Clockwork Orange, A (UK)

Great print of a timeless film

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Currently residing in the number 2 spot on my YMDB list, A Clockwork Orange was beaten only by "The Godfather." The transfer of this 32 year old film is pretty good. It`s given a 5.1 track which, although not shaking the house to it`s foundations, is much improved of a 2 track transfer. The video is fine but the special features are a disgrace. A trailer and a list of awards is shocking for a film of this magnitude and acclaim.

Intro- Clockwork Orange: A controversial movie for it`s time and still is to many conservatives. Released in 1971, it caused a lot of controversy in which many critics accused Kubrick of glamourising and inciting violence. For the next 2 years, there were a series of copy cat violence in the UK, many tabloid newspapers gaves headlines like "Clockwork Orange killer" or "Gangs sing Clockwork Orange song during rape" etc. Death threats would be sent to Kubrick which eventually lead to the voluntary withdrawal of the film (it was NOT banned in the UK popular to contrary) never to be seen until his death in 1999. Recently, it has caused controversy when some skin head prisoner killed his Asian inmate after watching this movie. Looking at it now, it is not as shocking as it used to but it doesn`t glamourise violence in any way but shows the consequences in a "sinisterly, stylised way" as quoted by Empire. If you think this is shocking, take a look at Battle Royale, Ichi the Killer and Kill Bill as these films have bigger shock factors by 100 fold.

A Clockwork Orange is based on a book of the same name released in 1962, it centres the story of the protaganist Alex. Alex and his gang roam around the streets of night committing acts of violence, rape and robbery purely for enjoyment. After hanging around in the "milk bar", the gang bumps into a singing homeless man and assaults him. After beating him up, the gang then proceeds to beat up a rival gang (who are raping a girl). By 15 minutes, you will see one of the most shocking scenes in movie history: the gang invades a writer`s home, assaulted him and raped his wife. Despite all this, it`s a must see.

I am reviewing this for the 2001 remastered version only.

Video- Presented in non-anamorphic 1.66:1 widescreen, the movie is suprisingly in good condition. For a movie that is over 30 years old, much of the film is cleaned up with relatively few instances of flecks and compression artifiacts are also fairly low. It looks goods as it ever has with rich colourings. The down side is that there are a few moments with natural film grain and the movie is not presented in anamorphic.

Sound- The sound has been remastered into DD 5.1 and it is quite good. The electrical score is quite cheesy now (as with many things in life) and the classical score fits quite well into the mood of the film. There`s no mono sound in the remastered version which will upset many purist.

Extras- Not a single featurette about the making of the movie. Archived interviews with Kubrick are near impossible to recover since he doesn`t talk about his movies on set and never watches the final products (a shame for someone who made some of the most influential movies ever). The menu is simple to navigate accompanied by Beethoven`s Ode to Joy. What you only get is a few pages of numerous awards the film has been nominated for and a theatrical trailer. Because of the poor amount of content, I won`t give this a 1.

Overall- A controversial movie but it proved to be very influential and had directly (and indirectly) inspired many film-makers. If you are quick enough, you might be able to find the Kubrick collection for £29 at amazon.