A clockwork orange is a film produced in 1971, written and directed by Stanley Kubrick and bassed on the Anthony Burgess novella A clockwork orange. The film shows disturbing and violents images of the young gang that appears in the film.
CAST
Malcom McDowell as Alex
James Marcus as Georgie
Warren Clarke as Dim
PLOT
The film happens in a futuristic London. Alex, is the leader of a gang called “droogs“. One night, a
fter drinking “milk plus“ in their favourite bar, they go to a writter’s house asking for help, and when his wife opens the door, they come in, rape and kill the woman and torture the writer.After that, they go to their houses until next day, when Alex’s “droogs” believe that he wouldn’t be the leader and face him by leaving him alone in a house while he’s illegally entering it.
After killing the woman, the police finally arrives and sends him to jail, where he almost “recoveres” and is sent to a psychiatric where he is used to proove the Ludovico technique. After this, he ends up worse than he had arrived, because if he saw a little sign of violence around him, made him feel sick, so he couldn’t stand it.
When he goes out of the psychiatric, he discoveres that two of his “droogs” have become policeman, and in a sign of superiority they immerse Alex’s head in water almost drowning him. After being hit and dropped by the policemen at a house he asks for help, and he realizes that he is in the house of the writer. The writher, who is aware od the Ludovico technique, torures Alex until he drops himself from the window.He finally wakes up in the hospital after being practised a lobotomy, so, instead of curing him, they make him stupid.
CURIOSITIES
- Kubrick came up with the idea of the unifor when Malcom McDowell showed him his cricket-player costume.
- While filming the Ludovico technique scene, McDowell scratched a cornea and ended up temporary blind.
- The doctor standing beside him, was a real doctor who made sure that McDowell’s eyes did not dry.
- The only special effect used in the film is when Alex jumps of the window atempting suicide. To film this scene, Kubrick dropped the camera 6 times from the window, so that the scene could be seen from Alex’s point of view.
- Kubrick had to re-edit the film a year after its release for having received death threats.
- The title refers to a say: “as queer as a clockwork orange”. Burgess thought that it could refer to a mechanical (clockwork) human (orang, that in Malay means “man”).
QUOTES
Alex on a homeless:
“One thing I could never stand was to see a filthy dirty old drunky howling away at the filthy songs of his fathers and going blurp blurp in between as it might be a filthy old orchestra in his stinking rotten guts;I could never stand to see anyone like that. whatever his age might be, but more especially when he was real old like this one was”
Alex explaining their lifestyle:
“ There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, sitting in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. Theyr sold milk-plus, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence”
The last words of the film, by Alex:
“I was cured, all right!”
EXPLANATION OF THE FINAL SCENE
After pronouncing the words ”I was cured, all right!“, we can see that, in Alex’s mind, he is imagining an orgy of sex and violence, so it makes us think that he has been sarcastic with that last remark. Also could be, that the cure, by his point of view, was that he could think by himself again, no matter what society said.
REFERENCES TO “A CLOCKWORK ORANGE UN “THE SIMPSON’S”
It is a fact that “The Simpsons“ has made a reference to a clockwork orange several times. In fact, Matt Groening(the creator of “The Simpsons”, was a real fan of the film.
REFERENCES
- Wikipedia. A clockwork orange (film)Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(film)#Further_reading [Accessed December 10, 2012].
- Burgess, A. The clockwork condition Available at: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/04/120604fa_fact_burgess[Accessed December 10, 2012].
- Flixster. A clockwork orange (1971)Available at: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clockwork_orange/ [Accessed December 10, 2012].
- Hammer, B. Explanation of the ending of A Clockwork Orange. Available at: http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/678/explanation-of-the-ending-of-a-clockwork-orange [Accessed December 10, 2012].
- Agger, R. The power of drug. Available at: http://www.collativelearning.com/ACO%20chapter%2014%20.h
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