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Review
Archives
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Today's
Date is:
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A Clockwork
Orange
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Reviewed
by: |
Brad
Tobin |
| Genre: |
Sci-Fi/Horror |
| Video: |
Widescreen
letterbox - 1.66:1 |
| Audio: |
English (Dolby
Digital 5.1) French (Dolby Digital 5.1) |
| Language: |
English,
French |
| Subtitle: |
English,French,
Spanish, Portuguese |
| Length: |
2
hr 17 minutes |
| Rating: |
R |
| Release
Date: |
June
12, 2001 |
| Studio: |
Warner
Bros |
| Commentary:
|
None |
| Documentaries:
|
None |
| Featurettes:
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None |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
None |
|
Interviews: |
None |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
Original
Theatrical Trailer |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
None |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
Awards
listing |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Malcolm McDowell,
Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri, Warren Clark |
| Screenplay
by: |
Written by:
Stanley Kubrick,. Based on a novel by Anthony Burgess. |
| Produced
by: |
Stanley Kubrick |
| Directed
By: |
Stanley Kubrick |
| Music: |
Wendy Carlos |
| The
Review: |
Alex is
a handsome young man whose principal interests include Rape,
Ultra-Violence and Beethoven. The film follows Alex, our hero
and hapless narrator, as he walks the streets in an unnamed
future with his "Droogs" (what he calls his gang), a future
where he acts out his interests on elderly bums, unfortunate
girls, enemy gangs and even his droogs. All of this takes place
in the first third, as "A Clockwork Orange" is broken up into
three sections (a structure Kubrick used again in "Full Metal
Jacket". It is debatable whether they are broken up into two
or three sections, I believe its three), Alex on the streets,
Alex getting rehabilitated and Alex back on the streets.. Rehabilitated.
You see, after his initial exploits, Alex is captured and he
volunteers for a revolutionary treatment designed to turn the
worst of the worst into upstanding citizens. The treatment involves
(like you don't already know) hooking the patient's eyes open
and subjecting them to a barrage of ultra-violent imagery (we
the audience are also forced to watch a bit of it), which results
in the patient vomiting at the sight of the slightest real life
violence or nudity. Back on the street, rehabilitated and happy,
Alex's sins are revisited on him by his victims and his so called
friends. Everywhere he turns stands someone that he has wronged,
and the man who takes him in is also the man he has wronged
most heinously. Just to make sure we are all on the same page
here, If you have never heard of Stanley Kubrick, you are either
A: under 8 years old (physically, mentally or both), B: been
off chanting in a Tibetan cave for 60 some-odd years, or C:
Not (and in no danger of becoming) a real film buff. The short
and skinny of it is, he is a director obsessed with his vision
and his vision only (a real "My way or the Highway" kind of
guy). Very early in his career he directed the classic film
"Sparticus" and had a falling out with star Kirk Douglas and
the producers as they wouldn't allow him total creative control.
Even though the film remains one of the most popular movies
of all time, he was displeased and vowed to never again compromise
his creative vision. Warner Bros studios were only too happy
to comply and cinema history was born. Kubrick wrote, produced
and directed virtually all his films for the company and the
studio threw whatever amount of money at him that it took to
keep him happy, as they say, if the talent ain't happy, the
work suffers. An eccentric man, to put it lightly, he demanded
take after take, sometimes going into the hundreds for single
lines of dialogue. He was also somewhat of a recluse, towards
the end he would only make films in Britain. This meant that
Britain would have to be converted to Vietnam for "Full Metal
Jacket" and New York for "Eyes Wide Shut" (a film which ended
up taking over 2 years to film and costing north of 100 million,
for no apparent reason). He has rarely discussed his films or
given interviews and opinions of him, from the actors he has
worked with, vary from enormous amounts of love (Tom Cruise
and Scatman Chothers) to fair indifference (Jack Nicholson)
to high levels of Hatred and Loathing (Malcolm McDowell and
Peter Sellers). There you have it, the story of the director
that has had the entertainment world talking for over half a
century, and that talking is only getting louder. Rarely did
a Stanley Kubrick film avoid courting controversy, His earlier
work got through quite unscathed, but from his take on the literary
classic "Lolita" to his misunderstood final opus "Eyes Wide
Shut", each and every Kubrick film collided with controversy
in one way or another. None more so than "A Clockwork Orange".
Nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Film Editing:
Bill Butler, Best Picture: Stanley Kubrick, Best Director: Stanley
Kubrick, and Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material: Stanley
Kubrick. It is also Ranked 46: on the American Film Institute's
100 Greatest American Movies list. There is no denying the films
brilliance, but there is also no denying the films controversy.
Kubrick put a self-ban on the film in his native Britain, saying
the film would only be released after his death (which it was,
in Britain and in my native Australia). This was a result of
some copycat crimes that occurred after the films short-lived
theatrical release. "A Clockwork Orange" does not promote violence,
but at the same time it is not an out-and-out anti-violence
flick. It promotes personal freedom, it tells us that you can
force a boy to eat his veggies, but you can't make him like
them, and one day, when he is big enough, he will spit them
back in your face. Kubrick seems to go out of his way at some
points to make the violence a thing of beauty, to some degree,
through his use of performance, music, staging and lighting.
Whether this is to challenge us to see it from Alex's point
of view or simply to make us Voyeur's Brain De Palma style,
his reasons remain his. The films everlasting power stems from
its ultra-solid direction and the mesmerising lead performance.
Malcolm McDowell gives the performance of his lifetime as Alex,
the ultimate anti-hero. McDowell makes the character of Alex
strong, smart and somewhat likeable, as bad as that sounds.
He is our lead, our hero, our faithful narrator, he is thrust
upon us yet we grow to like him and eventually pity him. Though
he may regret the filming process, I doubt that McDowell would
regret signing on, as the character of Alex will live on long
after he has left this world. |
| Image
and Sound |
"A Clockwork
Orange" is a hauntingly beautiful film. Kubrick uses color in
a very strange way; some scenes have a "Wizard of Oz" - ish
beauty to them. Both dreamlike and nightmarish, his use of color
and tone makes the film a treat to look at, a different and
unsettling treat, but a treat nonetheless. Even some of the
more vile imagery in the film has a certain beauty to it, which
was not done by accident; Stanley Kubrick never did anything
by accident. If something is done in a certain way in one of
his films, then that is the way he wanted it. Kubrick's dedication
to getting the shot is a thing of infamy. Malcolm McDowell's
corneas were scratched during the filming on the torture scene
where his eyes are hooked open, resulting in him being temporarily
blinded. He suffered cracked rips during the filming of the
humiliation stageshow and he was nearly drowned in the trough
scene. Legend has it that to get one of the final shots in the
film, a shot that involves a suicide attempt, he simply threw
a camera out the window, over and over again, until it landed
face down. Lens after lens was broken, but the shot is a startling
one. In the end, the question is. Was it all worth it? Well
if that kind of filmmaking is what it takes to make a film with
as many haunting images as we get here, then yes, it is well
worth it. This DVD is a rare one for Kubrick as it is released
in Widescreen, a format that was oddly not embraced by the director.
The restored picture makes the film crisper and clearer than
ever. Seeing it on the big screen on a late night in a big city
used to be the best way to view this film, but that is no longer
the case. The digital audio is also a godsend, making the sound
quality sharper and the music clear as a bell. The sound and
picture are the biggest (and only) improvements over the previous
"A Clockwork Orange" DVD release. |
| The
Extras |
Brace yourselves,
you're in for a long night with your one-minute of extra features.
An ultra-trippy trailer and a brief listing of the awards the
film was nominated for. Like all of Kubrick's trailers, this
is more like a teaser trailer, but it certainly entices. Think
of the "Blood gushing from the Elevator" trailer for "The Shining"
or the misleading "They did a Bad, Bad Thing" trailer campaign
for "Eyes Wide Shut". The "A Clockwork Orange" trailer causes
your jaw to drop and your mind to race. What's going on here?,
what's all that about?, were can I get tickets? The man knew
how to cause controversy, he knew how to make challenging and
thought-provoking films, and by god, he knew how to sell tickets.
|
| Commentary |
None. (An
eternal shame) |
| Final
Words: |
No
punches were pulled in this film and none of its power has diminished
since its 1970's release, "A Clockwork Orange" is, simply put,
a mesmerising masterpiece and my all-time favourite Stanley
Kubrick film. This DVD version has slightly enhanced sound and
picture quality, that is it; so don't go trading in your previous
copy thinking you're in for extras galore. Will they ever release
a DVD of this film that lives up to its Brilliance? I am beginning
to think not. _________________________________________________________________________ |
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