Sunday, March 08, 2015

Honourable Mention: A Clockwork Orange

A genius piece of film-making – withdrawn from UK distribution by director Stanley Kubrick and only subsequently rereleased after his death – this 1971 piece of cinema was based on Anthony Burgess’ equally genius novel of the same name.

A story of ultraviolence, Government control, the morality of freedom of choice, prison reform and societal decay; it featured Malcolm McDowell (Vamps, Tales from the Crypt: the Reluctant Vampire & Suck) as main character and narrator Alex – a boy whose primary interests are rape, ultraviolence and Ludwig Van Beethoven.

fleeting visitation
It is early in the film, when listening to Ludwig Van, that Alex’s narration alludes to the images the music stirs in his mind and we see, amongst the images, Alex as a vampire. His narration suggests, “Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures! ” The image of Alex with fangs appears three times in the montage and that is the only vampire aspect to the film – a fleeting visitation indeed.

When I watched the film again I was struck by one line, so much so that I wrote it down. Perhaps a prophetic view of today back then, “It's funny how the colours of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.” A Clockwork Orange is a must see film. The imdb page is here.

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