A Clockwork Orange.

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I saw the movie in my university English class, because we were studying the book, so I got to learn about both versions, and I agree that I didn't like the change in the ending. Still, it was mostly true to the book, and seeing the violence made it easier to understand Alex.

I personally loved the music of Wendy Carlos. It was put into the movie in attempt to clarify that the movie was sci-fi and not a thriller of some sort.

I loved the soundtrack and used to play it over and over.

I first saw at the cinema it when it was re-released in Britain after Kubricks' death- I thought it was brilliant and very disturbing.

Magliabechi.

I liked the movie, although it was very disturbing. I saw the play which was great. The book was good too. Some of the parts in the movie were just funny. I love how he listened to classical music and was twisted. But the message was about personal reformation. Right Right?

Good film. Suffers from the fact that the ultra-violence of the gangs is frankly .. a bit twee. Slightly beating up a tramp, breaking and entering, and rape. It pales in comparison to the real violence that blights the same streets these days, and thus has lost some of its impact.

When I first saw it it shocked me. I didn't know movies could be this dark and twisted. But it was so well done I could not help but marvel at it.

I think that the film still has some ability to shock, given that it is nearly forty years old. I had read the book first because the film was banned shortly after its release in the UK. The book differs from the film and seemed to bring out the idea of choice better than the film did. That said, the cinematography was very good (like all Kubrick films) and Malcolm McDowell makes an excellent protagonist - vicious, amoral yet plausible.

My own view is that the film has much more to do with Britain in the 1970's than with the novel by Burgess. Upon the film's release, youths were noted dressing in codpice, leggings and indulging in bouts of 'ultraviolence'. However, my own memories of the time were of a generally violent, disordered social climate and the film was just reflecting that. Does anybody else who was in Britain during the early 1970's have a view on this?

We still have a generally violent and disordered social climate, though I believe the seventies variant was more anti-state than the current disaffected youth.

A Clockwork Orange is still one of my most favorite movies.

I can watch it ten times in a row.

It's actually a very brilliantly made film.

*nods* Righty right.

Sometimes, it's better to choose to be evil, then to be forced to be good, which was the whole point of the book and movie.

But what many fans of the movie don't realize is that Kubrick went by the AMERICAN version of Burgess's novel, which omitted a chapter from the original British version; the last one, number 21.

In that missing chapter, Alex, now 18, and after being turned back to his free, 'evil' side, is seen leading a brand new gang of droogs. But one evening, he's hit with the thought of 'Is this it? Is this what life is all about?', and when asked by his droogs what he wanted to do tonight, he says 'Do what you want, I'm not feeling well', and goes to a bar instead. While there, he runs into one of his former droog friend, Pete, who is now 20 and happily married; they have a nice talk, discussing how wild they used to be.

After parting and walking home, Alex did something absolutely remarkable. He made the *choice* on his own, to give up his 'childish acts of ultra-violence', and began to envision a possible future where he settles down and has a wife and a son!

So in the end, he remembered what the Padre told him, about goodness being a chosen thing. 'If a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.'

Without that 21st chapter, the novel is just a morality fable; we never know that Alex, being the smart individual that he can be if he applied himself, could change his ways on his own, *without* help.

Sorry for all that rambling...I just LOVE that movie so much. )

Usagi1992

Very interesting. I have yet to read the book and as refreshing as it is to see movies without a happy ending, it would've been more suitable for the film. However, Stanley Kubrick being the cynical pessimistic visionary that he was, probably wouldn't have included this ending anyway.

I haven't seen and probably won't, because the more effective a movie is when described as "disturbing" the less I want to make it a part of my mind. I have always found that the most disturbing thoughts tend to circle around and come back to see how they make you feel this time. Or so it feels with me. I hate having an image force itself into my mind, and I've seen enough of that one to sense that it's just that sort, if only because of Malcolm MacDowall.

That's why chimed in even though I never saw it. Some say it has lost its impact. I'd hate to think people couldn't at least be moved by the horror of seeing someone murdered, no matter what music is accompanying it... But also, Malcolm MacDowall is just so beautifully terrifying to me, even when he plays a good guy! Have you ever seen an actor whose face just has that effect on you, anytime you see it? Morbid fascination. I know he probably, in real life, eats breakfast cereal or sits with friends and has drinks and chats in a friendly manner about football, or a book he just read, or his family, but trying to picture it... dude. I just see that face and think, no seriously, he must have a planet destroying laser somewhere or a dungeon lair filled with well-used chains and an iron maiden...

Ugh, sorry, been a dark night for me. I'll let you get back to your better informed discussion.

Yep. Jack Nicholson is a perfect example of that! Even when playing a good guy, those eyebrows and that toothy grin of his, ALWAYS makes him look like he's up to no good!

Anyways, in regards to McDowell, yes, there's wickedness, but also a hint of intelligence.

Trivia: Stanley Kubrick, prior to reading the novel "A Clockwork Orange", had seen McDowell's performance in the movie 'If...', and it stuck in Kubrick's mind so much, that he *couldn't* get Malcolm's face out of his mind when reading the character of Alex! That's when he decided, as most of the fans of the movie already know, that if he couldn't get Malcolm to play the lead in his movie adaptation, he wouldn't make it at all.

Just thought you'd like to know, heh.

I've never seen it, but I'd like to. I enjoyed the book, I guess it was ahead of its time, so the movie was.

I am tickled and not at all surprised. It's a tribute to his talent, because I do recall he had a rather sweet mop-top Beatle haircut at one point there in his youth... Hardly terrifying until you see the expression on his face.