Amazon.co.uk Review
The controversy that surrounded Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange while the film was out of circulation suggested that it was like Romper Stomper: a glamorisation of the violent, virile lifestyle of its teenage protagonist, with a hypocritical gloss of condemnation to mask delight in rape and ultra-violence. Actually, it is as fable-like and abstract as The Pilgrim's Progress, with characters deliberately played as goonish sitcom creations. The anarchic rampage of Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a bowler-hatted juvenile delinquent of the future, is all over at the end of the first act. Apprehended by equally brutal authorities, he changes from defiant thug to cringing bootlicker, volunteering for a behaviourist experiment that removes his capacity to do evil.
It's all stylised: from Burgess' invented pidgin Russian (snarled unforgettably by McDowell) to 2001-style slow tracks through sculpturally perfect sets (as with many Kubrick movies, the story could be told through decor alone) and exaggerated, grotesque performances on a par with those of Dr Strangelove (especially from Patrick Magee and Aubrey Morris). Made in 1971, based on a novel from 1962, A Clockwork Orange resonates across the years. Its future is now quaint, with Magee pecking out "subversive literature" on a giant IBM typewriter and "lovely, lovely Ludwig Van" on mini-cassette tapes. However, the world of "Municipal Flat Block 18A, Linear North" is very much with us: a housing estate where classical murals are obscenely vandalised, passers-by are rare and yobs loll about with nothing better to do than hurt people.
On the DVD: The extras are skimpy, with just an impressionist trailer in the style of the film used to brainwash Alex and a list of awards for which Clockwork Orange was nominated and awarded. The box promises soundtracks in English, French and Italian and subtitles in ten languages, but the disc just has two English soundtracks (mono and Dolby Surround 5.1) and two sets of English subtitles. The terrific-looking "digitally restored and remastered" print is letterboxed at 1.66:1 and on a widescreen TV plays best at 14:9. The film looks as good as it ever has, with rich stable colours (especially and appropriately the orangey-red of the credits and the blood) and a clarity that highlights previously unnoticed details such as Alex's gouged eyeball cufflinks and enables you to read the newspaper articles which flash by. The 5.1 soundtrack option is amazingly rich, benefiting the nuances of performance as much as the classical/electronic music score and the subtly unsettling sound effects. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
REEL horrorshow: ALEX in the HELL that is tomorrow.......2008-03-03
This movie boasts possibly the most striking opening-shot in cinema history; a slow pull-back of the leering, smirking, demonic droog ALEX de LARGE and his dubious crew, centred in the nightmare HELL of the KOROVA MILKBAR: a grotesquely distorted nighterie of tomorrow's thugs: all garish nude- fiberglass sculpture and styized cartoon writings on the walls.
There follows a typical evening of sadistic mayhem, including the 'delights' of beatings, rape and torture.......all depicted in bizarre 'ballet'mode by ALEX and his killer-clowns. This first section of the film seduces the viewer into a false sense of euphoria, and the average viewer [if he or she is capable of any human consciousness] is left slightly disturbed and alienated by the nightmarish, on-screen acts of evil.
This is all counterbalanced by the extremely effective use of [mostly] CLASSICAL music [which the youth of tomorrow appear to appreciate, despite the bleak decline in futuristic morals depicted in this film]-----which makes for a mesmerising, disorientating, --and, paradoxically thrilling----cinematic experience.
It has to be said that this film slows down severely after the first 40 minutes, and no longer appears quaintly, outlandishly-twistedly futuristic-seeming, as in the opening reels.
Sparodic brilliance pepper the remaining two-thirds of the running-time, and the movie ends on a brilliant note; --a crescendo of ALEX triumphantly cavorting with a nude girl [paradoxically in a VICTORIAN setting] to the strains of uplifting, exuberant CLASSICAL music.
I personally feel that the treatment of women in this movie is exploititive and gratituitous, and overall this film is a bewildering, senses-assaulting, and unforgettable one-off experience.......DON'T MISS IT.
He are here, and he mean business!.......2008-01-11
The DVD synopsis concludes in the following way: 'Its [Clockwork Orange's] power to excite and perturb is undiminished; its warning about the state's encroaching hold over the individual, more relevant today than ever.' But it's much more than that! So much more!
This film is a masterpiece of visual style, language, and presentation, and to portray it as a piece that criticises state control over the individual is like judging the ocean on the looks of its surface. This is a disturbingly compelling story about violence and providence, and the state's totalitarian dispositions are just a valuable part of this story, not the other way around. So, mind your minds as you watch this once banned disturbance of a film, for it is not just a flickety flick on the gone wrong doings of the state, but it's instead a tour de force on the intricate woky workings of a sinful sinister youth, a youth gone mad with maddening manners. It sounds like poetry, and flows like it too, all the way to the end, and there is no reprieve for the weak and the easily-offended. Disturbed and disturbing this poetry may be, yes, true, but it is poetic all the same and very very appealing. It is a masterpiece, a great masterpiece cut by a monumental master mind, superbly adapted to the screen and made to work in visual stunnery. Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.
A Clockwork Classic.......2007-12-25
I first saw this film a couple of months ago. I found the film very good, so I got hold of it on DVD. This film was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, and is based on the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex, the main character of the film. Alex is a teenage boy who is the ring leader of a small gang (4 members in total). They spend their evenings commiting crimes, such as beating the crap out of people and raping women. Alex gets a kick out of the whole thing and doesn't regret it.
Alex attacks an oldish woman one night, which results in her death. His gang betray, attack and abandon him, leaving him to be found and arrested. He is sentenced to 14 years in prison. Two years later he hears of a treatment known as the Ludovico technique, which transforms common criminals. Alex volunteers to go along with this treatment so he can get an immediate release.
He goes through this treatment for two weeks, and during that treatment he is given a drug that causes nausea (sensation of feeling sick) and forced to watch films full of nothing but extreme violence. It changes him psychologicaly. Although he still has the urges, he is unable to respond to sex or violence without feeling very sick. He is unable to respond to violence or anything sexual, so in result he finds responding to sex or violence impossible. He is also left unable to hear Beethoven's 9th symphony (as that was played during one of the films he was made to watch) without feeling very sick.
Alex leaves prison ready to start a new life, but this is when things get really bad for him. He finds people attacking him purely for the awful things he's done to them, and of course he's unable to defend himself.
A Clockwork Orange in my opinion is a classic film, with a fantastic storyline. I'm not a fan of Beethoven or anything but I found it quite enjoyable to listen to, and I found that it flowed nicely with the film.
I admit I couldn't help but feel sorry for Alex near towards the end, dispite what a b*stard he was. At the same time I couldn't blame the people for attacking him (except for two of his old gang members who have joined the police by the time Alex is released). Lastly I feel that Malcolm McDowell played Alex brilliantly in this film.
This film is a complete classic. Buy.
Overbaked and highly overrated.......2007-12-13
The fact that this film is still held in such high regard is surely one of the greatest mysteries in cinema.
For the record, I love the book. It would be easy, then, to dismiss my disliking of the film as being no more than that I preferred my own vision of the story upon reading it. Alas, my reasons for not liking the film go far beyond this.
Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, I do not like Malcolm McDowell's reading of Alex at all. I find him tacky, annoying and not in the least fearsome. To be fair, Burgess wrote the infuriatingly tacky lingo that Alex uses in his relentless narration throughout the film, but I don't remember him describing Alex as an annoying, whiney Northerner.
It is not just the performance of Alex's character that misses the mark for me. Almost everyone in the film seems to think they're in an episode of Monty Python. Yes, I know it's meant to be satirical, but it's more parodical than anything. We're not laughing with it, we're laughing at it. You could be forgiven for assuming that every actor here thinks they're in a stage production and that we won't understand their character unless they shout and overact their way through each scene.
The production design is possibly an even greater crime. Rather than looking futuristic, the whole film looks so stuck n the '60s that I can't help but be completely detached from the action. The colour is overwhelming and the lighting only serves to enhance the feeling that this is a cheap TV episode, not a "classic" Warner production.
Don't even get me started about the cheesy, electronic renderings of Beethoven that plague almost every scene. What on earth were they thinking? Surely they knew that by using "state-of-the-art" synthesisers they were condemning the film to be out of date within five years. To begin with the music is mildly amusing. Soon it becomes tedious. Then downright annoying, like everything else in the film.
Quite simply, I just cannot take this film seriously. It has no impact whatsoever. Part of the film's longevity in the minds of moviegoers is said to be the controversy and the powerful, disturbing tone of the movie. Frankly, I found Bambi more disturbing, and a damn sight less tedious.
On that note, let me not forget how long, slow paced and drawn out every single scene is. By the 90 minute mark the film has gone past boring into something completely new. Needless to say, when the film finally ends, you'll find yourself struggling to resist the urge to follow Alex in jumping straight out the nearest window.
AMAZING HD ORANGE.......2007-11-30
Wow and this HD-DVD contains 2 HD's the main film on one and a lot of special features on disc two partly in 1080i and 1080p and partly in standard def .A great film uncut the picture is amazing, considering how old it is. digitaly remastered and cleaned up, great sound and mind blowing visuals super pop up menue's with time line this disc is worth every penny
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a landmark. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. A Clockwork Orange works on many levels--visual, social, political, and sexual--and is one of the few films that holds up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colourfully arresting images, he also stylises the film by utilising classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical score) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it. --Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
REEL horrorshow: ALEX in the HELL that is tomorrow.......2008-03-03
This movie boasts possibly the most striking opening-shot in cinema history; a slow pull-back of the leering, smirking, demonic droog ALEX de LARGE and his dubious crew, centred in the nightmare HELL of the KOROVA MILKBAR: a grotesquely distorted nighterie of tomorrow's thugs: all garish nude- fiberglass sculpture and styized cartoon writings on the walls.
There follows a typical evening of sadistic mayhem, including the 'delights' of beatings, rape and torture.......all depicted in bizarre 'ballet'mode by ALEX and his killer-clowns. This first section of the film seduces the viewer into a false sense of euphoria, and the average viewer [if he or she is capable of any human consciousness] is left slightly disturbed and alienated by the nightmarish, on-screen acts of evil.
This is all counterbalanced by the extremely effective use of [mostly] CLASSICAL music [which the youth of tomorrow appear to appreciate, despite the bleak decline in futuristic morals depicted in this film]-----which makes for a mesmerising, disorientating, --and, paradoxically thrilling----cinematic experience.
It has to be said that this film slows down severely after the first 40 minutes, and no longer appears quaintly, outlandishly-twistedly futuristic-seeming, as in the opening reels.
Sparodic brilliance pepper the remaining two-thirds of the running-time, and the movie ends on a brilliant note; --a crescendo of ALEX triumphantly cavorting with a nude girl [paradoxically in a VICTORIAN setting] to the strains of uplifting, exuberant CLASSICAL music.
I personally feel that the treatment of women in this movie is exploititive and gratituitous, and overall this film is a bewildering, senses-assaulting, and unforgettable one-off experience.......DON'T MISS IT.
He are here, and he mean business!.......2008-01-11
The DVD synopsis concludes in the following way: 'Its [Clockwork Orange's] power to excite and perturb is undiminished; its warning about the state's encroaching hold over the individual, more relevant today than ever.' But it's much more than that! So much more!
This film is a masterpiece of visual style, language, and presentation, and to portray it as a piece that criticises state control over the individual is like judging the ocean on the looks of its surface. This is a disturbingly compelling story about violence and providence, and the state's totalitarian dispositions are just a valuable part of this story, not the other way around. So, mind your minds as you watch this once banned disturbance of a film, for it is not just a flickety flick on the gone wrong doings of the state, but it's instead a tour de force on the intricate woky workings of a sinful sinister youth, a youth gone mad with maddening manners. It sounds like poetry, and flows like it too, all the way to the end, and there is no reprieve for the weak and the easily-offended. Disturbed and disturbing this poetry may be, yes, true, but it is poetic all the same and very very appealing. It is a masterpiece, a great masterpiece cut by a monumental master mind, superbly adapted to the screen and made to work in visual stunnery. Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.
A Clockwork Classic.......2007-12-25
I first saw this film a couple of months ago. I found the film very good, so I got hold of it on DVD. This film was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, and is based on the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex, the main character of the film. Alex is a teenage boy who is the ring leader of a small gang (4 members in total). They spend their evenings commiting crimes, such as beating the crap out of people and raping women. Alex gets a kick out of the whole thing and doesn't regret it.
Alex attacks an oldish woman one night, which results in her death. His gang betray, attack and abandon him, leaving him to be found and arrested. He is sentenced to 14 years in prison. Two years later he hears of a treatment known as the Ludovico technique, which transforms common criminals. Alex volunteers to go along with this treatment so he can get an immediate release.
He goes through this treatment for two weeks, and during that treatment he is given a drug that causes nausea (sensation of feeling sick) and forced to watch films full of nothing but extreme violence. It changes him psychologicaly. Although he still has the urges, he is unable to respond to sex or violence without feeling very sick. He is unable to respond to violence or anything sexual, so in result he finds responding to sex or violence impossible. He is also left unable to hear Beethoven's 9th symphony (as that was played during one of the films he was made to watch) without feeling very sick.
Alex leaves prison ready to start a new life, but this is when things get really bad for him. He finds people attacking him purely for the awful things he's done to them, and of course he's unable to defend himself.
A Clockwork Orange in my opinion is a classic film, with a fantastic storyline. I'm not a fan of Beethoven or anything but I found it quite enjoyable to listen to, and I found that it flowed nicely with the film.
I admit I couldn't help but feel sorry for Alex near towards the end, dispite what a b*stard he was. At the same time I couldn't blame the people for attacking him (except for two of his old gang members who have joined the police by the time Alex is released). Lastly I feel that Malcolm McDowell played Alex brilliantly in this film.
This film is a complete classic. Buy.
Overbaked and highly overrated.......2007-12-13
The fact that this film is still held in such high regard is surely one of the greatest mysteries in cinema.
For the record, I love the book. It would be easy, then, to dismiss my disliking of the film as being no more than that I preferred my own vision of the story upon reading it. Alas, my reasons for not liking the film go far beyond this.
Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, I do not like Malcolm McDowell's reading of Alex at all. I find him tacky, annoying and not in the least fearsome. To be fair, Burgess wrote the infuriatingly tacky lingo that Alex uses in his relentless narration throughout the film, but I don't remember him describing Alex as an annoying, whiney Northerner.
It is not just the performance of Alex's character that misses the mark for me. Almost everyone in the film seems to think they're in an episode of Monty Python. Yes, I know it's meant to be satirical, but it's more parodical than anything. We're not laughing with it, we're laughing at it. You could be forgiven for assuming that every actor here thinks they're in a stage production and that we won't understand their character unless they shout and overact their way through each scene.
The production design is possibly an even greater crime. Rather than looking futuristic, the whole film looks so stuck n the '60s that I can't help but be completely detached from the action. The colour is overwhelming and the lighting only serves to enhance the feeling that this is a cheap TV episode, not a "classic" Warner production.
Don't even get me started about the cheesy, electronic renderings of Beethoven that plague almost every scene. What on earth were they thinking? Surely they knew that by using "state-of-the-art" synthesisers they were condemning the film to be out of date within five years. To begin with the music is mildly amusing. Soon it becomes tedious. Then downright annoying, like everything else in the film.
Quite simply, I just cannot take this film seriously. It has no impact whatsoever. Part of the film's longevity in the minds of moviegoers is said to be the controversy and the powerful, disturbing tone of the movie. Frankly, I found Bambi more disturbing, and a damn sight less tedious.
On that note, let me not forget how long, slow paced and drawn out every single scene is. By the 90 minute mark the film has gone past boring into something completely new. Needless to say, when the film finally ends, you'll find yourself struggling to resist the urge to follow Alex in jumping straight out the nearest window.
AMAZING HD ORANGE.......2007-11-30
Wow and this HD-DVD contains 2 HD's the main film on one and a lot of special features on disc two partly in 1080i and 1080p and partly in standard def .A great film uncut the picture is amazing, considering how old it is. digitaly remastered and cleaned up, great sound and mind blowing visuals super pop up menue's with time line this disc is worth every penny
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a landmark. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. A Clockwork Orange works on many levels--visual, social, political, and sexual--and is one of the few films that holds up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colourfully arresting images, he also stylises the film by utilising classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical score) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it. --Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
REEL horrorshow: ALEX in the HELL that is tomorrow.......2008-03-03
This movie boasts possibly the most striking opening-shot in cinema history; a slow pull-back of the leering, smirking, demonic droog ALEX de LARGE and his dubious crew, centred in the nightmare HELL of the KOROVA MILKBAR: a grotesquely distorted nighterie of tomorrow's thugs: all garish nude- fiberglass sculpture and styized cartoon writings on the walls.
There follows a typical evening of sadistic mayhem, including the 'delights' of beatings, rape and torture.......all depicted in bizarre 'ballet'mode by ALEX and his killer-clowns. This first section of the film seduces the viewer into a false sense of euphoria, and the average viewer [if he or she is capable of any human consciousness] is left slightly disturbed and alienated by the nightmarish, on-screen acts of evil.
This is all counterbalanced by the extremely effective use of [mostly] CLASSICAL music [which the youth of tomorrow appear to appreciate, despite the bleak decline in futuristic morals depicted in this film]-----which makes for a mesmerising, disorientating, --and, paradoxically thrilling----cinematic experience.
It has to be said that this film slows down severely after the first 40 minutes, and no longer appears quaintly, outlandishly-twistedly futuristic-seeming, as in the opening reels.
Sparodic brilliance pepper the remaining two-thirds of the running-time, and the movie ends on a brilliant note; --a crescendo of ALEX triumphantly cavorting with a nude girl [paradoxically in a VICTORIAN setting] to the strains of uplifting, exuberant CLASSICAL music.
I personally feel that the treatment of women in this movie is exploititive and gratituitous, and overall this film is a bewildering, senses-assaulting, and unforgettable one-off experience.......DON'T MISS IT.
He are here, and he mean business!.......2008-01-11
The DVD synopsis concludes in the following way: 'Its [Clockwork Orange's] power to excite and perturb is undiminished; its warning about the state's encroaching hold over the individual, more relevant today than ever.' But it's much more than that! So much more!
This film is a masterpiece of visual style, language, and presentation, and to portray it as a piece that criticises state control over the individual is like judging the ocean on the looks of its surface. This is a disturbingly compelling story about violence and providence, and the state's totalitarian dispositions are just a valuable part of this story, not the other way around. So, mind your minds as you watch this once banned disturbance of a film, for it is not just a flickety flick on the gone wrong doings of the state, but it's instead a tour de force on the intricate woky workings of a sinful sinister youth, a youth gone mad with maddening manners. It sounds like poetry, and flows like it too, all the way to the end, and there is no reprieve for the weak and the easily-offended. Disturbed and disturbing this poetry may be, yes, true, but it is poetic all the same and very very appealing. It is a masterpiece, a great masterpiece cut by a monumental master mind, superbly adapted to the screen and made to work in visual stunnery. Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.
A Clockwork Classic.......2007-12-25
I first saw this film a couple of months ago. I found the film very good, so I got hold of it on DVD. This film was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, and is based on the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex, the main character of the film. Alex is a teenage boy who is the ring leader of a small gang (4 members in total). They spend their evenings commiting crimes, such as beating the crap out of people and raping women. Alex gets a kick out of the whole thing and doesn't regret it.
Alex attacks an oldish woman one night, which results in her death. His gang betray, attack and abandon him, leaving him to be found and arrested. He is sentenced to 14 years in prison. Two years later he hears of a treatment known as the Ludovico technique, which transforms common criminals. Alex volunteers to go along with this treatment so he can get an immediate release.
He goes through this treatment for two weeks, and during that treatment he is given a drug that causes nausea (sensation of feeling sick) and forced to watch films full of nothing but extreme violence. It changes him psychologicaly. Although he still has the urges, he is unable to respond to sex or violence without feeling very sick. He is unable to respond to violence or anything sexual, so in result he finds responding to sex or violence impossible. He is also left unable to hear Beethoven's 9th symphony (as that was played during one of the films he was made to watch) without feeling very sick.
Alex leaves prison ready to start a new life, but this is when things get really bad for him. He finds people attacking him purely for the awful things he's done to them, and of course he's unable to defend himself.
A Clockwork Orange in my opinion is a classic film, with a fantastic storyline. I'm not a fan of Beethoven or anything but I found it quite enjoyable to listen to, and I found that it flowed nicely with the film.
I admit I couldn't help but feel sorry for Alex near towards the end, dispite what a b*stard he was. At the same time I couldn't blame the people for attacking him (except for two of his old gang members who have joined the police by the time Alex is released). Lastly I feel that Malcolm McDowell played Alex brilliantly in this film.
This film is a complete classic. Buy.
Overbaked and highly overrated.......2007-12-13
The fact that this film is still held in such high regard is surely one of the greatest mysteries in cinema.
For the record, I love the book. It would be easy, then, to dismiss my disliking of the film as being no more than that I preferred my own vision of the story upon reading it. Alas, my reasons for not liking the film go far beyond this.
Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, I do not like Malcolm McDowell's reading of Alex at all. I find him tacky, annoying and not in the least fearsome. To be fair, Burgess wrote the infuriatingly tacky lingo that Alex uses in his relentless narration throughout the film, but I don't remember him describing Alex as an annoying, whiney Northerner.
It is not just the performance of Alex's character that misses the mark for me. Almost everyone in the film seems to think they're in an episode of Monty Python. Yes, I know it's meant to be satirical, but it's more parodical than anything. We're not laughing with it, we're laughing at it. You could be forgiven for assuming that every actor here thinks they're in a stage production and that we won't understand their character unless they shout and overact their way through each scene.
The production design is possibly an even greater crime. Rather than looking futuristic, the whole film looks so stuck n the '60s that I can't help but be completely detached from the action. The colour is overwhelming and the lighting only serves to enhance the feeling that this is a cheap TV episode, not a "classic" Warner production.
Don't even get me started about the cheesy, electronic renderings of Beethoven that plague almost every scene. What on earth were they thinking? Surely they knew that by using "state-of-the-art" synthesisers they were condemning the film to be out of date within five years. To begin with the music is mildly amusing. Soon it becomes tedious. Then downright annoying, like everything else in the film.
Quite simply, I just cannot take this film seriously. It has no impact whatsoever. Part of the film's longevity in the minds of moviegoers is said to be the controversy and the powerful, disturbing tone of the movie. Frankly, I found Bambi more disturbing, and a damn sight less tedious.
On that note, let me not forget how long, slow paced and drawn out every single scene is. By the 90 minute mark the film has gone past boring into something completely new. Needless to say, when the film finally ends, you'll find yourself struggling to resist the urge to follow Alex in jumping straight out the nearest window.
AMAZING HD ORANGE.......2007-11-30
Wow and this HD-DVD contains 2 HD's the main film on one and a lot of special features on disc two partly in 1080i and 1080p and partly in standard def .A great film uncut the picture is amazing, considering how old it is. digitaly remastered and cleaned up, great sound and mind blowing visuals super pop up menue's with time line this disc is worth every penny
Amazon.co.uk Review
The controversy that surrounded Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange while the film was out of circulation suggested that it was like Romper Stomper: a glamorisation of the violent, virile lifestyle of its teenage protagonist, with a hypocritical gloss of condemnation to mask delight in rape and ultra-violence. Actually, it is as fable-like and abstract as The Pilgrim's Progress, with characters deliberately played as goonish sitcom creations. The anarchic rampage of Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a bowler-hatted juvenile delinquent of the future, is all over at the end of the first act. Apprehended by equally brutal authorities, he changes from defiant thug to cringing bootlicker, volunteering for a behaviourist experiment that removes his capacity to do evil.
It's all stylised: from Burgess' invented pidgin Russian (snarled unforgettably by McDowell) to 2001-style slow tracks through sculpturally perfect sets (as with many Kubrick movies, the story could be told through decor alone) and exaggerated, grotesque performances on a par with those of Dr Strangelove (especially from Patrick Magee and Aubrey Morris). Made in 1971, based on a novel from 1962, A Clockwork Orange resonates across the years. Its future is now quaint, with Magee pecking out "subversive literature" on a giant IBM typewriter and "lovely, lovely Ludwig Van" on mini-cassette tapes. However, the world of "Municipal Flat Block 18A, Linear North" is very much with us: a housing estate where classical murals are obscenely vandalised, passers-by are rare and yobs loll about with nothing better to do than hurt people.
On the DVD: The extras are skimpy, with just an impressionist trailer in the style of the film used to brainwash Alex and a list of awards for which Clockwork Orange was nominated and awarded. The box promises soundtracks in English, French and Italian and subtitles in ten languages, but the disc just has two English soundtracks (mono and Dolby Surround 5.1) and two sets of English subtitles. The terrific-looking "digitally restored and remastered" print is letterboxed at 1.66:1 and on a widescreen TV plays best at 14:9. The film looks as good as it ever has, with rich stable colours (especially and appropriately the orangey-red of the credits and the blood) and a clarity that highlights previously unnoticed details such as Alex's gouged eyeball cufflinks and enables you to read the newspaper articles which flash by. The 5.1 soundtrack option is amazingly rich, benefiting the nuances of performance as much as the classical/electronic music score and the subtly unsettling sound effects. --Kim Newman
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a landmark. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. A Clockwork Orange works on many levels--visual, social, political, and sexual--and is one of the few films that holds up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colourfully arresting images, he also stylises the film by utilising classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical score) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it. --Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a landmark. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. A Clockwork Orange works on many levels--visual, social, political, and sexual--and is one of the few films that holds up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colourfully arresting images, he also stylises the film by utilising classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical score) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it. --Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
REEL horrorshow: ALEX in the HELL that is tomorrow.......2008-03-03
This movie boasts possibly the most striking opening-shot in cinema history; a slow pull-back of the leering, smirking, demonic droog ALEX de LARGE and his dubious crew, centred in the nightmare HELL of the KOROVA MILKBAR: a grotesquely distorted nighterie of tomorrow's thugs: all garish nude- fiberglass sculpture and styized cartoon writings on the walls.
There follows a typical evening of sadistic mayhem, including the 'delights' of beatings, rape and torture.......all depicted in bizarre 'ballet'mode by ALEX and his killer-clowns. This first section of the film seduces the viewer into a false sense of euphoria, and the average viewer [if he or she is capable of any human consciousness] is left slightly disturbed and alienated by the nightmarish, on-screen acts of evil.
This is all counterbalanced by the extremely effective use of [mostly] CLASSICAL music [which the youth of tomorrow appear to appreciate, despite the bleak decline in futuristic morals depicted in this film]-----which makes for a mesmerising, disorientating, --and, paradoxically thrilling----cinematic experience.
It has to be said that this film slows down severely after the first 40 minutes, and no longer appears quaintly, outlandishly-twistedly futuristic-seeming, as in the opening reels.
Sparodic brilliance pepper the remaining two-thirds of the running-time, and the movie ends on a brilliant note; --a crescendo of ALEX triumphantly cavorting with a nude girl [paradoxically in a VICTORIAN setting] to the strains of uplifting, exuberant CLASSICAL music.
I personally feel that the treatment of women in this movie is exploititive and gratituitous, and overall this film is a bewildering, senses-assaulting, and unforgettable one-off experience.......DON'T MISS IT.
He are here, and he mean business!.......2008-01-11
The DVD synopsis concludes in the following way: 'Its [Clockwork Orange's] power to excite and perturb is undiminished; its warning about the state's encroaching hold over the individual, more relevant today than ever.' But it's much more than that! So much more!
This film is a masterpiece of visual style, language, and presentation, and to portray it as a piece that criticises state control over the individual is like judging the ocean on the looks of its surface. This is a disturbingly compelling story about violence and providence, and the state's totalitarian dispositions are just a valuable part of this story, not the other way around. So, mind your minds as you watch this once banned disturbance of a film, for it is not just a flickety flick on the gone wrong doings of the state, but it's instead a tour de force on the intricate woky workings of a sinful sinister youth, a youth gone mad with maddening manners. It sounds like poetry, and flows like it too, all the way to the end, and there is no reprieve for the weak and the easily-offended. Disturbed and disturbing this poetry may be, yes, true, but it is poetic all the same and very very appealing. It is a masterpiece, a great masterpiece cut by a monumental master mind, superbly adapted to the screen and made to work in visual stunnery. Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.
A Clockwork Classic.......2007-12-25
I first saw this film a couple of months ago. I found the film very good, so I got hold of it on DVD. This film was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, and is based on the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex, the main character of the film. Alex is a teenage boy who is the ring leader of a small gang (4 members in total). They spend their evenings commiting crimes, such as beating the crap out of people and raping women. Alex gets a kick out of the whole thing and doesn't regret it.
Alex attacks an oldish woman one night, which results in her death. His gang betray, attack and abandon him, leaving him to be found and arrested. He is sentenced to 14 years in prison. Two years later he hears of a treatment known as the Ludovico technique, which transforms common criminals. Alex volunteers to go along with this treatment so he can get an immediate release.
He goes through this treatment for two weeks, and during that treatment he is given a drug that causes nausea (sensation of feeling sick) and forced to watch films full of nothing but extreme violence. It changes him psychologicaly. Although he still has the urges, he is unable to respond to sex or violence without feeling very sick. He is unable to respond to violence or anything sexual, so in result he finds responding to sex or violence impossible. He is also left unable to hear Beethoven's 9th symphony (as that was played during one of the films he was made to watch) without feeling very sick.
Alex leaves prison ready to start a new life, but this is when things get really bad for him. He finds people attacking him purely for the awful things he's done to them, and of course he's unable to defend himself.
A Clockwork Orange in my opinion is a classic film, with a fantastic storyline. I'm not a fan of Beethoven or anything but I found it quite enjoyable to listen to, and I found that it flowed nicely with the film.
I admit I couldn't help but feel sorry for Alex near towards the end, dispite what a b*stard he was. At the same time I couldn't blame the people for attacking him (except for two of his old gang members who have joined the police by the time Alex is released). Lastly I feel that Malcolm McDowell played Alex brilliantly in this film.
This film is a complete classic. Buy.
Overbaked and highly overrated.......2007-12-13
The fact that this film is still held in such high regard is surely one of the greatest mysteries in cinema.
For the record, I love the book. It would be easy, then, to dismiss my disliking of the film as being no more than that I preferred my own vision of the story upon reading it. Alas, my reasons for not liking the film go far beyond this.
Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, I do not like Malcolm McDowell's reading of Alex at all. I find him tacky, annoying and not in the least fearsome. To be fair, Burgess wrote the infuriatingly tacky lingo that Alex uses in his relentless narration throughout the film, but I don't remember him describing Alex as an annoying, whiney Northerner.
It is not just the performance of Alex's character that misses the mark for me. Almost everyone in the film seems to think they're in an episode of Monty Python. Yes, I know it's meant to be satirical, but it's more parodical than anything. We're not laughing with it, we're laughing at it. You could be forgiven for assuming that every actor here thinks they're in a stage production and that we won't understand their character unless they shout and overact their way through each scene.
The production design is possibly an even greater crime. Rather than looking futuristic, the whole film looks so stuck n the '60s that I can't help but be completely detached from the action. The colour is overwhelming and the lighting only serves to enhance the feeling that this is a cheap TV episode, not a "classic" Warner production.
Don't even get me started about the cheesy, electronic renderings of Beethoven that plague almost every scene. What on earth were they thinking? Surely they knew that by using "state-of-the-art" synthesisers they were condemning the film to be out of date within five years. To begin with the music is mildly amusing. Soon it becomes tedious. Then downright annoying, like everything else in the film.
Quite simply, I just cannot take this film seriously. It has no impact whatsoever. Part of the film's longevity in the minds of moviegoers is said to be the controversy and the powerful, disturbing tone of the movie. Frankly, I found Bambi more disturbing, and a damn sight less tedious.
On that note, let me not forget how long, slow paced and drawn out every single scene is. By the 90 minute mark the film has gone past boring into something completely new. Needless to say, when the film finally ends, you'll find yourself struggling to resist the urge to follow Alex in jumping straight out the nearest window.
AMAZING HD ORANGE.......2007-11-30
Wow and this HD-DVD contains 2 HD's the main film on one and a lot of special features on disc two partly in 1080i and 1080p and partly in standard def .A great film uncut the picture is amazing, considering how old it is. digitaly remastered and cleaned up, great sound and mind blowing visuals super pop up menue's with time line this disc is worth every penny
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a landmark. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. A Clockwork Orange works on many levels--visual, social, political, and sexual--and is one of the few films that holds up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colourfully arresting images, he also stylises the film by utilising classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical score) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it. --Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a landmark. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. A Clockwork Orange works on many levels--visual, social, political, and sexual--and is one of the few films that holds up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colourfully arresting images, he also stylises the film by utilising classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical score) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it. --Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
REEL horrorshow: ALEX in the HELL that is tomorrow.......2008-03-03
This movie boasts possibly the most striking opening-shot in cinema history; a slow pull-back of the leering, smirking, demonic droog ALEX de LARGE and his dubious crew, centred in the nightmare HELL of the KOROVA MILKBAR: a grotesquely distorted nighterie of tomorrow's thugs: all garish nude- fiberglass sculpture and styized cartoon writings on the walls.
There follows a typical evening of sadistic mayhem, including the 'delights' of beatings, rape and torture.......all depicted in bizarre 'ballet'mode by ALEX and his killer-clowns. This first section of the film seduces the viewer into a false sense of euphoria, and the average viewer [if he or she is capable of any human consciousness] is left slightly disturbed and alienated by the nightmarish, on-screen acts of evil.
This is all counterbalanced by the extremely effective use of [mostly] CLASSICAL music [which the youth of tomorrow appear to appreciate, despite the bleak decline in futuristic morals depicted in this film]-----which makes for a mesmerising, disorientating, --and, paradoxically thrilling----cinematic experience.
It has to be said that this film slows down severely after the first 40 minutes, and no longer appears quaintly, outlandishly-twistedly futuristic-seeming, as in the opening reels.
Sparodic brilliance pepper the remaining two-thirds of the running-time, and the movie ends on a brilliant note; --a crescendo of ALEX triumphantly cavorting with a nude girl [paradoxically in a VICTORIAN setting] to the strains of uplifting, exuberant CLASSICAL music.
I personally feel that the treatment of women in this movie is exploititive and gratituitous, and overall this film is a bewildering, senses-assaulting, and unforgettable one-off experience.......DON'T MISS IT.
He are here, and he mean business!.......2008-01-11
The DVD synopsis concludes in the following way: 'Its [Clockwork Orange's] power to excite and perturb is undiminished; its warning about the state's encroaching hold over the individual, more relevant today than ever.' But it's much more than that! So much more!
This film is a masterpiece of visual style, language, and presentation, and to portray it as a piece that criticises state control over the individual is like judging the ocean on the looks of its surface. This is a disturbingly compelling story about violence and providence, and the state's totalitarian dispositions are just a valuable part of this story, not the other way around. So, mind your minds as you watch this once banned disturbance of a film, for it is not just a flickety flick on the gone wrong doings of the state, but it's instead a tour de force on the intricate woky workings of a sinful sinister youth, a youth gone mad with maddening manners. It sounds like poetry, and flows like it too, all the way to the end, and there is no reprieve for the weak and the easily-offended. Disturbed and disturbing this poetry may be, yes, true, but it is poetic all the same and very very appealing. It is a masterpiece, a great masterpiece cut by a monumental master mind, superbly adapted to the screen and made to work in visual stunnery. Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.
A Clockwork Classic.......2007-12-25
I first saw this film a couple of months ago. I found the film very good, so I got hold of it on DVD. This film was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, and is based on the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex, the main character of the film. Alex is a teenage boy who is the ring leader of a small gang (4 members in total). They spend their evenings commiting crimes, such as beating the crap out of people and raping women. Alex gets a kick out of the whole thing and doesn't regret it.
Alex attacks an oldish woman one night, which results in her death. His gang betray, attack and abandon him, leaving him to be found and arrested. He is sentenced to 14 years in prison. Two years later he hears of a treatment known as the Ludovico technique, which transforms common criminals. Alex volunteers to go along with this treatment so he can get an immediate release.
He goes through this treatment for two weeks, and during that treatment he is given a drug that causes nausea (sensation of feeling sick) and forced to watch films full of nothing but extreme violence. It changes him psychologicaly. Although he still has the urges, he is unable to respond to sex or violence without feeling very sick. He is unable to respond to violence or anything sexual, so in result he finds responding to sex or violence impossible. He is also left unable to hear Beethoven's 9th symphony (as that was played during one of the films he was made to watch) without feeling very sick.
Alex leaves prison ready to start a new life, but this is when things get really bad for him. He finds people attacking him purely for the awful things he's done to them, and of course he's unable to defend himself.
A Clockwork Orange in my opinion is a classic film, with a fantastic storyline. I'm not a fan of Beethoven or anything but I found it quite enjoyable to listen to, and I found that it flowed nicely with the film.
I admit I couldn't help but feel sorry for Alex near towards the end, dispite what a b*stard he was. At the same time I couldn't blame the people for attacking him (except for two of his old gang members who have joined the police by the time Alex is released). Lastly I feel that Malcolm McDowell played Alex brilliantly in this film.
This film is a complete classic. Buy.
Overbaked and highly overrated.......2007-12-13
The fact that this film is still held in such high regard is surely one of the greatest mysteries in cinema.
For the record, I love the book. It would be easy, then, to dismiss my disliking of the film as being no more than that I preferred my own vision of the story upon reading it. Alas, my reasons for not liking the film go far beyond this.
Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, I do not like Malcolm McDowell's reading of Alex at all. I find him tacky, annoying and not in the least fearsome. To be fair, Burgess wrote the infuriatingly tacky lingo that Alex uses in his relentless narration throughout the film, but I don't remember him describing Alex as an annoying, whiney Northerner.
It is not just the performance of Alex's character that misses the mark for me. Almost everyone in the film seems to think they're in an episode of Monty Python. Yes, I know it's meant to be satirical, but it's more parodical than anything. We're not laughing with it, we're laughing at it. You could be forgiven for assuming that every actor here thinks they're in a stage production and that we won't understand their character unless they shout and overact their way through each scene.
The production design is possibly an even greater crime. Rather than looking futuristic, the whole film looks so stuck n the '60s that I can't help but be completely detached from the action. The colour is overwhelming and the lighting only serves to enhance the feeling that this is a cheap TV episode, not a "classic" Warner production.
Don't even get me started about the cheesy, electronic renderings of Beethoven that plague almost every scene. What on earth were they thinking? Surely they knew that by using "state-of-the-art" synthesisers they were condemning the film to be out of date within five years. To begin with the music is mildly amusing. Soon it becomes tedious. Then downright annoying, like everything else in the film.
Quite simply, I just cannot take this film seriously. It has no impact whatsoever. Part of the film's longevity in the minds of moviegoers is said to be the controversy and the powerful, disturbing tone of the movie. Frankly, I found Bambi more disturbing, and a damn sight less tedious.
On that note, let me not forget how long, slow paced and drawn out every single scene is. By the 90 minute mark the film has gone past boring into something completely new. Needless to say, when the film finally ends, you'll find yourself struggling to resist the urge to follow Alex in jumping straight out the nearest window.
AMAZING HD ORANGE.......2007-11-30
Wow and this HD-DVD contains 2 HD's the main film on one and a lot of special features on disc two partly in 1080i and 1080p and partly in standard def .A great film uncut the picture is amazing, considering how old it is. digitaly remastered and cleaned up, great sound and mind blowing visuals super pop up menue's with time line this disc is worth every penny
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a landmark. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. A Clockwork Orange works on many levels--visual, social, political, and sexual--and is one of the few films that holds up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colourfully arresting images, he also stylises the film by utilising classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical score) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it. --Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
REEL horrorshow: ALEX in the HELL that is tomorrow.......2008-03-03
This movie boasts possibly the most striking opening-shot in cinema history; a slow pull-back of the leering, smirking, demonic droog ALEX de LARGE and his dubious crew, centred in the nightmare HELL of the KOROVA MILKBAR: a grotesquely distorted nighterie of tomorrow's thugs: all garish nude- fiberglass sculpture and styized cartoon writings on the walls.
There follows a typical evening of sadistic mayhem, including the 'delights' of beatings, rape and torture.......all depicted in bizarre 'ballet'mode by ALEX and his killer-clowns. This first section of the film seduces the viewer into a false sense of euphoria, and the average viewer [if he or she is capable of any human consciousness] is left slightly disturbed and alienated by the nightmarish, on-screen acts of evil.
This is all counterbalanced by the extremely effective use of [mostly] CLASSICAL music [which the youth of tomorrow appear to appreciate, despite the bleak decline in futuristic morals depicted in this film]-----which makes for a mesmerising, disorientating, --and, paradoxically thrilling----cinematic experience.
It has to be said that this film slows down severely after the first 40 minutes, and no longer appears quaintly, outlandishly-twistedly futuristic-seeming, as in the opening reels.
Sparodic brilliance pepper the remaining two-thirds of the running-time, and the movie ends on a brilliant note; --a crescendo of ALEX triumphantly cavorting with a nude girl [paradoxically in a VICTORIAN setting] to the strains of uplifting, exuberant CLASSICAL music.
I personally feel that the treatment of women in this movie is exploititive and gratituitous, and overall this film is a bewildering, senses-assaulting, and unforgettable one-off experience.......DON'T MISS IT.
He are here, and he mean business!.......2008-01-11
The DVD synopsis concludes in the following way: 'Its [Clockwork Orange's] power to excite and perturb is undiminished; its warning about the state's encroaching hold over the individual, more relevant today than ever.' But it's much more than that! So much more!
This film is a masterpiece of visual style, language, and presentation, and to portray it as a piece that criticises state control over the individual is like judging the ocean on the looks of its surface. This is a disturbingly compelling story about violence and providence, and the state's totalitarian dispositions are just a valuable part of this story, not the other way around. So, mind your minds as you watch this once banned disturbance of a film, for it is not just a flickety flick on the gone wrong doings of the state, but it's instead a tour de force on the intricate woky workings of a sinful sinister youth, a youth gone mad with maddening manners. It sounds like poetry, and flows like it too, all the way to the end, and there is no reprieve for the weak and the easily-offended. Disturbed and disturbing this poetry may be, yes, true, but it is poetic all the same and very very appealing. It is a masterpiece, a great masterpiece cut by a monumental master mind, superbly adapted to the screen and made to work in visual stunnery. Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.
A Clockwork Classic.......2007-12-25
I first saw this film a couple of months ago. I found the film very good, so I got hold of it on DVD. This film was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, and is based on the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex, the main character of the film. Alex is a teenage boy who is the ring leader of a small gang (4 members in total). They spend their evenings commiting crimes, such as beating the crap out of people and raping women. Alex gets a kick out of the whole thing and doesn't regret it.
Alex attacks an oldish woman one night, which results in her death. His gang betray, attack and abandon him, leaving him to be found and arrested. He is sentenced to 14 years in prison. Two years later he hears of a treatment known as the Ludovico technique, which transforms common criminals. Alex volunteers to go along with this treatment so he can get an immediate release.
He goes through this treatment for two weeks, and during that treatment he is given a drug that causes nausea (sensation of feeling sick) and forced to watch films full of nothing but extreme violence. It changes him psychologicaly. Although he still has the urges, he is unable to respond to sex or violence without feeling very sick. He is unable to respond to violence or anything sexual, so in result he finds responding to sex or violence impossible. He is also left unable to hear Beethoven's 9th symphony (as that was played during one of the films he was made to watch) without feeling very sick.
Alex leaves prison ready to start a new life, but this is when things get really bad for him. He finds people attacking him purely for the awful things he's done to them, and of course he's unable to defend himself.
A Clockwork Orange in my opinion is a classic film, with a fantastic storyline. I'm not a fan of Beethoven or anything but I found it quite enjoyable to listen to, and I found that it flowed nicely with the film.
I admit I couldn't help but feel sorry for Alex near towards the end, dispite what a b*stard he was. At the same time I couldn't blame the people for attacking him (except for two of his old gang members who have joined the police by the time Alex is released). Lastly I feel that Malcolm McDowell played Alex brilliantly in this film.
This film is a complete classic. Buy.
Overbaked and highly overrated.......2007-12-13
The fact that this film is still held in such high regard is surely one of the greatest mysteries in cinema.
For the record, I love the book. It would be easy, then, to dismiss my disliking of the film as being no more than that I preferred my own vision of the story upon reading it. Alas, my reasons for not liking the film go far beyond this.
Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, I do not like Malcolm McDowell's reading of Alex at all. I find him tacky, annoying and not in the least fearsome. To be fair, Burgess wrote the infuriatingly tacky lingo that Alex uses in his relentless narration throughout the film, but I don't remember him describing Alex as an annoying, whiney Northerner.
It is not just the performance of Alex's character that misses the mark for me. Almost everyone in the film seems to think they're in an episode of Monty Python. Yes, I know it's meant to be satirical, but it's more parodical than anything. We're not laughing with it, we're laughing at it. You could be forgiven for assuming that every actor here thinks they're in a stage production and that we won't understand their character unless they shout and overact their way through each scene.
The production design is possibly an even greater crime. Rather than looking futuristic, the whole film looks so stuck n the '60s that I can't help but be completely detached from the action. The colour is overwhelming and the lighting only serves to enhance the feeling that this is a cheap TV episode, not a "classic" Warner production.
Don't even get me started about the cheesy, electronic renderings of Beethoven that plague almost every scene. What on earth were they thinking? Surely they knew that by using "state-of-the-art" synthesisers they were condemning the film to be out of date within five years. To begin with the music is mildly amusing. Soon it becomes tedious. Then downright annoying, like everything else in the film.
Quite simply, I just cannot take this film seriously. It has no impact whatsoever. Part of the film's longevity in the minds of moviegoers is said to be the controversy and the powerful, disturbing tone of the movie. Frankly, I found Bambi more disturbing, and a damn sight less tedious.
On that note, let me not forget how long, slow paced and drawn out every single scene is. By the 90 minute mark the film has gone past boring into something completely new. Needless to say, when the film finally ends, you'll find yourself struggling to resist the urge to follow Alex in jumping straight out the nearest window.
AMAZING HD ORANGE.......2007-11-30
Wow and this HD-DVD contains 2 HD's the main film on one and a lot of special features on disc two partly in 1080i and 1080p and partly in standard def .A great film uncut the picture is amazing, considering how old it is. digitaly remastered and cleaned up, great sound and mind blowing visuals super pop up menue's with time line this disc is worth every penny
UK DVD:
- Cracker Complete Collection Box Set
- Crash [2004] [2005]
- Cruel Intentions [1
![Clockwork Orange [1972]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21RVMSQ12SL.jpg)
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Get Carter [1971]
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