Clockwork Orange
Ah, Kubrick. Every single feature film he made after his first film, Fear and Desire, which he himself did not consider his first film, was a masterpiece in one way or another. He also had a way of moving to different genres throughout his career, pretty much never repeating himself. From the noir of Killer's Kiss, to the historical epic of Spartacus. From the disturbing ephebophilic drama Lolita, to the enigmatic science fiction of 2001: A Space Odyssey. His films were about as enigmatic as the man himself. He never talked about his own films much, as he hated the press. He liked his privacy, especially after a film he made was blamed by the press for a rash of murders in England. The press caused his family to be sent death threats, and he had the film pulled from theaters in the country. It would not be released in any way, shape, or form until shortly after Kubrick's death in 1999. It was based on Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange.
I knew of the film's reputation from AFI's original list of 100 greatest movies, which was released in 1998 in a television special where they showed clips and had various directors talk about the films. My dad had told me about the film as well after that. I was only 13 when the special came on, and it would be another five years before I would see the film. The movie concerns a teenager named Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his life of crime. He is a ruffian who runs around with his gang (droogies) at night, terrorizing people. One night he accidentally kills a woman and is sent to prison. While there, he volunteers to undergo the Ludovico Treatment, which he knows will get him out of prison faster. The treatment is supposed to cure you of violent tendencies. I will say no more about the plot.
Now, when you talk to someone about the film, they tend to talk about how violent and sick it is. Well, sure... Except they don't mention anything from after the first 40 minutes of the film. Why? Because that's when the ultra-violence ends for the most part. After that it turns into a morality tale and deals with Alex's imprisonment and release back into society. After the first third of the film, there are no more rapes, no murders... Alex doesn't do a violent act for the rest of the film. Yes, the film gets it's reputation for 1/3 of the movie. Sort of like how Saving Private Ryan is only really known for the first 15 minutes. Now, let me be clear. The first 40 minutes are pretty brutal to watch for some people. There's rapes, a lot of violence, and off key singing of Singin' In The Rain to deal with. This doesn't mean it's not one of the best films ever made, though. The film is essentially a piece of classical music to itself. (Classical music... Particularly Beethoven, plays a large part in the film.)
I first saw the film on one of my first weekends at college in 2003. The Radford University library had a sizable collection of classic films in DVD and VHS. It is there that I really started getting out into the proverbial deep end of the pool when it came to film. Before then, it had been popular classics and cult classics for me. Most of them under the R rating. Clockwork Orange originally carried an X rating. It was edited by 30 seconds to get an R rating in re-release in 1973, but all home video versions have been the original X-rated version, but the rating was changed to R years later. This movie really interested me when I first saw it. It must have been around 2 AM when I started watching it (I had trouble sleeping my first year of college), and even at over two hours long, I found it short. No, it wasn't the violence or anything that kept me enthralled, but my surprise at how funny, philosophical, and different the film was. I'd never seen anything like it. The soundtrack was completely made up of classical music, most redone by Moog synthesizer by Wendy Carlos. (At the time, still Walter Carlos. He/She would later do the music for Kubrick's The Shining and Disney's Tron.) It was actually my favorite movie for a few weeks. It's quotable, it's hilarious, it's frightening, it's beautiful... It's pure Kubrick, and that's the only way to really explain it.
*I still quote the movie a lot. And I still find the sped up sex scene set to the William Tell Overture to be one of the most bizarre scenes in mainstream film history.
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