Review of A Clockwork Orange (1971) by Michael S — 18 Feb 2013

This is such an iconic, bracing and gorgeous movie but I fear that the people who clamor to see this the most - a young audience - bring to it such a heavy weight of a Right of Passage, that they have the wrong idea of what's in store for them.

And this is a sometimes tedious, repetetive endurance test of a film more often than not. I think one outgrows this film, in time, like they do Pink Floyd and Kurt Vonnegut. Its the college poster and the defiant middle finger to authority.

One wonders how many people watch the film anymore to enjoy the craft of it - the endless motif of the circle used throught the film to mirror the shape of its plot (an eye on Alex's wrist, a round bowler on his head, the wheelchair wheels of Mr.

Alexander and the billiard balls on his table and the marching in the prison yard) or the calculated way Kubrick distorts Alex's world and the people in it to suit his needs as the story drags us from one development to the next.

This is an exhausting film, one that demands a deeper focus to really enjoy but which I sadly believe has gotten lost in its appreciation by its most avid audience.