Filed under: Film | Tags: A Clockwork Orange, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Recidivist, reform
Was told it “fucks with your mind.” The story follows a man, Alex, who is your stereotypical-remorseless-violent-rebel-rapist-killer, who finally gets caught by the police when his friends turn on him. He is reformed in prison through unrealistic torture-like practices. Erm.. listening to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is supposed to turn a hardened criminal? The twist, however, suggests that he is not reformed within. At least I liked the message of the film – once a criminal, always a criminal (recidivist phenomena!) Anyway, the moral of the film is by no means a good reason to watch it – after just managing to sit through the repulsive beginning of the film – rape, rape, violence, and rape – I forced myself to watch it to the end and concluded that it was a waste of time. I wonder why I have this low opinion of it? Everyone that I’ve questioned about A Clockwork Orange has a great appreciation for it.
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It’s not an easy viewing, for sure, but I argue for the intrinsic the value of the film and the book it was based on. Anthony Burgess, the author, wrote A CLOCKWORK ORANGE after his wife was brutally attacked. It was a shout of anger and catharsis…
Comment by Cliff Burns April 14, 2008 @ 4:14 amnot a moment of it excessive. Burgess and Kubrick refuse to avert their eyes from an increasingly violent society, thugs and corrupt law enforcement professionals, a world literally gone mad.
I didn’t know that (re: wife’s attack) and I guess this would have made viewing easier for me, but films are generally watched without such background knowledge – hence it coming across as blatant violence.
Comment by natalieam April 14, 2008 @ 4:39 amI agree with the increasingly violent society, but is it really necessary to have that much rape in a film? It felt like cheap thrills to me.
Believe it or not, the book is actually more brutal than the film. I think the reason either (novel or film) are popular is really sort of shallow; I think audiences are reacting to the author/filmmaker’s creating an unusual and believable fantasy society. The dialect that the main characters speak in the movie comes straight from the novel; the main group of guys all speak an odd sort of cockney-slang thing. The novelist uses tricks like that to make one feel that there’s a fully-formed background to the story, and I think it works.
Comment by ordinaryswoon April 16, 2008 @ 9:11 pmIs that enough to justify the grotesquery? I don’t think so. But it may explain why it’s become a “classic”.