademark camera work, with slow pans and symmetrically lined-up shots, great use of slow motion (particularly in the scene where Alex quells his gang's uprising by booting George and Dim into the water) as well as some great frantic camerawork in the scene where Alex is chased by the cat-woman round the room. Kubrick also provides an amazing opening shot in the film, where the camera starts on a close-up of Alex's face and slowly pans away to reveal his gang and the setting in the milkbar. And one of the film's highlights is the fight scene at the start when Alex and his gang take on Billy Boy's gang, and again it features some terrific camerawork. And quickly a special mention deserves to go out to John Alcott, the director of photography for the film, who does a brilliant job, particularly in that great shot where Alex and droogs emerge from the shadows in the abandoned cinema to face Billy Boy's gang.
And throughout Kubrick brilliantly captures the tone of Burgess's book set in a bleak dystopian future, although Burgess praised the film he was also uncomfortable about the level of violence in the film as well. Burgess was also concerned about how the film ommitted the final chapter of the book, as in Kubrick's film, Alex ends up right back where he's started, as a violent young lout, free to wreak havoc again, as the films ends up with Alex's cynical line "I was cured alright!". Regardless of that though I think the film ended on the perfect note, and while it was important to show that Alex's story did have an arc as it did in the book, Kubrick was right in a way to stop the film there before it was reached. Although it is debatable as to whether Kubrick was aware of the British version having that additonal chapter. Regardless of all that once again, the film remains one of Kubrick's very best.
Its also worthy of note that when the film was originally released back in 1971, there was a huge controversy over the level of violence in the film (although by today's standard its pretty tame). And the film apparently inspired copycat acts of violence from youngsters in Britain, which lead to Kubrick receiving death threats and protestors outside his home. Kubrick in 1973 requested Warner Brothers to withdraw the film from public viewing in the UK (although the film was still readily available in the US and Europe and later on pirate video) and it remained inobtainable to watch in the UK for a further 27 years, before it was re-released in the cinemas and released on the DVD market in 2000, a year after Kubrick died.
And finally I thought I would also mention the film's unique electronic score by Walter Carlos (who later had a sex change operation and renamed as Wendy Carlos) which is really good, as well as spooky, strange, and unsettling.
So that's it for another very lengthy review of a classic film, as A Clockwork Orange remains a great film, and one of Stanley Kubrick's finest works. And (as I usually say) if you haven't seen this film, you should definitely give it a watch.
And with that I shall viddy you all later!
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