A Clockwork Orange

Ethical screed aside, what does A Clockwork Orange have to offer beyond its curiosity value and a crash course in humanism? Well, for a start there's Kubrick's dazzling visual style which, rather in the manner that Trainspotting did 25 years later, translates the substance of an "unfilmable" book into the language of cinema. And at the dramatic core of the film is a simply astonishing performance by Malcolm MacDowell as Alex. It also features an orgy sequence that would have had Von Stroheim laughing his jackboots off — you'll certainly never listen to the William Tell Overture in quite the same way again. And as for Singin' In The Rain...

Kubrick's contributions are his wit and his eye. The wit, too much at times, is as biting as in "Dr. Strangelove," and the production, while of another order, is as spectacular as in "2001." [11 Feb 1972]

A chilling classic, the movie is a scabrous satire about human deviance, brutality, and social conditioning that has remained a visible part of the ongoing public debate about violence and the movies.

His film may offend (it very nearly makes one nauseous) but there is no doubting the fact that it is the end product of a brilliant, highly original mind.

An engrossing, influential movie, which screams to be watched on the big screen. Few films will provoke your thoughts so fiercely.

A sexless, inhuman film, whose power derives from a ruthless subordination of its content to the demands of telling a good story. A glossy, action-packed ritual which is fun to watch but superficial to think about.

A very bad film--snide, barely competent, and overdrawn--that enjoys a perennial popularity, perhaps because its confused moral position appeals to the secret Nietzscheans within us.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

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[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I was really on the wrong side of this film. But I've given A Clockwork Orange more than a fair chance. To me, it just doesn't work - not just narratively, it doesn't even work thematically. It's essentially meant to be this very ambitious and intimate character study that reflects the flaws in the society and the present thinking etc etc. But the problem is, Kubrick never breaks into the psychology of the central character through the course of the film. He did so brilliantly in Eyes Wide Shut but here, I felt like a distant observer. I hated Alex from start to finish and I don't think it was meant to be that way. Even in Raging Bull, a film with the most despicable central character imaginable, eventually drew sympathy. That's because we got to know why LaMotta did what he did and it's done so powerfully. His penchant for self-destruction was just an exaggerated version of what everyone goes through - hurt oneself for causing pain to others. A Clockwork Orange doesn't even aim at the sort of depth. But film does develop some ideas through the first 2 Acts but at the very end, it throws it all out of the window. Ambiguous endings work very beautifully with films like 2001 but here it felt like Kubrick himself couldn't make up his mind about the social norms. So then why make an entire movie about it?