July 18: A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange

Stanley Kubrick followed 2001 with this adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel, unleashing an uncanny vision of ultra-violence and setting the bar for psychotronic storytelling with the unforgettable musical sequences, dystopian themes, and milk-and-phallus-soaked sexual imagery. Centered on the charismatic lead performance of Malcolm McDowell as the droog leader and Beethoven superfan Alex DeLarge, the film follows his kaleidoscopic trajectory from perpetrator to victim, explicated wonderfully by Kubrick’s unrivaled sense of irony.

“A merciless, demoniac satire in the future imperfect.” – Time Magazine

“So be warned. Kubrick never plays it safe. A Clockwork Orange is a mind shattering experience with its exaggerated violence and outrageous vulgarity.” – New York Daily News

“A Clockwork Orange is a brilliant nightmare. Stanley Kubrick’s latest film takes the heavy realities of the ‘do-your-thing’ and ‘law-and-order’ syndromes, runs them through a cinematic centrifuge, and spews forth the commingled comic horrors of a regulated society. Uncomfortably proximate, disturbingly plausible and obliquely resolved, the film employs outrageous vulgarity, stark brutality and some sophisticated comedy to make an opaque argument for the preservation of respect for man’s free will – even to do wrong.” – A.D. Murphy, Variety

Kim Morgan discusses Anthony Burgess and A Clockwork Orange on the New Beverly blog.