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A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: helps teach that violence & disorder can be overcome
Review: Some of the reviewers claim that this movie does nothing but promote violence, but this statement couldn't be farther from the truth. Sure there IS a lot of violence in the movie, BUT if you read the book & or REALLY watched the movie you can fully understand what is trying to be said. There is a "lost" 21st chapter in the book, it was removed from the movie & the first printings of the book because American's were thought to have not liked this last chapter. The number 21 symbolizes maturity -- hence this being the chapter of him being cured & actually making a family of his own & learning his wrongs. All in all what this movie says is that you CAN change. Alex was the epitome of "droogness" yet he was able to change. Think about the movie, don't just grimace at the "ultra violence". I also strongly recommend reading the book as well, it has a lot of things that were left out of Mr. Kubrick's movie remake. Now someone said in a review the storyline was weak -- this makes me ponder as to what is a strong storyline? What could be more powerful then a story of a lost hopeless man fighting his way out of the clutches of being a droog leader only to find the light? You tell me.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Clockwork Orange should still be rated X
Review: Even though the entertainment business has been developing into a more profane and demoralized industry, this so-called movie is still too vulgar to be put on the shelves in stores. This movie is closer to pornography, and that is what it should be sold as. It is distasteful, has a weak storyline, and holds no educational or entertainment value other than sex and violence, which should not be considered valuable material. When it was first released in 1971 it was rated X, so it was edited and re-rated R. Rated R movies, however, should not be able to contain scenes where a woman is shown being raped in front of her husband and a threesome involving countless sexual positions is clearly shown on the screen for a long period of time. No one should be subjected to such nauseating images. If a person wants to see these things, they should have to go out of their way to get it, instead of being able to pick it up at the local video or electronics store. This movie glorifies sexual violence and murder. It portrays these "ultra-violent" acts to be an ultimate-high. This film sits out there waiting to be bought by a teenager interested in violence, since most electronics stores don't check ID for the purchasing of rated R videos. Anyone who watches this movie will have some part of them corrupted in someway, and there are already too many things in this world to corrupt pure minds. I strongly suggest never watching this movie. If you must, please do not let your children view a single moment of it. I couldn't even finish watching this pornography because of how sick it made me feel, but it is still by far the worst movie I have ever had the displeasure of seeing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Greatest movie ever?
Review: A clockwork orange, these simple words conger up images of a brilliant story, supurb acting, and stunning music. This by far my favorite movie ever since i rented it from wegmans years ago. I have since bought the dvd and it was one of the smartest decisions i've ever made. When i first looked at the movie i had no idea what it was about, but that didn't stop me from watching it and it shouldn't stop you. Buy this dvd, you WON'T be disappointed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unbelieveable Film!!!!
Review: The story is set in a near future society that has unthinkable methods of crime and punishment. Alex ( Malcolm McDowell)is a man that loves to fight, rob, rape, and kill. However, his luck finally runs out and he is captured. While imprisoned, he undergoes treatment to render him " safe" to the world around him, which is refered to as a " Clockwork Orange". While Alex is made to look perfectly normal on the outside, he is crippled by reflex mechanisms beyond his control on the inside. This prevents him from committing any acts of violence whatsoever. After Alex's release, things go from bad to worse however, when his "cure" leaves him defenseless to the revenge of his victims.

"A Clockwork Orange" is Stanley Kubrick's best film, and one of my favorite films overall. It is one of those movies that you can watch over and over again, and still be amazed everytime. I have never been as shocked as I was when I saw this film. The first 20 minutes involves two brutal beatings and an extremely graphic rape scene. It only gets more shocking from there on out. The story also offers a hilarious sense of irony. Alex is supposedly cured of all his afflictions, but is thrust back into a world of violence when forced to deal with his victims. The camera work used in this film is amazing, and the music is wonderful. All of the actors do an outstanding job in this film, but Malcom McDowell gives one of the most memorable performances ever as Alex. I have never experienced such a use of my emotions before when dealing with a fictional character. He will make you hate him and shock you with how he acts before he is captured. But then Alex makes you feel almost sorry for him with what he has to go through afterwards.

Stanley Kubrick has made some great movies with "2001: A Space Oddesey", "Full Metal Jacket", "Barry Lyndon", "Paths of Glory", and "Dr. Strangelove...." In my opinion however, " A Clockwork Orange" is his best film. The overall story, acting, music, camera work, and truly shocking scenes set it apart from the rest. It is definately a must own, because it only gets better with repeated viewings. The DVD however, is very mediocre. The quality of the film itself is just above average, and there are no extras at all.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Greatest Film In The History Of Cinema
Review: Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, a stylish, disturbing masterpiece that shocks and delivers. A film that has no boundaries with its creative artistry and science fiction themes. One of a kind.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: negative liberty
Review: A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick's stunning masterpiece, is a film about negative liberty. A hardened criminal, Alex de Large, who terrorizes his hometown, beating up people and raping women, is finally caught when he kills someone. de Large is taken to jail and is pushed around by the prison guards and lectured to by a prison priest. But "luck" strikes when a government official, campaigning on a mantra of "rehabilitation", enlists him for a new and controversial experiment. This new experiment, forcing him to watch some of the most gruesome acts ever committed by man, would cause de Large to become physically sick at the slightest thought of committing anything that could be conceived as criminally or morally wrong. Unintentionally, he is also made physically sick by the sound of a Beethoven tune, which unfortunately was being played in the background at the time of his "rehabilitation."

Newly "rehabilitated," de Large embarks on life as a reformed criminal. The first place he visits is of course his home. But his parents are none too please to see him and, what's more, they have rented his room out to someone whom they treat as a surrogate son - "the son they never had," in the patronizing words of the new tenant. This more or less foreshadows the rest of de Large's experiences as a reformed criminal. He is beaten up by a bunch of old age, street-side bums because of one them remembers him from his criminal days. Helpless to raise a finger against his attackers, he cries out for help and two police officers come to his "aid." Actually the officers are former members of a criminal gang de Large headed and who, because they felt mistreated, were actually the ones that turn him in to the police for committing murder. At any rate, these former criminals proceed to beat him up further and leave him, bloodied and humiliated, in the middle of nowhere.

The pay back, as it were, does not end here. Homeless, de Large strolls the streets looking for a shelter from rain and something to eat. He stumbles upon a house and begs the occupant, a writer, for safe harbor. Soon enough de Large realizes that he had visited this home before, in an encounter where he raped the writer's wife and ramsacked his belongings. The writer does not recognize who he has invited into his home until he overhears de Large singing - of all tunes - "singing in the rain", the exact song he sang with delirious disregard when he raped the writer's wife - who, by the way, committed suicide shortly after the incident. The writer, seething with thoughts of revenge, then invites a few of his acquaintances over and tell them of the situation, and they proceed to drug de Large with a sleep-inducing sedative. But not before they extract from de Large the circumstances of his release from prison and information concerning the physical repulsion he experiences from hearing his once favorite joint, the Beethoven tune.

In the following scene, de Large wakes up to find himself locked into a room located in the attic of the writer's home, and sonically assaulted with the blaring sound of the Beethoven tune. He starts throwing up and pleads with the writer for mercy. This is all to no avail as the writer delights in the agony of someone he feels has inflicted an unforgivable wrong on his late wife and brought considerable distress into his life. Unable to bear the torture of listening to the revolting sound of Beethoven, de Large jumps out of the attic window, choosing possible death in an effort to escape musical hell. Miraculously, de Large, the anti-hero in Stanley Kubrick's violent, cynical morality play, does not die from the fall. Instead de Large seems to have been in a brief acoma, and a doctor and nurse - in addition to some non-work related activity - have been attending to his recuperation and undoing the effects of the experiment.

I will stop here. There are many themes one can identify in this social and political satire of sorts. The one that resinated most from my perspective was the idea of negative liberty. de Large, the main character in the story, said, at the thought of being a subject of the controversial experiment, that he did not mind the effects of the experiment - just as long as was he allowed to go free. But "free" in what sense? He was certainly free from the confines of life inside a prison wall, but he was by no means morally free. In other words, de Large was not given the freedom to be able to choose right and wrong. The film seems to suggest that negative liberty might be socially destructive, or worse, but a totalitarian existence without the possibility of moral choice is even more inhumane.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My All Time Favorite Movie
Review: First of all, I will say something that usually only gets said about rock and roll records: you should play this movie loud (and on a good system). It's probably the music that pushes this movie over the top for me, as the Walter Carlos (now Wendy) work is as brilliant as the Jimi Hendrix music of that time period. Secondly, I have read the American version of the book, (also missing the last chapter) and Kubric changed or left out maybe one paragraph per chapter when making this movie. Thirdly, we have some of the most incredible sets I have seen in a movie. I espcially love the scenes of Alex's neighborhood. What, at the time of the filming of the movie, was an ultra modern upper middle class neighborhood, got turned into a trashed out ghetto for the movie.

Alex, what a vicious and evil person. But one ends up liking him and identifying with him. For those of you who are disturbed by this fact, consider this: Many of us were out of control during our terrible twos, but then many of our parents over did it when they tried to civilize us. Therefore, many of us are, in some way, shape, or form, the very Clockwork Orange (predictable vegtable) that Alex was turned into.

In fact, Alex is turned into exactly what the bullies that run this real want. Note the stageshow scene, where the bully knocks Ales down and forces his to lick the shoe. If you have ever noticed, the bullies of the world want to be able to do that kind of thing to you, and if you even try to defend yourself, they will shout, "No Fair!" (I liked Al Frankin's recent comments on NPR, where he said that when someone finally got around to hitting the schoolyard bully back, the bully usually goes, "Teacher! He hit me!")

This movie is a must see for anyone who is intellegent. The unintellegent will tell you that this movie has no plot or someting. I turned on a 24 year hip hopper, at work, to this movie. Him and his boys watched it and rated it gangstah. I rate this movie ten million out of ten, or two hundered thumbs up.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: kubrick's layers
Review: is there really anything to add to this masterpiece?
considering the recent onslaught of misguided criticism towards 'eyes wide shut' i would say; yes.
check out the rape scene.
the background has the colors and composition of a gustav klimt painting.
keep in mind klimt did a series of paintings called the beethoven frieze.
suddenly, the doorbell rings.
it's 'death knocking at the door' from the beethoven fifth.
i probably watched this film fifty times over a ten year period before i caught the beethoven-klimt layers of the scene.
when viewing eyes wide shut we have a film about fidelity.
beethoven's only opera; fidelio is mentioned numerous times. the opera is indeed about fidelity.
the heroin goes to a masked ball to save her husband.
here, cruise goes to a masked ball to betray his wife.
of course, consequences are in store.
much the way he [used] strauss in 2001 (spaceships having intercourse to the waltz) here he preverts ludwig in a similarly compelling manner.
watching a kubrick film is like looking at a kandinsky.
you can look at it numerous times and yet continually find numerous treasures.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The story... interesting; The implemenation.... BORING
Review: I know I'm going against the grain here. But as an adult watching this movie today, I find the message obscured by the drudgery. The sets are extremely tacky, even for the 70's, and the movie moves slower than molasses. If you have a lot of time to waste, go ahead and watch this movie. There are far better movies that express similar social commentary, but do it at a much more palatable pace.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beethoven's 9th
Review: This film was one that I had never seen although it was very well-known. Eventually I decided I have to buy it. It was about a week after I had bought the legendary film Pink Floyd's "Wall" and I had heard that this was also very strange film.

Well, this movie was almost as strange as "The Wall" but I had to say I waited more. This had too clear story. After "The Wall" this is not so much. Still...this is a great movie. This movie tells about a youngester who is with his three friends at first. Together the boys make all kinds of tricks. They rape women and tie people, rob and steel. But then comes somethin': One victim dies. The youngster gets 14 years in prison. After being there 2 years, he will be free but only because he was in the treatment. They show him very violent movies and that kind of stuff. After it he isn't able to fight or make love. The story is amazing. It's worth watching.

By the way: the boys favourite music is Ludvig van Beethoven and that has a big part in this film...Watch it!


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