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A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange

List Price: $19.97
Your Price: $14.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bottom of the List
Review: I have to agree with the veiwer who said "A Sickening Picture - Bottom of the List! You would enjoy chewing on aluminum foil more than this piece of trash. This movie made me sick, especially the scene that glorifies rape. I see no excuse for this movie to have been made except to shock and offend which it does to the max! Do yourself a favor, and instead of watching this, shave your head with a cheese-grater. You will enjoy it more" I don't think I need to add anything to his/her great review.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Welly-welly-welly-well - this is better than Ludwig Van.
Review: From the hauntingly styleish opening close-up of Malcolm Macdowell's brilliant Alex, I immediately knew the standard of film I was watching. When the video arrived in the post I was overjoyed, the film is (uneccasarilly)banned In England and so I thought that the video would probably get stopped at customs. I have wanted to see the video ever since I read the brilliant book by Anthony Burgess. The film, although inferior to the book, was not dissapointing. With an outstanding performance by Malcolm Macdowell and Kubrick, as always, directing with incredible panache - the Clockwork Orange taught me a few lessons in ultraviolence and good music that I otherwise would have been unaware of. Now I know how fun it is to savage poor defenceless beggars in the street, how to have a threesome while listening to William Tell's overture, and how to bludgen an old lady to death with a three foot porcelain dildo. All while listening to the "glorious ninth." Of course only the weak-minded get swayed and influenced strongly by things they see on TV, and I would never be one to advocate any of things shown in the film (except for kicking beggars, that's fun), however for some terrible, and inexplicable, reason we end up sympathising with Alex despite the fact that he is evil and must be stopped. Perhaps it is our insticnts as Human Beings that makes the thought of being unable to choose, even between right and wrong, so horrifying. And although Alex is no longer a threat, we still want to see him be capable of free choice again. This is one way of looking at it, and of course, with such an excellent film there are many more ways of interpreting it too. I wouldn't say this is the best of Kubrick's films but it certainly is a good film none the less. Perhaps the dodgy electrical score could be scrapped. Also there is the terrible mistake that the Americans made by taking away the last chapter of the book thus taking away the whole point of the story (in my view) that despite all the scientific cures, Alex eventually stops on his own free will because he has reached full, adult maturity. However, I would strongly recommend seeing this film as long as you are not a stuffy, middle-aged, pompous, old man who is part of a rotary club.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic. The best film ever made.
Review: A Clockwork Orange is the greatest film ever made. Ten out of ten performance by Malcolm McDowell.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ''This being the greatest Movie ever made,oh my brothers.''
Review: I Don't need to say much ,the film speaks for itself. A fantastic vision of a chilling future. Malcolm McDowell plays Alex DeLarge magnificently his best performance in any film, and for that matter one of the best performances any actor has ever done.A Clockwork Orange is the greatest film I have ever seen by far. Stop this mad talk of a remake by Speilberg & Lucas with the wooden Ewan McGregor as Alex. Only the super McDowell could play Alex Delarge. This film is the very last film in need of a remake!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Krubrick at his best
Review: A shocking but amazing film, in the DVD format, I didn't want it to end and I think that this is probably the best film ever made. However it is very violent!!!! and I am chuffed to own it at 14 in the UK where it is banned!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic
Review: First of all this movie is one of the greatest movies I've seen, its bleak representation of the future would, a negative-utopia equaling that of 1984, its wonderful score... Anmy of the people who have said it was too depressing, or obnoxious to be good, it was made to be that way. The clothing was not overdone, you must realize that only four people wore their clothes like this, they obviously had a gang-related style, one set was overdone -- the bar, the rest looked like New York side-alleys, spray-painted.. destroyed.. Anyway, who's to say what the future looks like? Films in the fifty's said we would be all white-washed and space-traveling...not much has changed since then, huh? WHat's to say what the future will look like, considering the date wasn't listed? The soundtrack put to this movie is amazing, many-times upbeat classical during the beating scenes wakes a more vivid picture of hate than a booming, dark score. Overall "A Clockwork Orange" is one of the greatest sci-fi films ever, it blew me away.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE BEST FILM EVER MADE WITH THE BEST ACTORS.
Review: A very well made film with a brill story line. If you like if you will love this one. Kubrick realy makes this film what it is with good acting and great filming. Don't miss this one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A load of cal I'm sorry to say
Review: It was a source of great excitement to me when this video arrived, especially after having perused so many reviews on this site which read like press releases from Warner Bros. For a long time, this film has been unobtainable here in the UK so I felt like someone about to sample the forbidden fruit. What a disappointment! Granted, it was made almost 30 years ago but, Kubrick's other films haven't dated too badly, whereas this one plays like a garish, soulless, deeply misogynistic, poorly paced, reactionary excercise in titillation. Whereas Burgess' novel was a brisk read, Kubrick's film just seems to lumber along, especially once Alex hits prison. As Eyes Wide Shut also painfully demonstrated, brevity was never a word in Stanley's vocabulary.

Personally, I feel that Kubrick's decision to withdraw the film from Britain in 1973 was the shrewdest move he ever made. His reputation soared whilst his worst film remained unseen.

What I find most unsettling, however, are those viewers who brag about about being only 9 years old when they first viewed the film and of having seen it upwards of 100 times. Sure the cinematography and music are impressive; but, and maybe its just me, it does strike me as being rather disturbing to repeatedly view a film, even one directed by a 'genius' film-maker, in which the most likeable character is a vicious, teenage rapist. It annoys me that anyone who has the impudence to criticise Kubrick, or to rate any of his movies anything less than 5 stars, is immediately labelled as mentally retarded. Its all too easy to sit in one's ivory tower and repeatedly drone on about Kubrick's infallibility, Kubrick's deity, Kubrick's true intentions being misinterpreted, crime vs punishment, blind obeisance vs free will, blah, blah, blah; but the fact of the matter remains that there are certain individuals whose sole purpose in seeing this film is to get their 'kicks' from the opening 30 minutes and switch off their VCR's before the film slows down and we get to 'all that boring retribution stuff.' The thrill inherent in Alex's behaviour was acknowledged by Burgess himself who admitted at being "sickened by my own excitement in setting it down." This is one of the reasons for Burgess' use of Nadsat; it acts as a powerful distancing tool between the reader and the horrors taking place on the written page. Unfortunately, Burgess' intentions appear to have completely bypassed Kubrick who, in addition to changing the ending of the novel, treats sexual violence as rather a jolly enterprise and not in the least deserving of the bad rap its had over the years.

Finally, to the viewer from San Francisco who feels that we need to "save England" I can assure him(?her) that both the book and film are works of fiction and that there are no droogs presently rampaging through our nation. In any case, Burgess' primary motivation for writing the novel was in order to "exorcise my demons"; his pregnant wife had been beaten unconscious by four deserting GI's during WWII and consequently miscarried. Once again, I thank our San Franciscan friend for his concerns and reassure him that reports of our collective demise have been grossly exaggerated.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Most Interesting Movie Ever To Hit My Eyes!
Review: I can't believe how much this movie astounds me as the best I've ever seen! Mcdowell is at his best here, and may be Kubrick's best work. To think, Anthony Burgess wrote this book in 1963, and it was in a league of its own, then Kubrick was able to make it timeless with his great sense of cinematography, video techniques, and design and color. He was a master, and he made it all work, without it being a mess. Plus, Wendy (formerly Walter) Carlos' electronic score is frightfully great, whenever I hear its music, it affects me so greatly! Wow, go see it, if you hate the violence and sex, it is contrasted by a great story, great set designs, and (as I said) superb acting by Malcom Mcdowell. You can't be disappointed with that.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Masterpiece of the Mind
Review: Kubrick gives one of his best shows here. The story is very relevant to the modern world; a world in which its rulers and governments has the ability to make a Clockwork Orange out of anyone. Perhaps Alex, the sociopathic protangonist of the movie, deserves to be punished in such a way for his crimes, but he's just the first. Where will the government stop once it has this technique to condition anyone into obedient slaves? What kind of criminals will be dealt with using this flawed quick fix? Murders? Rapists? Theives? Pickpockets? Political criminals? When do we stop delineating wrong from right, and once we do fail to delineate, what stops us from making us all into Clockwork Oranges for our own "benefit"?

The camera work is also beautifully done, as in every Kubrick film, and Macdowell gives the character of Alex a grand sense of nihilism. The futuristic sixties-ish set and costums may look a bit weird to us now, but wait for a couple of years, and that style may come screaming back at us from its supposedly eternal grave. Besides, I can think of a few fads and trends we've been through and are going through again that're weirder than the purple hair and the outerwear briefs shown in this movie (legwarmers, anyone?).

To wit: buy this movie and watch it. If you're repulsed by it, then Kubrick has done his job showing you what a ultra-violent world might look like; a world which is now stalking us and waiting for a slip-up so it can swallow us alive between its horrorshow jaws.


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