A Clockwork Orange

Rating

Director

Stanley Kubrick

Screenplay

Stanley Kubrick (Novel: Anthony Burgess)

Length

2h 16m

Starring

Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke, John Clive, Adrienne Corri, Carl Duering

MPAA Rating

R (formerly X)

Review

Stanley Kubrick’s approach to humanity may have seemed like a jaded one wherein his subjects were corrupt morally, emotionally, and physically. A Clockwork Orange tackled one of his most repulsive characters and while it might be tempting to say Kubrick’s views were perverse, this film shows there was a deep-seated nuance to his observations that cut deeply to the core of our own propensity for violence as both the cause and effect of our own moral failings.

The film is based on Anthony Burgess’ acclaimed novel about an ultra-violent British punk (Malcolm McDowell) and his cohorts who stalk London’s nighttime streets exacting heinous atrocities on those they come across. In the daylight, Alex DeLarge seems like a misguided, if rebellious, youth. He loves Ludwig Van Beethoven and charismatically flirts with young women. Yet, when he and his associates get together, the end result is often horrific and disturbing.

Kubrick’s lens doesn’t allow the audience to escape the depravity on screen. We are witness to the degeneracy of these dispassionate thugs and after a particularly brutal rape and murder, DeLarge is captured by the police and put into a program intended to completely rehabilitate criminals through negative visual reinforcement. He is forced to incessantly watch senseless acts of violence accompanied by his own beloved Beethoven.

In the quasi-futuristic landscape Kubrick crafts, the viewer is kept from feeling too far removed from the events on display. This version of London looks and feels like the London of the that period, making what DeLarge does and what is done to him seem all the more realistic, the latter a horrifying notion in and of itself. Kubrick doesn’t avoid creating sympathy for DeLarge as the film nears its conclusion, rather he wants the audience to question how far society should go into its retributive penal structures.

There are no easy answers here, nor should we expect them. What DeLarge does is reprehensible, but does the government go too far in its attempted punishment? Should we instead try to find the good within someone who has deviated so far from societal norms? Is there a point beyond which we can definitively say is too much? Kubrick’s riveting screenplay doesn’t exactly tell us how we should feel, but the end result is something quite ponderous and thought provoking.

For his part, McDowell does a tremendous job pulling the audience into his deplorable character, giving him just the right level of nuance to feel both repugnant and redeemable. His post-treatment interactions with others further engender sympathy from the audience, not because he doesn’t deserve to be punished, but because the punishment has successfully destroyed all that was good about him, not just what was evil.

A Clockwork Orange is one of Kubrick’s absolute best films. Its contemplative nature is striking and if you can glean from its existence the right lessons about the humanity of crime and punishment, you will see life in an entirely new, more realistic lens. Those who harm are deserving of condemnation and discipline, but at what point do we become those that we penalize? The rabbit hole is a deep and frightening place and Kubrick does a superb job taking us to the brink and giving us myriad compelling lessons along the way.

Review Written

October 26, 2021