A Clockwork Orange A Movie Analysis
In 1962, Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange was published for the first time. This novel was an anti-utopian fable about the near future, where teenage gangs habitually terrorize the inhabitants of a shabby metropolis. The novel deals with the main focus that man is a sinner but not sufficiently a sinner to deserve the calamities that are heaped upon him. It is a comic novel about a man's tragic lot. (Bergonzi 152).
In 1971, Stanley Kubrick turned Burgess' novel into a 136 minute, color motion picture produced by Warner Brothers. The movie starred Malcolm McDowell as the young gangster guilty of rape and murder. Kubrick was both writer and director.
Stanley Kubrick was born July 26, 1928 in the Bronx, New York. He is an accomplished director with other ground breaking movies under his belt, such as The Shining, Paths of Glory, and 2001 A Space Odyssey. His films have one common theme- the dehumanization of mankind. He is also known for his symmetric image composition and long "zooming out" and/or "zooming in" sequences. Kubrick constructs three-way conflicts and utilizes the techinique of extreme close-ups of intensely emotional faces. An interesting note is that Kubrick often uses the number 114 in his movies. In Clockwork Orange, Alex is given "Serum 114" when he undergoes Ludovico treatment. (Internet Movie Database 1) Some critics claim that it is due to the brilliance of Kubrick that Clockwork Orange was so successful. In his book The Science Fiction and Fantasy Handbook, Alan Frank writes, "Had the movie been the work of a lesser film maker, it is unlikely that it would have had the reception it received; as it is, [Kubrick's] brutalization of Burgess...
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...reated a controversial film that brought the novel of Anthony Burgess to life. The violence and rapes were forced on the watcher and the nature of mankind as a sinner was driven into the minds of those who sat through the 136 minute film. Bibliography
A Clockwork Orange .
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Utting, Bryce. A Clockwork Orange discussion notes. Accessed April 25, 1997 from A Clockwork Orange home page.
The writer of this poem is Gil Scott-Heron. He was born in Chicago, but spent his childhood in Jackson, Tennessee. Scott-Hereon went to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania because two of the people whom he admired went there. However, he taken a year off to write a novel. The audience for this poem is every person, but the specific audience is the media and the government. This poem is written to the media and the government because of how they did not want to portray African Americans, even though they had a big movement going on. Also, the government was corrupt and treated African Americans as they did not even existed.
Stanley Kubrick is considered to be one of the most visionary directors of all time. He had a unique style of making film, from mise-en-scene to narrative, his films draw lines between real and surreal. Kubrick’s movies often portrayed sex, violence explicitly which is why his movies are different than any other director, because it gives a sense of questioning to the audience. His movies were enormously misinterpreted by its viewers and some of his movies didn’t even make to the cinemas.
A Clockwork Orange can be characterized as a dystopian novella as a result of the world that Burgess created throughout the book. Alex’s world provides a future rendition of London if it were to continue going down the path it was on after World War II, one of a violent youth culture. This especially comes from the fact that his wife was beaten by a few Americans stationed in England during the war. This particular event’s influence on the novella can be seen through the various scenes where Alex and his “droogs” are seen sexually assaulting women. Burgess was also influenced by Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. A Clockwork Orange experiences the Pelagian-Augustinian phases of rule found in the aforementioned books, respectively (Morris ). The Pelagian phase can be seen in the beginning of the novel where Alex and his “droogs” are essent...
Another factor associated with wrongful convictions is eyewitness misidentification. The Innocence Project identifies eyewitness misidentification as the single most important factor leading to wrongful convictions. Eyewitness misidentification is often an error due to witnesses being under high pressure, witnesses focusing on the weapon more than the offender, and police procedures when receiving an identification statement from a victim. A study
Adaptation is an essential part of the motion picture industry, with a majority of films based on literature and other forms of source material coming out of Hollywood every day. One of the most controversial examples of adaptation, at the time, was the great Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 dystopian drama A Clockwork Orange, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess. In a futuristic society ruled by gangs, corruption, and “ultra-violence,” psychotic teen Alex (wonderfully portrayed by Malcolm McDowell) volunteers for a government-regulated experimental treatment to rid himself of his wrongdoings after committing an act of murder. Through the film, we follow this tragic anti-hero’s journey to discover the central theme of fate - whether the government controls human order, or if there is a freedom of choice. Although the film was originally blasted by critics for its excessive use of violence and sexuality, it has since become recognized as one of the most psychologically captivating pieces in cinema, earning its place among AFI’s “100 Years...100 Movies” list. Clockwork Orange’s fascinating mise-en-scène (staging, lighting, costuming), cinematography, music selection, use of voice-over-narration, and narrative structure brilliantly establish the novel’s realistic satire of the dystopian future, making the film one of Kubrick’s most successful adaptations.
Alex is a very disrespectful and violent teenager. He shows several signs of teenage rebellion that several similarities to the society we live in today. He takes drugs, drinks alcohol, and fornicates with woman against their will. He has no respect for the law and is all around a rebellious kid. He and his “droogs” or group of friends goes around terrorizing the elderly and robbing stores. He then receives a treatment to rid him of his violent acts but this ends up messing with the rest of his life. Alex gets sick every time a violent idea pops into his head along with the beautiful music of Beethoven. He is lucky because the government then removes this sickness from him but unfortunately he goes back to his old mischievous way until he finally realizes he’s grown up.
...ckwork orange is one of the many books banned in different venues across the world but there is many reasons including why it shouldn’t be banned. Although the book may contain some unpleasant and disturbing scenes it asserts some very important topics about free will, good and evil that could relate to our modern society. One of the most frequently asked questions in the book asks whether or not a “man who chooses the bad is perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him” (Burgess 109 Marmalade). This will let the reader go off and wonder about this topic freely and at will and will let the reader make a discussion for himself/herself. Banning the book only blinds the people of the real truth in the world. Everyday people get raped and murdered and this is what is happing in A Clockwork Orange and it shouldn’t be banned for these reasons.
A “clockwork orange” can be described as something that has a convincing outer appearance yet in the inside is merely controlled by outer influences, such as a clock set in motion by its owner. In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess takes us into the future where violent criminals are forced to be “good,” and introduces us to Alex, a young teen who engages in a life of rape, ultra-violence, and Beethoven with his “droogs,” or friends, and talks in the slang language of “nadsat.” He goes through various phases in his life, evolving into a more mature level of thinking; each of these phases can be seen as clockwork orange. What makes this novel so realistic however, is how real Alex really is and how each of his phases into maturity represents a part of us.
A Clockwork Orange was claimed by many to be Burgess's greatest accomplishment. The main character, Alex, is a young teen with a drive for violence, rape and general rebellion without remorse, yet he still has a charming intelligent quality. The law finally catches him and he is convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. After two years he becomes aware of a route to early release and after killing a cellmate he is elected (almost voluntarily) to be the first to travel it. However, the process is not at all what he expected it to be. He soon finds himself being subjected to immoral films and induced illness to condition him to become ill at even the thought of a "bad" act. When conditioning is complete, A...
Walters, C. T. "Stanley Kubrick's The Shining." Forum 26.3 (Summer 1985): 21-38. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski and Scott T. Darga. Vol. 112. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
The depiction this film has on moral compromises and the era’s brutality forced individuals to be very thought
Tilton, John W. "’A Clockwork Orange’: Awareness is All." Cosmic Satire in the Contemporary Novel. 1997. Asocciated University Presses, Inc. p.21-42. reprinted in CLC. vol 15. p.104-107
"Movie Spotlight: "A Clockwork Orange"" Review. Newspaper Source Plus (2013): 1-2. Ebscohost.com. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.
Hill, G. (Director) & Tesch, S. (Writer). (1982). The World According to Garp. Warner Brothers Productions.
This approach takes into account finer details of the movie like the relationships between some semantic elements of that particular genre or between aspects of the society at large and those elements. It appreciates how isolated elements combine in any given movie to come up with the true meaning of such movie (George, 2009). This approach seeks not only an understanding as to why some aspects of any given film are so, but also examines the effects of such aspects on the audience, the information which seems valuable. This type of film examination brings a deeper look into incidences which might look insignificant in one film but holds a lot of water if compared or connected with similar incidences of other films. Altman goes further to bringing up two more different approaches to genre criticism: ritual and ideological.