Rating of
2.5/4
"A Clockwork Orange" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/12/12
A sociopathic young street thug is subjected to behaviour modification therapy after a series of brutal crimes to find himself at the tender mercies of those he wronged in his previous life. A Clockwork Orange is a bleak and affecting study of violence and it's consequences that struck too powerful a chord with a certain demographic; after the film spawned several copycat cases of real-life "ultra-violence", Kubrick himself censored it for 25 years. This gave the film a kind of underground chic and a certain mysticism that extends beyond the quality of the actual film itself which made it acquire a cult following of those who would proclaim it a masterpiece. It does have moments of power and certainly makes an impact, but I can't help feeling that it is based more on lurid exploitation than any kind of moral or political message making. The morality of the tale is very blurred indeed; is Alex meant to be a victim of state-sanctioned "rehabilitation" or the product of exactly the kind of media exploitation of sex and violence we see here? It seemed more like right wing fear-mongering thinly veiled by faux irony to me. The fact is, I found it rather misogynistic in its use of sexual imagery and violence and there are no sympathetic characters whatsoever, which is all mired in tasteless and horribly dated production design and ugly, sterile photography. It has its moments but I hardly found it to be the film of import its reputation suggested.
