This is part 8 of 12 of my retrospective of Stanley Kubrick’s career.
And so, Stanley Kubrick followed 2001 with another science fiction movie, set around at the same time, about the adventures of a teenager in a gang and the aftermath of being arrested and "corrected". Based of Burgess' book, "A Clockwork Orange" is somewhat easier to follow than its book, making heavy use of a new slang based on English and Russian. The slang remains, yet the images easily tells the story.
And, oh yes, Santley liked making controversial movies. In the first act, there is a fair amount of rape and gang violence, casually presented as if it was a normal thing to do for a teenager. But this movie doesn't advocate what the main character, Alex, does. The latter part of the movie deals with the morals of if there is evil, and if so, if it can be cured.
Beyond the controversy it lead to, the movie's visual design is spectacular. While the sets are not as grandiose as what you'd expect from Kubrick, the futuristic clothes, hair styles and furnitures really feel like a futuristic version of the early 70s gone wrong. The music is also spectacular, a combination of a great selection of classical music and remixes of those classics by Wendy Carlos. Malcolm McDowell's acting is riveting and magnetic.
This movie will shock you, even in today's environment of the "Saw" movies and "The Human Centipede", because as you are charmed by Alex and his acts of "ultraviolence", you will feel an uncomfortable moral ambiguity. So, a very violent movie with a "moral soul", that will disturb you only in a way Kubrick can.
Published on June 9, 2012 at 21:51 EDT
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