I’ve been holding off on posting about this one because I wasn’t exactly sure what I thought about it. A Clockwork Orange features Alex, a Beethoven fan-boy teen gang leader who wreaks havoc on his dystopian English town. When a night of mischief goes too far and Alex accidentally (or maybe not) kills a woman with her phallic statue, Alex finds himself in prison. In the penitentiary, Alex hears about a procedure that would “cure” him of his evil deeds, a procedure which would allow him to leave a free man…

On the one hand, this film is horribly grotesque, and I am way too Middle America for the violent imagery. However, the film also gives an interesting insight into teen gang violence, and how society reacts to wayward citizens (which is, admittedly, protracted in the dystopian setting). The strange thing is that despite my hatred of Alex and his band of “droogs,” I can’t help but feel a strange sympathy for him at certain moments of the film. What I thought particularly interesting as well was the prison chaplain character. Religious figures in secular films are often depicted as evil, hypocritical, or deluded; in A Clockwork Orange, however, the chaplain holds to the belief that men should have and harness the power of free choice. I could appreciate that deviation from cinema’s cliche character sketches, and it was one of the saving points of this bizarre film.

An aside: I also meant to post tonight on The Godfather, but 10 minutes before the ending, the VHS I rented from the university library gave out. Not to fear: the movie is mainstream enough for a friend to own it, so I will eventually be able to follow up on that film. Sometime this weekend I will also be posting on The Philadelphia Story, so stay tuned.