A Clockwork Orange (1971) helped establish director Stanley Kubrick as one of the most innovative filmmakers of all time. For him film must be a work of art, and art exists for its own sake. The film has no goal beyond its own enjoyment. Given its subject matter—political corruption, hedonism, violence, and the elusiveness of moral certitudes—one might even go so far as to call A Clockwork Orange a nihilistic film in both form and content. This style of filmmaking would later heavily influence the “New Hollywood” directors.
The film is an adaption of Anthony Burgess' 1962 novella in which, the novel's teenage anti-hero (Alex) gives a first-person narration about his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him (Books). Additionally, the film differs greatly from the novel in that, it is far more ambiguous then the novel. The film tries to move away from, coming up with a final moral or conclusion to the story conclusion and tries to leave the story more open to interpretation. This decision for a more ambiguous ending is a very conscious decision on the part of Kubrick, who also chooses not to include the final chapter of the novel. In the final chapter of the novel Alex sees the error of his way and turns his life around. He omitted this chapter from the film not only because the American edition did not include it, but also because this ending would not work with his idea of what the film was to convey. More specifically, the film depicts nihilistic elements and does not have one central theme (save revelry in the cinematic spectacle itself) nor does the film convey any overarching moral or social lesson.
People often feel uncomfortable when there is no message in a film. They do not know ...
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...ork was thematically complex, formally innovative, morally ambiguous, anti-establishment, and rich in mythic resonance. Moreover, these directors spoke for a generation disillusioned by the Vietnam War and disenchanted by the ruling elite.
Lastly, he paid amazing attention to detail and was always an endless pursuer of the perfect scene. He though that editing was as important as filming, because it allowed him to make film an art form. Additionally, he was the master of every genre and thanks to him a new set of directors would be influenced by his use of special effects, lighting, and use of music, his ability to make films that dealt with issues that were in the public mind or soon would become apparent to society. Moreover, Kubrick’s biggest influence on the “New Hollywood” directors was that he placed in them the importance of the artistic value of film itself.
There are many books that have been banned or challenged, but the one that is being presented in this paper is Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. The topic of this paper is to inform you of many things and when you have finished it will have you leaving asking yourself one question. First, a summary of A Clockwork Orange will be shared with you, so that you can have an insight as to how the rest of the paper relates to the book. Second, you will find out where, why and when the book was banned and/or challenged and you will discover what the book contains that would “offend” people. Finally, you will discover the literary merit of this book, which means you will discover if is a work of quality.
The film, “A Clockwork Orange,” is, to me, an almost exact replica of today’s society. Basically, one kid, who seems to have come from a financially sound home and community, goes through about three stages--1. He violates the laws society has set forth to maintain order. 2. He is caught and punished for his crimes against society. 3. He feels remorse for his violence and sexually deviance (although, at the end of the film, he’s back to his old, delinquent self).
First published in 1962 (McNamee), follows fifteen year old Alex. The novel starts with Alex recounting a typical night of "ultraviolence" that he and his "droogs" participate in. The night includes drinking, drugs, and violence of the worst kind including rape. Eventually this lifestyle catches up to him, and Alex is arrested (Burgess 67). He is offered the opportunity to participate in an experimental procedure that it is believed will cure him of his violent behavior and his sentence is reduced (82). When he is released, Alex realizes that the treatment has rendered him effectively unable to make his own decisions about whether to do the right or the wrong thing as well as sucking pleasure out of every day things he used to enjoy such as music and art (156). Alex finds himself at the mercy of a man he had crossed in the past (167) and attempts to commit suicide (169). In the original British edition of the book, the final chapter reveals that after waking up in the hospital, Alex's went on to finally grow up and settle down, however in the first published version to reach America this final 21st chapter was left out so that the novel ended with the failing of the conditioning and Alex returning to his old ways (Jarvis).
There have been many books published solely on philosophy, and many more than that solely written about human nature, but very infrequently will a book be published that weaves these fields together as well as A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. In this Book Burgess speculated on the fact “the significance of maturing by choice is to gain moral values and freedoms.” He achieved this task by pushing his angsty teenaged character, Alex, through situations that challenge the moral values of himself and his friends. In the novel, A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, Alex himself, must choose good over evil in order to gain moral values which will allow him to mature into a “man” in the latter of his two transformations.
Firstly, one of the most defining elements of the film is Malcolm McDowell’s voice-over-narration. Like Burgess’ use of the first person narration in the novel, Kubrick uses it here to give the audience a view through the mind of this sadist teenager who we, ironically, are able to identify with. Alex is the embodiment of the future’s youth: a teenage monster, characterized by his vicious t...
As Madeleine L’Engle aptly said, “because to take away a man's freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person,” taking away freedom of choice is equivalent to stripping off humanity. Mankind has evolved to have the ability to use the mind for reason and understanding, which separates humans from beasts and machines. It is this ability that allows man to analyze and formulate different choices, and have the freedom over them. Despite the knowledge that freedom of choice is fundamental in making humans human, social control has always been one of the leading reasons to justify the removal of that freedom. Through showing the need for the loss of freedom for social stability and the resulting problems, both The Unincorporated Man and A Clockwork Orange highlight the conflict between control and freedom.
In both Nineteen Eighty-four and A Clockwork Orange, free will and the misuse of power are two intrinsically linked themes which are woven throughout and that govern everything that happens within both novels. The different reactions of different characters are an area that both George Orwell and Anthony Burgess focus on with interesting parallels between the two main protagonists, Alex and Winston.
A dynamic interplay of art and life can be evinced in the relationship between films and society. Films provide escape from daily life, opportunity to solve mysteries, chances to identify with powerful competent heroes and discussions of morality that are comfortingly unambiguous. By opening a window on exotica, films enable us to become voyeurs, secret observers of the personal and even intimate lives of characters even when we know that the stories are largely fantasies. The present thesis proposes to focus its attention on film studies, subsumed within Cultural Studies to examine Alfred Hitchcock’s oeuvre. Cultural Studies evident in the study of cultural artifacts (films, music, novels) and examination of practices (sports, national events) is
Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on
... movie stars like royalty or mythical gods and goddesses, viewing the drama between great archetypal characters in a personal psychic realm. By considering the statements made and their societal impact from a Marxist perspective, Benjamin’s method is highly effective, as it does not simply consider art in terms of pure aesthetics anymore, but considers art’s place in a society capable of mechanically reproducing and endlessly duplicating film, photography, and digital art. His qualm with losing the aura and mystique of an original work is negated by the cult of movie stars, the adoration of fame, the incorporation of soundtracks which embody a particular time period, cinematographic allusions, and time-capsule-like qualities of a film such as Basquiat, a 90s tribute to the 80s, produced both as a part of and resulting from the art movements and trends it addresses.
It is no doubt that Martin Scorsese has heavily influenced the emulating of American film making from European influences. He is a prime example of a ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ director, not only from his ethnicity and background, but from his sheer interest in this form
"Movie Spotlight: "A Clockwork Orange"" Review. Newspaper Source Plus (2013): 1-2. Ebscohost.com. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.
The postmodern cinema emerged in the 80s and 90s as a powerfully creative force in Hollywood film-making, helping to form the historic convergence of technology, media culture and consumerism. Departing from the modernist cultural tradition grounded in the faith in historical progress, the norms of industrial society and the Enlightenment, the postmodern film is defined by its disjointed narratives, images of chaos, random violence, a dark view of the human state, death of the hero and the emphasis on technique over content. The postmodernist film accomplishes that by acquiring forms and styles from the traditional methods and mixing them together or decorating them. Thus, the postmodern film challenges the “modern” and the modernist cinema along with its inclinations. It also attempts to transform the mainstream conventions of characterization, narrative and suppresses the audience suspension of disbelief. The postmodern cinema often rejects modernist conventions by manipulating and maneuvering with conventions such as space, time and story-telling. Furthermore, it rejects the traditional “grand-narratives” and totalizing forms such as war, history, love and utopian visions of reality. Instead, it is heavily aimed to create constructed fictions and subjective idealisms.
In essence, the term New Hollywood refers to the great changes experienced in American film history from the mid-1960’s to the early 1980’s. It is mostly considered as a time of revival. Consequently, during this period, the young filmmakers gained popularity in the industry due to the influence they had after changing the types of film production, marketing and production, and the general approach of film studios to film-making. Also, in the New Hollywood, the director of a movie took a significant role in film production as opposed to the studio being the center stage. Additionally, the work of these young filmmakers was formally innovative, had an abundance of mythic resonance, thematic complexities, anti-establishment features, and morally
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...