A LITTLE BIT OF THE ULTRAVIOLENCE, OH MY BROTHERS

Totalitarianism is a topic tackled by many movies from the middle of the last century. Movies in the ‘40s depicted the evils of Nazism. In the ‘60s it was all about freedom from the older generation. Stanley Kubrick created a movie in 1971 that took on this theme of totalitarianism. It brought the subject out of the academic world and into the XXX theater.

Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) is one of the most revolting movies ever for the first 40 minutes. There are rapes, homeless people being mugged, rapes, delinquency and more rapes. At the same time the world inhabited by Alex and his droogies is not that vile. Alex and friends speak a brand of English that mixes properness with slang terms. He is an admirer of Ludwig Van Beethoven. He is elegant when he has to be and this elegance combined with what happens to him in the second half of the movie is what makes the revolting parts tolerable.

The novel A Clockwork Orange was written by Anthony Burgess. It is one of the best written novels of the 20^th Century. The story might not be for everyone, but Burgess’ control of the English language is tremendous. There really isn’t a difference between the book and the movie, except when it comes to the final chapter. Burgess wrote a final chapter that wasn’t released in America for many years after the book was originally published. In that chapter we join Alex 5 years after Alex was cured in the movie. He sees one of his former droogies. This time he isn’t a policeman, but rather a man who has settled down. He now has a fiancée and is expecting a child. This is something Alex decides he wants to do. So in that last chapter he is finally cured of being a delinquent. This is nice and everything, but wouldn’t have worked in a movie. Kubrick did a great job of connecting everything. Like in the book Alex listens to all kinds of composers. Kubrick changed that to Ludwig Van in the movie and only his 5^th Symphony. It would have been a mistake to add the final chapter in the book to the movie. Luckily Kubrick didn’t and the movie itself is very good. The novel itself is great.

Malcolm McDowell is brilliant in the role of Alex. He was a young British actor who just came off the set of Lindsay Anderson’s If… (1968). This movie deals with totalitarianism in the English boarding school. It is the perfect precursor to McDowell’s role as Alex. As a few years down the road his character in If…, Mick Travis, could become a member of Alex’s gang or Alex himself.

For Stanley Kubrick he followed up his widely successful 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) with this film. Although not as good as 2001, this is probably his second best effort.

Some more positives include it having one of the best closing images in all of film. Although not quite in the same vein as Charlie Chaplin with a rose in his mouth. It also has one of the best filmed sex scenes in film. Actually it is probably the best done threesome ever. Another interesting thing about this movie is that it was released with a XXX rating. It is now rated R. That might say something about today’s tastes or society’s morals compared to those in 1971.

A Clockwork Orange is a worthwhile movie to see, but a must read book.