A Clockwork Orange
Directed by Stanley Kubrick. UK. 1971. R. 136 min.
- Fri, May 2, 9:45 pm
One of the great criticisms heaped against A Clockwork Orange is that Stanley Kubrick glorifies a certain kind of amoral violence, presenting it to the viewer in a spectacular, operatic, colorful, and exquisitely photographed manner. Malcolm McDowell, at the top of his game as Alex the thug, gleefully narrates his way through the ultra-violence his character commits in the first third of the movie. A particularly obscene atrocity is when he and his gang of droogs rape a woman and brutalize her husband while gallivanting about the house singing "Singin' in the Rain." Alex throws himself into the act with giddy exuberance, but does anyone honestly believe that we're meant to laugh along with Alex's joie de vivre as he behaves like a savage? (Jeremiah Kipp, Slant.com)
Click here to continue reading Jeremiah Kipp's review on Slant.com.
Click here to read a scholarly article on the film by film historian Janet Staiger.