A Clockwork Orange Video

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A striking visual interpretor and a notorious perfectionist who only got worse over time, Kubrick was the director that actors and actresses loved to hate and hated to love. But his filmmaking techniques are so revolutionary and his ability to create worlds beyond imagination so visionary, that his place in the halls of film history is secured. Not every film he made was an all-around masterpiece, but every film he made has a certain quality about it or visual style that makes it a memorable movie-watching experience. Even his much-maligned final film 'Eyes Wide Shut' has hypnotic images and surreal scenes that stick in your head days and months after having watched the film, whether you liked it or not. And 'A Clockwork Orange' is no exception, because from the opening shot of Malcolm McDowell's brutal stare filling the screen as he sits on the couch of the Korova Milkbar surrounded by sculptures of naked, submissive women, and sipping milk laced with drugs, you know this movie will be an experience you will forever remember.

One of the elements of this movie that most people find particularly troubling is that the entire film is seen through the eyes of Alex, and it is narrated in the first person by him. And while he is the most brutal and sickening character in the movie, he is also suave, intelligent and cultured. You will never hear pieces like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony the same way again after seeing it used as the background music for brutal assault, rape, and other of Alex's perverse indulgences. The first forty minutes of this film definitely are a trial to watch and are sure to turn some people's stomachs, but, for me, the real troubling aspect comes after Alex has been caught and sent to prison. Kubrick creates a bleak atmosphere for these scenes, and allows Alex's narration to paint this as a kind of tragedy that he has now been jailed and can no longer terrorize, beat, and torture people as he pleases. Then when the government decides to submit this menace to society to a new form of rehabilitation technique he becomes further dehumanized. He is given an injection and then strait-jacketed, strapped before a movie screen, his head wired with electrodes, his eyes held open with clamps, and forced to watch sick and smutty films of violence and sex designed to curb him of finding pleasure in such activities. Robbed of choice and free will, he becomes a kind of puppett for the government. And that is where the debates really begin among commentators and viewers of the film.

I've said this about many movies, but if you've never seen the film before, you really don't know what you're missing. And after you've watched it, just try going through the week without telling at least one person about it and getting them to watch it. As much as I admire this film though, I must honestly say that too many people watch it for the wrong reason, and completely miss the point behind it. It ends in a very grim way, flourishing the psychosis of its lead character, and most people are entertained by this. While I guess it is sickly funny, it should be viewed as a warning to what will be the downfall of our society if measures aren't taken to even out the edges of right and wrong. Sadly, at the rate our world is going, this future world presented here may be our inevitable reality. If it isn't already.