From its opening shot of Malcolm McDowell staring with evil intent directly into the camera (which pulls back to reveal him drinking a glass of milk), Stanley Kubrick's brilliant CLOCKWORK ORANGE announces itself as a completely new kind of viewing experience. Banned in Britain for decades, the film, set in an unidentified .. Read more
| Starring | Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke |
|---|---|
| Director | Stanley Kubrick |
| Genres | Drama |
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From its opening shot of Malcolm McDowell staring with evil intent directly into the camera (which pulls back to reveal him drinking a glass of milk), Stanley Kubrick's brilliant CLOCKWORK ORANGE announces itself as a completely new kind of viewing experience. Banned in Britain for decades, the film, set in an unidentified future, overwhelms the senses with its almost comic depictions of rape and violence set to an upbeat classical and pop music score; its magnificent, colorful, futuristic set designs; and its utter determination to shock, frighten, and thoroughly entertain its audience. Kubrick based his chilling masterpiece on Anthony Burgess's culture-shaking novel about a young man, growing into adulthood, who has a bit of a problem with authority figures. (Interestingly, Burgess's stunning piece of fiction contains 21 chapters, but Kubrick ends his film after chapter 20.) When Alex (a career-defining performance by McDowell) and his droogs go out for a little bit of the old ultraviolence, he is caught and forced to undergo controversial treatment that will make it impossible for him to commit violent acts--but has severe side effects. Kubrick's film purposely confuses crime and punishment, cause and effect, hero and villain, irony and satire, filled with oxymoron and paradox, taking on science, politics, societal mores, education, sexual awakening, and parental responsibility all in a new language (both verbal and visual) that would change the cinema forever. No one who has seen it has ever been able to hear "Singin' in the Rain" or Ludwig van again in quite the same way.
| Starring | Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke, Adrienne Corri, Miriam Karlin, David Prowse, John Savident |
|---|---|
| Director | Stanley Kubrick |
| Studio | WARNER HOME VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 11 mins Blu-ray: 2 hrs 16 mins HD DVD: 2 hrs 16 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English Blu-ray: English HD DVD: English |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 10 Sep 2001 Blu-ray: 03 Mar 2008 HD DVD: 24 Mar 2008 Production year: 1971 |
| Format | DVD |
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From its opening shot of Malcolm McDowell staring with evil intent directly into the camera (which pulls back ...
Bonus Features Comprise: Channel Four Documentary Still Tickin': The Return of Clockwork Orange - New Feature...
Unseen between 1974 (when Stanley Kubrick himself quietly withdrew it) and 2000 (after his death), it is little wonder that an inflated degree of mythology surrounds this notorious futuristic drama. Dramatised from the 1962 Anthony Burgess novella about anarchic yobs (droogs) in a dystopian future, it was shocking then and it's shocking today, particularly the scenes of rape and sadistic ultraviolence in the first half. Burgess and Kubrick may have been making intellectual points about the state and free will — Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is brainwashed into submission in the film's more ponderous second half — but the film doesn't quite live up to the masterpiece status that unattainability has bestowed on it. Fascinating and prescient, yes, and its moral ambiguity is brave, but it's really only essential viewing for cineastes and film students.
Kubrick's fantastic meditation on a violent future has seemed more prescient with every passing year. In extraordinary images of clown-like delinquents, he orchestrates to electronic music mindless street violence, which leads to mindful state violence a
Beethoven's 9th (or is it 5th?) will never sound quite the same again after this film. Futuristic thuggish violence, including some blood-curdling sexual assaults, in an utterly surreal setting. Showing its age - well pre mobile phones - this film nonetheless shows you how differently you can portray the future from Sleepers or Minority Report. The film was banned for years but is nonetheless (accordingly?) a cult classic - and deservedly so.
I have heard about this film for many years but now seeing it for the first time I was riveted by it. It's violent, disturbing, yet haunting. It's also a challenge to the liberal penal code reformists and a challenge to our values as a society - do we let "these people" back on to our streets or is the corrective philosophy the only genuine means of making society a safer place? The acting is superb and the scary atmosphere is sustained throughout. Well worth viewing- thought provoking.