A Clockwork Orange

“It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.”> What A Clockwork Orange has to say has been debated for years as has the merit of whatever person A thinks it has to say. The subject of violence is tackled over and over again in movies, because it is hot bed topic. What continually flusters me is the frankly arbitrary way that movie goers differentiate between stylized violence for the sake of violence and violence for the sake of something more. Movies that clearly have something to say about violence are lumped into the category of mindless violence. Yet, a movie like A Clockwork Orange tackles some of the same ideas about violence and it is hailed by most as a visionary work. The human mind never ceases to amaze me in the myriad of ways perspective can be applied. And the human mind is at the heart of A Clockwork Orange, isn’t it? The human mind and the idea of perspective were the driving forces behind the film in my interpretation. Violence can’t be cured because violence is a matter of perspective. Every day we make value judgments on violence, some violence is good and deemed necessary, while other violence is bad and against the cultural norms. This also applies to sex acts and other such societal oddities. You can’t cure something that is somewhat accepted and is a base human emotion. You certainly can’t cure it with hypocrisy, accepting violence in some cases but not in others. If violence is the massive part of our accepted culture that it is, then why must it be cured at all? The basic principle is summed up best by the priest in A Clockwork Orange, I thought having the priest state the obvious humanity issue in a room full of scientists was a brilliant touch. If the human mind and perspective are key then the ability to choose is tantamount to those two. Our ability to make a “moralistic” choice over our actions is what makes us human. That is what separates the people society deems well from the people it deems unfit. If you remove the ability to choose then you remove the ability to be human, you create a human shell that is all machine on the inside. As you can see A Clockwork Orange gives the viewer plenty to assimilate and digest. This is backed up by Stanley Kubrick’s direction, moving through this world like the foreign entity it is. We aren’t meant to understand what is happening or why it is happening, the world of A Clockwork Orange should be out of this world to us because it is. Whether it is speeding up a sex scene, or cutting away right before a rape, Kubrick shows again in A Clockwork Orange why he is one of the best directors the film business has ever seen.