Set in the futuristic 1995 London, England. Kubrick sends us into a strange and yet familiar world. Strange as in the Milk bar where the milk is laced with narcotics. Yet Familiar as we take a stroll through the trash covered streets of downtown London, where an unfortunate homeless man gets beat within an inch of his life, By our friendly group of miscreants. Familiar as Alex is caught by the police and taken to prison, where we see at least the justice department hasn't changed much. And Strange as Alex goes through an experimental Treatment. Which if all goes well would leave alex no more a menace to society. The scene's that follow at alex treatment center are almost always close-ups as you get a sense of the confinement alex feels. Kubrick mostly shows the characters in long/medium shots up until the suspense has you on the edge of your seat. And Kubrick doesn't fail to pay off with some unforgettable action scenes mostly in slow-motion, Because you would have to rewind anyway to see what happened for sure.
With stunning music and wacky sets the actors had a perfect canvas to work on to make this a great film. I enjoyed watching the movie a lot and plan on watching it again sooner than later. Hopefully not before i see some of Kubricks other works.
Two things that frankie mentioned in his post that i noticed was the interesting soundtrack and the restricted narration used in this film. The Music choices was interesting because there was music playing almost the entire movie and you figure out that it has a deeper meaning tword the end of the movie. The restricted narration was something that i really liked because i though it made the film less confusing and it made it a little different than the shining. One thing that i noticed was similar between the shining and this film was that the story revolves around the psychological state of one main character.
ReplyDeleteAt first i thought this movie was too weird for me, and it was disgusting and disturbing for me to keep watching all the sex and violence. I'm shocked! Plus I couldn't figure out where the film was going. Once his droogies betrayed him and Alex was sent to jail I really got caught up in it. I really liked how it was futuristic, bizzare and kinda surreal at first, and then grew into a more realistic movie as he was brought to jail to take responsibility to his actions-the real world.
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of similarities I noticed between this and The Shining. There were several far shots of various hallways, especially the one at the writers house with the girl in the red suit answering the door because of all the mirrors. Also the flashes of random images and gory faces were similar to The Shining. You can tell that it is Kubrick's style with all the far shots, few subjective shots and crazy/psycho/insane characters and twists he throws in there.
The movie brings up an interesting moral point however that really got me into it. The fact that he is "cured" because he's been traumatized by violence isn't right at all. I like the Priest character who calls the government out on this saying that he needs to have the choice of moral action, he needs to learn, not to be manipulated and restricted by "sickness." So when he's back in the real world with all these people after him for revenge he cant fight back, and they're not so moral themselves-causing cruel and unusual punishment to Alex. They should brainwash everyone so its fair...but every one needs to have the ability to choose morally.
I know I did a really long comment but I still have more to say! lol
ReplyDelete1) The slang was awesome "glazzies" "glazzballs" "malchik" "yabzick" "grahzny" I think I want to work this into my own vocabulary
2)That joe lodger guy pissed me off so much! I mean I wanted to punch him in the face, and why didnt his parents stand up for him i was getting soooo angry
3) Frankieee! when you said its about Alex's psychological journey .. i was unsure just because through the cinematography were not inside his head so it felt like I couldnt trust him. is he good? is he a liar? the only way I could know was through his narration. but in the end I can totaly see it so i agree with you.
4)i was really impressed how the part where his head was held under water by the cops was done in ONE SHOT! crazy
5)I want to go to a milk bar
One thing i defiantly loved about this movie was the use of restricted narration. Without this teqnuqie the movie would have lost all of the feeling of "What the?!?" that i feel Kubrick set out to instill in the audience. I very much enjoyed Kubrick's views of a 1995 futuristic london society, i was amused but extremely confused from the get go. Like hillary said, this movie isn't really my cup of tea and i was sort of turned off at first. But as the movie progressed i really did find myself caught up in Alex's life. I think this movie did such a good job getting you into the his shoes mostly in part to the use of restricted narration. I think Kelly hit the nail right on the head with her comment on Kubricks fascination with the human psyche. This is only my second Kubrick film but i'm sensing a pattern...
ReplyDeleteHere are a few fun facts i found about Clockwork Orange! After the release of Kubrick's Clockwork Orange there have been roughly five stage adaptations of the film. The movie has also sparked inspiration for many bands who compose songs that essentially go through the motions of the films main events in a vidid soundscape. There is another movie by Andy Warhol entitled Vinyl that is a different adaptation of the original novel by Anthony Burgess. The expression "Clockwork orange" is taken from the english phrase, "queer as a clockwork orange". Here's something that i didn't notice at first, in the paper they give Alex's last name as Burgess who was the writer of the original novel. I had to go back and see it for myself and i thought it was kind of a cool tip of the cap to Burgess.
ReplyDeleteI really like all the thoughts by the way! Anyway I Agree with Hilary about many things in the film about how it took a while to get into but once you really started to see Alex from a few different angles it made it interesting and i wanted to keep watching. The other Huge thing that Hilary mentioned was is Alex really cured just because he gets sick at the sight of torture? Shouldn't cured mean he can refrain from doing all the terrible things he used to do, not just stop because he gets sick. Also I'm on the same page as Matt about the patterns and similarities between the two Kubrick films we've seen. The last think i want to touch on is how i thought it was different to go back in the end and put Alex in situations with all the people he tortured and used before he was "Cured"...Carma interesting!
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