Stanley Kubricks Clockwork Orange - A Critical Appreciation - Movie Review Example

A critical appreciation: “A Clockwork Orange”, A film By Stanley Kubric ABSTRACT Stanley Kubrick’s film “A clockwork Orange” is all about contradictions between the totalitarian control of the state and the individual freedom of the citizen .It tells us about the futility of the State trying to rehabilitate violent citizens through counter violence. Kubrick in one of his best films had succeeded in reworking on the hero, the British thug and sociopath named Alex De Large, by using his own cinematically unique style of presentation of the hero. The Orwellian warning about the totalitarian future was about the then Soviet Union and its satellite States. But with the withering away of these States and the great Union of Soviet republics, history has proved that any State, advocating any political philosophy can be totalitarian. Fascism is inherent in the State machinery. At the other extreme the freedom of the individual to do what ever he thinks right has to be limited too. The contradictions between the totalitarian control of the state and the individual freedom of the citizen are the thematic core of Stanley Kubrick’s film “A clockwork Orange”. The film is based on Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel by the same name, which is a complex literary satire on crime and punishment. But it must be admitted to the credit of Kubrick that he had succeeded in reworking on the hero , the British thug and sociopath named Alex De Large , by using his own cinematically unique style of presentation of the hero. Alex De Large is a sort of an anti-hero, but is not similar to the sat upon working class anti hero, of the so called the “angry British movies” of early 1960s. Those anti-heroes had a social reason to be angry and violent. But Alex has little reason for his violence .He is violent because his mental make up is sadistic and corrupt; the only other justification can be that the people who govern and control the society are also equally corrupt and sadistic. So it becomes the easiest way for a young man to be in an economically ravaged futuristic Britain. He can just violently wander around the streets which are filled with trash. When the motives are unexplained crime can be fun. That’s what Alex, brilliantly portrayed by Malcolm McDowell who completely dominates...( read more) the feel of the character , and his gang does in the film. Alex leads a band of hooligans whom he calls “droogs”. They are ready for an expedition of violence after drinking a glass or two of the milk plus at Korova. This milk bar in Korova with fiber glass statues of naked girls used as chairs, itself creates the mood for futuristic nihilism. After the drink at the milk bar they meet an old drunk who was singing in a tunnel and bash him up badly for nothing. They fight with a rival gang and bloody them up .They steal a sports car called Durango-95 and drive out roaring into the country side making other cars and the pedestrians run off the road for safety. They enter a quite home and rape a woman after tying up her husband. Another woman gets killed with a large plastic phallus. One third of the film is occupied by this violent hooliganism of the gang. But Alex is made out to be a personality with unique identity by Kubrick with the language he uses and the cinematic language with which he is presented by the director. The language Alex uses is very crude, with his own street slang. “Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?”, thus goes one dialogue. “Appy-polly-loggies. I had something of a pain in the gulliver so had to sleep. I was not awakened when I gave orders for wakening”, is another example. Malcolm McDowell is exceptional in rendering this abstracted, slang-rich language. (The title “Clockwork Orange” itself owes its origin to the old cockney slag, “queer as a clockwork orange”) The fact that he loves Beethoven, especially his “Ludwig Wan” makes the character of Alex more complex The visual treatment of the presentation of Alex makes him more a pal to the audience. Kubrick uses wide angle shots to show events from the point of view of Alex. This technique was first used and popularized by the famous Hollywood film maker Orson Wells, in his classic film Citizen Kane, for dramatic purposes, there by creating what was known later as “deep focus” and the “depth of field”. “…. The descriptive use of depth of field is as old as cinema itself. However, aesthetic dimension became added only when this composition in depth was employed to create specific dramatic signification---which was one of the major signification of Citizen Kane .” (The Aesthetics and Psychology of the Cinema, page 191). The same dramatic signification is achieved very cleverly by Kubrick, with wide angle lens, in portraying Alex. With wide angle lens, the objects in the centre of the frame look normal. But those on the sides tend to get distorted slightly. When one sees the world through Alex’s perspective through wide angle lens, that world is slightly weird. More over when Alex is filmed with the wide angle lens, Kubrick takes care to put him in the centre of the frame. Thus only he looks normal; the rest on the sides of the frame are all distorted. This visual style of presentation of the anti-hero makes the audience feel a sort of grudgeful pal ship with Alex. It is the murder of the woman that subjects Alex to a torturous rehabilitation therapy called the “Ludovico technique”, a behaviorist barrage of electric impulses .The prisoner is also subjected to forced viewing of Nazi films of tortures. Alex is treated like a guinea pig during this so called “ scientific experiment” designed to rehabilitate and release him to the society as an “ as decent a lad as you would meet on a May morning” , according to the minister of interior. The final result of the therapy is draining off of the self will with in Alex. Zapped thoroughly Alex becomes an automated object, a clockwork orange, without a free will of his own. The effects of the therapy are tragic. Alex gets rebuffed by his parents. A tramp and other bums beat him up. To embarrass Alex more, two of his old buddies now become policemen! The final sequence of the film talks loud about the futility of counter violence by the State and the police to tame violent people. Alex takes a bath. The water drips echo through. Then he sits down to a table with a glass of wine. The next shot is from behind Alex. He turns around as he swallows a mouthful of wine. He smiles at the camera as he has a fantasy of rape. The smile is so childishly mischievous, as to indicate that Alex is getting cured off the anti rape, anti violence therapy forced upon him by the state. Violence cannot be countered or cured by violence! Alex chooses the rehabilitation therapy because he wants the rest of his life to be good .But as the Chaplain in the prison library explains: “Goodness comes from with in –goodness is chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.” ----------------------------- Sources Used: 1) Mistry Jean, The Aesthetics and Psychology of the Cinema, translated by Christopher King, Indiana University Press Read More