In 1971, I was 9 years old and didn’t have a clue what the world was about. I’m not sure cable television had even been invented yet and my parents were still taking me to Disney movies like “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” and “Freaky Friday”. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-teens that I even heard about Stanley Kubrick and it wasn’t until my early college years, when I decided to go to a campus showing, that I discovered Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.
When I sat down and watched this film, to be honest, what fascinated me about the movie was Kubrick’s take on the highly stylized and somewhat fashionable violence. The deeper meaning of the movie wasn’t its first allure. I was spellbound by the images of a futuristic world where violence was enmeshed with the creative arts. Music and sculpture were vehicles for muggings, beatings, rape, and murder. Art was a depiction of sex and subversion. Everything was intertwined and as much as I despised the violence, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. Malcolm McDowell’s portrayal of Alex was bone-chilling and entertaining. You just couldn’t hate him, even as he bludgeoned a woman to death with her own sculpture. It was this first viewing of the movie that made me a fan for life, but my reasons for liking this move have changed as I have changed.
It can be difficult to see the beauty of this movie without seeing the violence, though I understand when people say the movie is too violent for their taste. There is a great deal of violence in this movie. Beatings, rapes, and murders are all present and it makes the beauty of the movie difficult to see. However, we only have to watch the choreography of the violence, to listen to the strains of “Ludwig van” and to listen closely to the words of the character of Alex when he speaks of his love for Beethoven, “He did no harm to anyone. Beethoven just wrote music….” to find the hidden layers of beauty amongst the violence.
When I grew older, I viewed the movie again and found myself insulted by the idea of removing a human being’s free will in order to salvage society. I was in my mid to late 20’s and just beginning to involve myself in causes that were meaningful to me. Nuclear energy, abortion, gun control, and human rights were movements and causes I felt compelled to speak out about. The idea of a government stepping in and removing my free will because I might go against the grain seemed far-fetched but as I watched Alex being forced to witness the violence he once inflicted on people, without prior knowledge of what he was volunteering for, I was reminded of experiments other citizens of our nation were tricked into with our government’s knowledge. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and Project MK-Ultra were enough proof that our government was not above performing experiments on unknowing and/or unwilling subjects for the greater good. A Clockwork Orange was symbolic for me of how a government can run amok trying to better society in the name of the people, without taking the will of the people into account.
I am now in my 40’s and the last two times I watched the movie, I found that I still hold a fascination with the portrayal of “violent arts” that this movie intones so deeply. I am also more keen on things like cinematography, lighting, direction, and acting and this movie fulfills all of my requirements for a good movie. It has an excellent plot and the script runs closely to the the actual book which was originally published in 1962. The soundtrack is excellent and the choreography of the fight scenes is well done. The lighting is key to the plot and Kubrick’s direction of the film actually pushes you to travel to the places that Kubrick intends for you to travel to whether you want to or not. Kubrick even utilizes hand-held cameras in some scenes that make you feel as though you are moving with the action. And of course, Malcolm McDowell epitomizes the protagonist you love to hate. Right down to the last few scenes of the film when you know, without a doubt, that young Alex is reverting back to his violent and homicidal tendencies, you still can’t help but appreciate the way he manipulates the government to his advantage, even though he has unwittingly fallen under the spell of the government once again.
Throughout the movie, Alex is, was, and continues to be “as queer as a clockwork orange”. According to Wikipedia, the phrase “as queer as a clockwork orange” is “Cockney slang from 1960’s East London, indicating something bizarre internally, but appearing natural, human, and normal on the surface.” At the start of the movie, Alex is deceptively human but with a raging internal violence that sets him apart from society. Towards the middle of the movie, Alex has become a human without free will and an example of the government’s need to create a homogeneous people free of violence or the ability to act for themselves. And at the end of the movie, Alex is a human face once again operating under the spell of a government that tears down and recreates human beings for its desires. In varying degrees, we are all Alex and that’s what continues to make A Clockwork Orange so appealing even after almost 40 years.
