A Clockwork Orange

US (1971): Science Fiction

CineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review: 4.0 stars out of 5 Synopsis

Teenage delinquents Alex (Malcolm McDowell), Dim (Warren Clarke), Georgie (James Marcus), and Pete (Michael Tarn) living in a futuristic British state, indulge in nightly rounds of beatings, rapings, and, as they call it, "ultraviolence." Among their victims is prominent writer Mr. Alexander (Patrick Magee); they beat him senseless, and brutally gang-rape his attractive wife (Adrienne Corri). (Magee later becomes manic, and Corri dies as a result of the attack). After violently quelling an uprising among his own gang, McDowell is betrayed by them during an attack on another home, having been knocked senseless and left for the police. In prison, he agrees to undergo experiments in "aversion therapy" in order to shorten his term. Now nauseated by the mere sight of violence, he is pronounced cured and released into the outside world. There, vengeance of one kind or another is wreaked upon him by his erstwhile fellow gang-members (now policemen), and by his former victims (including Magee). After another spell in prison McDowell returns home, where we expect him to resume his old criminal ways.

Critique

Adapted from the novel by British author Anthony Burgess, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is a visually dazzling, highly unsettling work that revolves around one of the few truly amoral characters in either film or literature. It pits a gleefully vicious individual against a blandly inhuman state, leaving the viewer little room for emotional involvement (though McDowell gives such an ebullient, wide-eyed performance as the Beethoven-loving delinquent that it is hard for us not to feel some sympathy toward him). Meanwhile, we are dazzled by Kubrick's directorial pyrotechnics—slow motion, fast motion, fish-eye lenses, etc.; entertained by John Barry's witty, ostentatious sets; and intrigued by dialogue laden with Burgess's specially created slang (gang members are "droogies," sex is "the old inout," etc.). This is a particularly graphic film which has divided critics, but which no serious moviegoer can afford to ignore.

Awards

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE won four Academy Award nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Adapted Screenplay; and Best Editing. The film was also honored by the New York Film Critics Circle with awards for Best Picture and Best Director.