This is an older review of mine that has been buried deep within the forum. I just wanted to dust it off and place it with the rest of them.
A Clockwork Orange
Welly, welly, welly, well hello O Brothers and Sisters, it’s your faithful narrator here to inform you of my opinions of a movie known as
A Clockwork Orange. It is hereby proclaimed by me, that this film is of utmost importance if you ever are to deem yourself a serious filmgoer, and to ignore this summons by me, will only bring on some of the old ultraviolence onto your eggiwegy head.
It has been mentioned by other brothers and sisters of this forum that there are deeper truths within this film if you only take a deeper look. A little bit of the old in-out, in-out, of the brain, one might say. I might be inclined to agree, but first I need to drink my drencrom to get me in the mood. There! Much better!
This narrator’s input on deeper meanings will tend to go towards the political aspects of the film. I see a society that is plagued by terrorists. Oh, I know, they aren’t the terrorists that we’re used to today in our own place in time, but that’s still what they are. Within that society are frightened people that want to be able to walk to the corner market, or to sit at home, without fear of ultraviolence in any of its forms. What will a society do if they are terrorized enough? Will they give up their freedoms? Will they give up the terrorists freedoms? Will they clamor to the government to fix this problem by any means necessary? In
A Clockwork Orange, they decide to allow brain-washing of prisoners, also known as the Ludovico Technique. Are we, as a modern society, that far away from possibly accepting this as an alternative? What if it doesn’t work? Will we then blame the government that we loved when it did work, and demand a new government with new ideas to take its place? Of course not! Right? We’re not fickle, are we? Of course not! Appy-polly-loggies, I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent. Please forgive O Brothers and Sisters.
I, again your most trusted and faithful narrator, believe that this film shows the most basic instincts of man. This is a tale of men and what they can, and will do, when left to their own devices. A bit of the old ultraviolence is in all of us men. Sometimes it is whipped into submission by societal standards and fear of prosecutorial punishment, but deep down, we are all a little bit of Alex. Just think if someday down the road, there is a catastrophic change in the world. A new day where there is only a minute fraction of the population at large. What will be the most valuable commodity to us at that point? Why the fuzzy of the she-devil, all right! We would fight and kill and rape and kill and nothing need to ever change. Of course it’s easy to say to ones self, “Not me, I’m too civilized” but you know, deep down, in your own muddled mind that it just might be the truth. Say, I know, anyone reading this would tend to be the protector of a worthwhile human being that just happens to be a woman, but you’d certainly kill to keep her. What if she just happens to want to be your friend and that’s all? Well? Naughty, naughty, naughty! You filthy old soomka! I knew it! We’re all a little bit of Alex. Deny it all you want, because there’s absolutely no way to prove it otherwise since we still have this society and that irritable law to get in our way. Kubrick shows us that the deeper character of man cannot be changed. It’s the absolute truth. Man has been this way since the beginning, and the more you try to change it by slow training and, dare I say it, brain-washing, the more he will rebel. We’re all murderers and rapists. We are men. You don’t have to do the deed to have it in you. It’s there anyway.
There is something else that came to mind while viewing
A Clockwork Orange, and that is that the society that Alex lives in is only slightly better than he is. The politicians, the police, and the Droogs are not much better than the other, and they all prove that they can, and often will, get their own way by any means necessary. Is that all that different from the world we live in now? Why are there conspiracy theorists if there was nothing to be afraid of? Nobody trusts anybody anymore, and with good reason. Peoples in positions of power have always been corrupt. From the church, to the state, it’s all been shown in front of our impressionable eyes. Yet, they still want to control us by placing standards that nearly none of them can meet themselves. That’s part of what makes Alex who he is, an anti-social, anti-government, anti-dentite…why he’s just an anti-man. I feel that within me as well. That frustration that I need to live up to expectations that most of my brother’s fail to adhere to unless asked. I see all the time people who have demanded respect through painstaking propaganda and absolute lies only to be unmasked later on national news broadcasts with corporate sponsorship who pays for their lawyers who proclaim they’re innocence in submissive tones. O Brothers and Sisters, are we blinded so much as to not see the greasy spokes of the larger wheel?
There is a beauty in violence that we all can appreciate as men. Denial of this is normal, and often is the case. Yet, we call martial arts on the silver screen choreographed, and call our boxers graceful at times. It seemed that Kubrick appreciated this aspect of violence, hence his choices in music during the more ultraviloent scenes. This is another thing that is inherent to the male side of the species as well. I can’t begin to tell you how many men have told me that there favorite scene is of Alex crooning
Singin’ in the Rain while kicking and slapping away at the unfortunates at his mercy. It is a terrible scene given a light heartedness that should only repulse a viewer, yet it only conjures positive emotions in most men. Yet again I grow weary with another tangent. I’m so sorry O Brothers and Sisters. After reading what I’ve written so far, I feel I should warn the ladies to put all of us on an island somewhere with no hope of escape just so we can all choke on our own carbon. It would be a fitting end. Of course, I wouldn’t need to be there, because…I’m cured!
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