Review of A Clockwork Orange (1971) by Jase W — 19 Nov 2013

There is so much in this film to go through that I might need several days to finally review my favorite movie of all time. But for now...here it goes.

A Clockwork Orange: It's a film of incredible proportions, a true delivery of a dystopian world of dark, satirical violence where Alex DeLaarge (played by the spectacular Malcolm McDowell), a sadistic, cruel, and absolutely heartless lover of Classical music joins his goonies, or "droogs" as they are called in the Nadsat slang of the film, as they drink drug-laced beverages at the Korova Milkbar and make their journey to enjoy a little of the old ultraviolence. And what happens next is a spiral of madness that shows what society has stooped to in this dystopia, a terrible place but somewhere where the laws and regulations of society matter not. And so Alex revels in this freedom, that is until he is finally betrayed by his own droogs immediately after a murder, and is jailed, soon to undergo a test of behavior modification that intends to condition him to avoid violence. And it is a gruesome scene, disturbing as anything gets, but something incredibly necessary in a world where some of the most depraved acts in humanity (or inhumanity?) are ignored. Alex has all these acts revealed to him in their ultimate horror, with all these things that give him pleasure in life used against him, even the old Ludwig van. Alex finally is conditioned to be absolutely horrified by violence and, even when he wants to so much, simply cannot commit the acts he once could. And when he is finally sent back into the public world, the state doesn't welcome him at all; no, the oppressor becomes the oppressed, with Beethoven being used against Alex as he attempts to commit suicide. And so the question remains: Is it a poorly built society that causes such deplorable acts to be committed by a person? Or is that even the right question? With Stanley Kubrick sadly no longer with us, it is a question we may never know. And that, my friends, is what makes A Clockwork Orange a spectacular film, and an absolutely perfect one at that. And to add to that we have a design of this dystopian world that is amazingly ingenious, mixing an old culture with a new culture, violence that may not be the most artistic but still the most realistic in film history and incredibly shocking, acting (particularly from McDowell) of immense proportions, and last but not least, the style, power, and perfection that Stanley Kubrick offers this masterpiece that makes it clear that it is the best movie ever made.