FAVORITE FILM REVIEW

What is your favorite film?

A Clockwork Orange

The  Stanley Kubrick 1971 film adaptation of ‘A Clockwork Orange’, based on the infamous dystopian satirical black comedy novel written by Anthony Burgess, follows a 15 year old boy by the name of ‘Alex DeLarge’ (portrayed by Malcolm McDowell). He partakes in various violent crimes (Referred to frequently as ‘Ultraviolence’) with his ‘droogs’, in which he is eventually caught out by the authorities and imprisoned. Faced with the opportunity to take part in an experimental programme in order to have his sentence reduced, Alex walks blindly into Aversion therapy to cure his sociopathic behaviour. We later learn that his treatment was in fact unsuccessful in the long-term when he is released back onto the streets of futuristic Britain as his character remains extremely similar to that of the boy that we met at the beginning of the film. 

I first discovered this film soon after reading the novel that I had picked up in the bookstore by chance when I was 13 (my school at the time were not too fond of me reading it on campus!); I was intrigued as to how someone could possibly make a film out of it as it was so unique in terms of the futuristic dialect used and gory segments. Once I had watched the film, I fell in love with it, and proceeded to branch out onto Kubrick’s other works. On a personal level, I have always favoured more controversial pieces of literature and film, as I believe that they strongly highlight an artist’s ability to bend out of the ‘norm’. A few of Kubrick’s works, such as ‘The Shining’ and ‘Lolita’ (also more of my favourites), really highlighted this characteristic in him. When you take into account the year that A Clockwork Orange was released, one can realise how challenging it must have been to take on a film of that tone as a director, especially in an age where ‘cancel culture’ and ‘cushioning’ were beginning to come about. Kubrick himself banned the film through Warner Brothers in the United Kingdom due to the widespread outrage following the graphic scene of a girl being gang raped. Besides the controversy of the storyline, I think that the film technically speaking was and still is a masterpiece for its time. The classical soundtrack really helped depict how mentally ill Alex truly was, and was an innovative technique to use. Additionally, the variety of camerawork/editing used, such as the speeding up of certain scenes, the slow motion, the angles etc. really added to the contemporary brutalistic pop yet modernistic feel of the costumes, set and speech. From a more contextual perspective, I really enjoy the political undertones of the piece as it satirizes both government and political approaches to fixing humanity and their attempt of ‘perfection’ as the system is extremely inhumane and flawed in itself. In summary, I find this film to be extremely groundbreaking and will remain to be a film that I would happily watch over and over again, and has also been one of the few film adaptations of novels that I have thoroughly enjoyed and preferred compared to the book.

The trailer: