A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, UK, 1971) September 2, 2006
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : 1970s, Drama, Film reviews, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Crime , 2 comments
Dir. Stanley Kubrick; screenplay by Stanley Kubrick; starring Malcolm McDowell
Stanley Kubrick’s mesmerising 1971 classic is an interesting beast. The film’s hallucinatory visuals depicting a strange, narcissistic society of the future, steeped in seventies art deco and harsh, contrasting lighting, paint a bleak, uncompromising picture. Kubrick’s use of implied violence, death and cultural destruction throw the viewer into a hellish, emotional quagmire of pessimism and hate.
Yet we’re complicit in the violence as Malcolm McDowell’s Alex narrates the story to us as if we are his friends, the only ones he can open up to. It is in this that the violence becomes sanitised, that we don’t necessarily feel guilty, or pity the victims of Alex’s senseless crimes. Kubrick isn’t telling us that violence is okay, he’s telling the viewer that masculinity is a broken concept. The violence is an indication of pent-up sexual frustration, delivered callously and cowardly to anyone that gets in the way.
Alex Jack, in his essay on Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket’ commented that the director flaunted the idea that ‘masculinity is a sick idealised myth’. This interested me because of the phallic symbols, rape and mother theme ‘A Clockwork Orange’ plays around with. Here, sex and violence are not two disparate entities that just so happen occur at the same time: sex equals violence, and this relates to the very opposing view that Kubrick was a misogynist.
There is an obsession with sex that permeates throughout the movie. Whether it’s Alex raping somebody, having consensual sex, thinking about sex, or being in a situation where sex is alluded to (the bar with the erotic, female shaped tables; his home with penis graffiti on the wall; the nurse and doctor at the hospital; the murder weapon at the woman’s house), the idea that it is a motivation in art, in crime, in society, is constantly portrayed. This motivation is male dominated. Women are the ultimate harbingers of sexual desire, and it is only them who can suppress it. This power leaves the male ‘Droogs’ (Alex’s gang) inwardly feeling threatened, which in part leads to cowardly rape. The Droogs attempt to re-establish themselves (redressing the balance between the sexes) by choosing to take what females hold sacred. This ‘choice’ is later explained by the priest who tells Alex: ‘When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.’ They see nothing wrong in the choices they make but Kubrick mocks them as they return to feed on mother’s milk back at the bar – the drinks and the breast-shaped pourer asserting motherhood and female dominance.
Sexual obsession also appears in the non-criminal characters, for instance, the nurse and doctor who are caught in the act of ‘in out, in out’, or the murder victim with the giant penis ornament. The obsession is channelled in a different way, and a lot comes from an institutional perspective. Alex’s ex-Droog’s join the police force while he is in prison. When he comes out they use their frustration to beat him to within an inch of his life. The sexual obsession within the ‘adult’ characters now becomes cloaked behind the police uniform, or the warden at the prison, or the psychiatrists treating Alex at the hospital. As pillars of a failing community they do not have the ‘choice’ so freely exploited by Alex and his gang, so they take it out in other, more ‘acceptable’ ways.
‘Choice’ is a major aspect of the film because the male characters are seen to enforce this idea of masculinity, but Kubrick sees this as ambiguous. Alex Jack sees Joker’s callous killing of a wounded, female Vietnamese soldier as Kubrick saying: ‘You men need to tuck away your penises and surrogate penises (guns), because you will never get anywhere with them. Masculinity is a myth and a dead end.’ The psychiatrists in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ take away Alex’s freedom of choice through psychological manipulation, and therefore strip him of his own self worth. ‘Choice’ is a freedom Alex is born with, but by being brought up in this society he has been conditioned and nurtured to think only one way. By taking away his ability to chose, society is being institutionally condemned to decay.
And how potent is this decay? Malcolm McDowell (who played Alex), speaking thirty years after the film was first release said, when asked about cinema violence mirroring real life: ‘Are we supposed to ignore the fact that we live in a very violent society?’ He continued, ‘maybe it’s frustration about the American dream gone sour. I don’t know what it is. It is the expectations of something that’s never quite fulfilled. There’s great anger and frustration around. There’s a lot of that.’ Kubrick doesn’t condone the violence of the film, he uses it to example freedoms of choice. When Alex is cured, violence still finds him and it suddenly takes on a more disturbing tone. The audience, complicit with the immorality of Alex’s previous endeavors, begins to sense more unease when the violence is turned on the murderer. In most cases, this would be an uplifting but sadistic closure, as the ‘baddie’ gets the same treatment he gave out to many helpless victims. Yet this does not occur. Why? Because it is the sense of freedom the anti-hero has now lost which sticks. This is more damning than society meeting out revenge and torture. Anyone who claims this film made them take a gun into school and start shooting people, clearly wants a scapegoat for their own psychosis. In effect, issues like the Columbine High School massacre only underline the points Kubrick is trying to make.
It is interesting how Alex’s ‘brainwash’ is the explicit indication of how Kubrick feels culture is dominated by the powerful, and how art has lost its authenticity. It could be argued that if power is gendered in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ this must mean the women are ‘asking for it’, but I believe women represent Kubrick’s idea of the natural order of things. In this futuristic world, women have a power over the men. What Kubrick then investigates is how natural order is tainted by the powerful (politicians and the media) by their exploitation of sex and violence. Pop-culture in the film is full of sexual references, which as mentioned leads to violence, and when Alex needs curing, the doctors use extreme doses of ‘ultra-violence’ and sexual activity to subdue his attraction to them. This doesn’t help Alex as his reintroduction to an outside world still dominated by sex and violence, leads to his victims taking their revenge. By being bludgeoned to nausea from something he once got a kick out of, Alex is forced to hate it. He loses his individuality and his freedom of choice. The film tries to tell us that pop-culture will eventually desensitize us to sex and violence to such a degree we won’t have any sensations left. Art simply dies, as exampled through Alex’s love of Beethoven, because as a drawback of the medical procedure that ‘cures’ him, the music he loves creates in him the same sick and paranoid feeling sex and violence does.
Ed Wood (Tim Burton, USA, 1994)
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : Comedy, 1990s, Drama, Film reviews , 3 commentsDir. Ed Wood; screenplay by Scott Alexander; starring Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey Jones, Bill Murray
Tim Burton’s brilliant 1994 film follows the life of the ‘worst’ film director of all time – Ed Wood, played perfectly by Johnny Depp. Aside from Depp (the best American actor working today) being on top form, Burton lets his stylish flare and superb production design paint a delightful picture of the old Hollywood studio system, while he neatly delves into the mad-world and odd-ball characters of Ed Wood and his acquaintances.
Rating: 5 out of 5
The Dish (Rob Stitch, Australia, 2000)
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : Comedy, 2000s, Drama, Film reviews , add a commentDir. Rob Stitch; screenplay by Santa Cilauro; starring Sam Neill
Rob Stitch’s 2000 film about Australia’s involvement in televising the first moon landing is a dull affair. The script has some real comedic flare from time to time – working best when he concentrates on the everyday life of these people who have such an important role to play. But he never gets to grips with all his characters, and the film lacks narrative drive, deciding to merely plod along with the events. Sam Neill is rather good as the chief Cliff Buxton, but why Stitch starts and ends the movie with an older Neill staring at the satellite dish is one of many reasons this film continually misfires.
Derailed (Mikael Hafstrom, USA, 2005)
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : 2000s, Drama, Film reviews, Thriller/Suspense, Crime , add a commentDir. Mikael Hafstrom; screenplay by Stuart Beattie; starring Vincent Cassel, Jennifer Aniston, Clive Owen
Finally, Jennifer Aniston is in a decent film (although ‘Along Came Polly’ was quite good) where she doesn’t play a ‘Rachel from Friends’ clone. Hafstrom’s Hitchcockian thriller sees Clive Owen becoming embroiled in a dangerous game of deceit after he cheats on his wife. The plot twist can be seen a mile off, but Owen and Cassell offer excellent performances, and Hafstrom keeps the audience on their toes with some well-timed red-herrings.
Final Destination 3 (James Wong, USA, 2006)
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : Horror, 2000s, Film reviews, Thriller/Suspense, Sci-fi/Fantasy , add a commentDir. James Wong; screenplay by James Wong and Glen Morgan; starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead
The third instalment of the ‘Final Destination’ franchise is great fun, killing off its characters in suitably obscure and inventive ways. It doesn’t have an ending which lets it down; perhaps writer/director Wong (who created the original film) just wanted to end the series at this point, but the film has plenty to offer those who enjoyed the first two films.
Willow (Ron Howard, USA, 1988)
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : 1980s, Film reviews, Action/Adventure, Sci-fi/Fantasy , add a commentDir. Ron Howard; screenplay by Bob Dolman; starring Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer
This adventure story (the brainchild of George Lucas) follows little Willow Ufgood (Davis) and his travels to save the land from the evils of Queen Bavmorda. Along the way he meets the great swordsman Madmartigan (Kilmer) who helps him on his quest. This tale, that is equal parts ‘Star Wars’, ‘Lord Of The Rings’, and ‘The NeverEnding Story’ is fun because it has such a likable lead in Warwick Davis, who embraces the part with such enthusiasm. The production design is also superb – with director Howard travelling the globe (the film was shot on-location in the USA, Wales, England, and New Zealand) to make the various mystical lands look as authentic but unique as possible.
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1972)
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : 1970s, Drama, Film reviews, Crime , 1 comment so farDir. Francis Ford Coppola screenplay by Mario Puzo; starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Al Pacino, James Caan, Sterling Hayden.
The greatest film made about the mafia (or should that be American-Italian culture, familial loyalty, capitalism) that is only, arguably, bettered by its sequel and ‘Goodfellas’.
Sisters (Brian De Palma, USA, 1973)
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : Horror, 1970s, Film reviews, Thriller/Suspense , add a commentDir. Brian De Palma; screenplay by Brian De Palma; starring Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley
Before De Palma’s 1973 psycho-thriller turns into a dreamy hallucinatory diversion into madness and hysteria, it’s a very effective film. Margot Kidder gives a good performance as Danielle Breton – a woman haunted by her twin sister. De Palma uses split-screen photography beautifully but his stylish flare isn’t as refined as it would become later in his career.
Sweet Home Alabama (Andy Tennant, USA, 2002)
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : Comedy, 2000s, Film reviews, Romance , add a commentDir. Andy Tennant; screenplay by C. Jay Scott; starring Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon has struck gold making her career out of these throwaway flicks for young teenage girls, but at least there was something for everyone with the likes of ‘Legally Blonde’. Here, she plays a total bitch who lies to her fiancée, runs back to her family home, meets up with her secret husband, and falls back in love with him. Then she waits until her lavish wedding day with her new fiancée before telling him he’s dumped.
There’s a theme of rich versus poor running throughout the film that is layered on so thickly it’s sometimes difficult to see what’s going on. Terrible film.
Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, USA, 2001)
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : 2000s, Film reviews, Action/Adventure, Thriller/Suspense, War , add a commentDir. Ridley Scott; screenplay by Ken Nolan; starring Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore et al
I was left a little cold by Ridley Scott’s 2001 film about the real life crisis in Somalia. Yes, the visuals are nice, the action set-pieces are well-drilled and the very real sense that ‘war is not a good thing’ is obvious, but the lack of characterisation left the movie as a vacuous excursion in the trenches of the bloody battlefield.
I did, however, like one of the final scenes where the American soldier’s are running away from the gun-waving Somali militia. This was a very powerful sequence, beautiful photographed by Scott.