A Clockwork Orange

I haven’t seen this in a long long time and I’ve been completely absorbed by it once again. Kubrick is a lot like Lynch in the way that his films all have a very specific atmosphere, and this is my absolute favourite of his work, slightly edging out The Shining.  Something said during it was *“I hate when people say “oh this was inspired by A Clockwork Orange, this is so A Clockwork Orange”, there’s no other film like it”*. I definitely agree. It’s like this film was engineered in the most particular way possible (typical Kubrick) to be something so alien whilst still saying everything there is to say about the nature of violence in society. To make yet another Lynch comparison, if Blue Velvet is a young man coming to terms with the violent nature of the world around him, A Clockwork Orange is a young man coming to terms with his own violence. Alex’s heinous violence doesn’t just fall out of the sky, it’s the product of a society that has failed him. Kubrick doesn’t ask us to sympathise with Alex, besides it’s impossible for anyone of sound mind to sympathise with Alex after he commits rape and murder, but he instead says “Look at the horrific things he’s done. Now look at the circumstances that led to him acting this way. If the root causes didn’t exist, he wouldn’t act this way”. Also, Wendy Carlos you absolute legend, what a fucking incredible score. Easily one of my all-time favourite scores, probably in my top 5.  I probably don’t fully get it, and others are far more qualified to speak on this film than me anyway. But I really do hold so much admiration for what Kubrick did here.  “Come and get one in the yarbles, if ye have any yarbles, ye eunuch jelly thou!”