Cult Movies: A Clockwork Orange

By Nate Storey

Tagline: “Being the adventures of a young man … who couldn’t resist pretty girls … or a bit of the old ultra-violence … went to jail, was re-conditioned … and came out a different young man … or was he?”

Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Starring Malcolm McDowell as Alex de Large

Synopsis:
In a future Brittan, a delinquent named Alex de Large and his gangs of “droogs” commit violent crimes at night, including sexual and extreme violence. Alex is intelligent and well-spoken, and loves classical music. He and his droogs speak in their own language called Nadsat, and all they want to do in life is rebel against the adult’s laws. Alex is betrayed by his droogs and left for the police at the scene of a crime. Once in custody, Alex is submitted to a conditioning technique which leads to him developing a psychological aversion to violence. Alex then returns home a new man to find that his room has been rented out by his parents and that he is not even capable of self-defense.

Why It’s Great:
It goes without saying that Kubrick was a genius. I mean, he did 2001, Dr. Strangelove, Lolita, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket. Each is a totally unique film; the only similarity is that all are adaptations of books. The world he creates in A Clockwork Orange, however, is one of his most identifiable and unique works. Visually, it is stunning and dark. It is majestic and iconic in its use of the classic composers, setting them to scenes of violence and rape. Thematically, it is captivating as it explores humanity’s darker side and dehumanization. Malcolm McDowell is spectacular and disturbing at once.

Best Scene:
The greatest scene is probably either the most iconic, in which Alex is subjected to the mind alteration technique or the scene in the writer’s home in which he commits his act of extreme violence while singing “Singing in the Rain.” In the former, his eyes are forced open, and scenes from Nazi rallies and extreme acts of violence are shown in rapid succession are shown with a soundtrack of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In the latter, he beats a writer and rapes his wife while inging the classic song performed originally Gene Kelly.

Trivia:
After Alex is released from prison, he is attacked and dragged through the woods by two policemen who used to be droogs. They wear badges marked 665 and 667 and it is implied that Alex, who is between them is number 666, a number commonly connected with Satan.

When the droogs arrive at Mr. Alexander’s, the doorbell chimes the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony would later become something that Alex could not listen to, due to a side effect of his conditioning.

Quotes:
[First lines]
Alex: There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova Milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.

Alex:[ Voiceover] It was around by the derelict casino that we came across Billy-boy and his four droogs. They were getting ready to perform a little of the old in-out, in-out on a weepy young devotchka they had there.

Alex: Well, well, well! Well if it isn’t fat stinking Billy goat Billy Boy in poison! How art thou, thou globby bottle of cheap stinking chip oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if ya have any yarble, ya eunuch jelly thou!
Editor’s Note: Trivia comes from IMDB and quotes are from the film.