A Clockwork Orange
Halloween 2025: Film LXIX
Stanley Kubrick is one of my favourite directors of all time, my favourite of his being **2001: A Space Odyssey, and this is definitely top 3 of his filmography. The main reason I did rewatch this is because I'm dressing up as Alex for halloween so I wanted his character fresh in my mind.
This was when Kubrick was at the height of his powers. He became more meticulous in his filmmaking, this one being particularly provocative, and shifted more into his style he's known for. The film's visual precision (the wide-angled lenses, the symmetrical compositions and the stark lighting) makes every single frame feel unnervingly composed.
I hate people who think this film is gratuitously disgusting and all about violence. No. It's all about free will, state control and what it means to be human. It makes you question whether free evil is better than pressured goodness. The film gives a philosophical bite thanks to the tension between morality and autonomy.
Malcolm McDowell gives possibly the greatest portrayal of an antihero in all of cinema. He's charming and witty yet also a repulsive character. It's very interesting to see his biased narration and his depiction of the story compared to the true events.
The music here was massively groundbreaking. The classical Beethoven amazingly contrasts the scenes of ultraviolence. Wendy Carlos's electronic score adds a futuristic eerieness. I am sad Pink Floyd refused to do the music for the film but I couldn't imagine it being better than what we have.
Retro futurism is a personal favourite genre of mine. The design, garish colours and avant-garde interiors makes this 70s vision so unique. It perfectly illustrates a hyper-modern yet also decaying future. It even influenced most of pop culture up to modern day.
Some of the greatest symbolism you'll ever see is in this film. The name alone 'A Clockwork Orange' shows the organic outside but mechanical inside. This is a perfect representation of how Alex is stripped off all free will. I would love to go on about every little symbolic moment but I have gone on a bit.
Kubrick's controversial film created a new wave of pop culture and is an amazing allegory for the conflict between individual free will and state control, perfectly matched with Carlos's score and Beethoven's 9th symphony. Masterpiece!> "I was cured all right."