My Life in Anamorphic Widescreen: A Clockwork Orange

There are two films every well-adjusted guy should see around the time he turns 17 – Fight Club, and A Clockwork Orange. And maybe girls should see them, too, I don’t know. And I say “well-adjusted” because, well…if you’ve seen A Clockwork Orange, you know. If not…it’s definitely something you have to have reached a certain level of maturity to see, because it’s a film for adults, but its politics, its message, its…energy, is very much for the young people. That was phrased wrong, but it’s politically a young film. Winston Churchill said that if you’re not a liberal by 20, you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative by 40, you have no brain. And 17 is about when your average, well-adjusted kid is starting to think that all the crap he’s been fed is, well, crap, and anything that goes against The Man is awesome, and the fact is that A Clockwork Orange is about as great a film about sticking it to the man as they come.

In my review for Eyes Wide Shut, I talked about some of the films I saw when I was 17, 18 that really changed me and how I looked at the world – Fight Club, The Big Lebowski, American Beauty, all these great films that basically told me that everything They try to make you into is wrong, and will ultimately corrupt. A Clockwork Orange was one of those.

I saw A Clockwork Orange for the first time…I can’t pinpoint when, but I believe it was around the start of Senior year of high school, which would put me at age 18. But I know where I saw it – The Clinton Street Theater in Portland, OR – as dirty and grimy and filthy and great a theater as you can imagine. When I talk about The Ramones, the way I always describe their music is like you scraped it off the bathroom floor. The Clinton Street Theater is kinda like that. There’s absolutely no heating (so it had to be near the beginning of Senior year, ‘cause I didn’t want to kill myself the whole time), and it’s kind of a “you’re on your own” anytime you go to the bathroom.


And man, what a setting for that film – A Clockwork Orange remains my second favorite Kubrick film, largely because it was the first I saw, and…man, I remember just not being able to process the sheer chaos in front of me. I mean, by this point I’d seen Fight Club, so it wasn’t the first, but man, NOTHING prepares you for that movie, especially the first act. And nothing prepares you for how you’ll react. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud (it is a comedy, after all), but then immediately shut up and feel embarrassed and horrified for having just done so.

And as much as this is a towering achievement for its director, this is as much Malcolm McDowell’s film as it is Kubrick’s. In the commentary on this new release, you find out just how many roles were cast by McDowell himself, but even that aside, his performance as Alex is just astonishing. It’s still my favorite single performance in any film, and it’s the absolute epitome of Kubrick’s “realistic is good, interesting is better” acting philosophy. In spite of everything Alex does that really is just horrific, you’re drawn in by him. And I’m not saying anything new here, but McDowell is so charming and magnetic…I’ve seen this film four or five times, and it’s always McDowell that carries me through it. And you do end up feeling sorry for the poor bastard in spite of it all.

When I talk about how A Clockwork Orange changed my life, anyone remotely familiar with the film gives me kind of a cock-eyed “really?” And it’s not like I’m some hooligan, raping and pillaging and plundering as a result, and I certainly don’t look up to Alex – anyone who does misses the whole point of the film. But A Clockwork Orange changed the way I watch movies (certainly the way I watch Singin' in the Rain), and since movies are such a huge part of my life, it changed my life. It’s violent without being graphic, sexual without being pornographic, political without bashing you over the head with it. And its politics…it’s such a fine line, because its message is incredibly obvious, but you don’t have to think about the politics to appreciate the film. Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote Network and thus knows a thing or two, said that you can have all the message in the world, but films are meant to entertain first, and everything else, the message especially, is just gravy. Because Alex’s character arc is very strong, and it’s a thoroughly entertaining (or at least engaging) film full of lively performances (as strong as McDowell is, nobody in the film makes me laugh as hard as Michael Bates as the chief prison guard), A Clockwork Orange succeeds there as well.



VIDEO

Easily the best the film’s looked (aside potentially from its Blu-Ray and HD-DVD releases, which coincided with this DVD release). I’ve seen the film twice in theaters, and own the previous DVD, and while this isn’t a revolutionary presentation, it shouldn’t be. But the image is much more vivid than in the past. And WB was smart and released it in anamorphic widescreen, but if you look closely there are slight black bars on the left and right to maintain its aspect ratio of 1.66:1. They could’ve filled the whole screen and most people wouldn’t care, but those are the kind of touches that set this apart.

9 out of 10

AUDIO

You know the drill.

EXTRAS

The commentary by Malcolm McDowell and historian Nick Redman is fantastic. McDowell is totally open and honest about the process, and it’s refreshing that after all these years, he’s still willing to talk about it in such depth and with such energy. Redman is there mostly to fill in with facts that McDowell didn’t know, but he also asks fantastic questions and give great prompts that get McDowell talking. And he talks about everything, from what it’s like working alongside Kubrick to the extreme reaction on both sides when the film was released, his process in creating Alex, and of course the incredible physicality of the role (all great performances require the actor to give some of themselves, but man…you don’t know from commitment until you know what McDowell went through to make this film). If this was the only feature on the disc, it’d be an easy recommendation.

But there’s more!

“Still Tickin’: The Return of A Clockwork Orange” is about the film’s re-release in Britain in 2000 (Kubrick received death threats after the film inspired a ton of teen violence in the country, and didn’t allow the film to be shown in any form in that country through his entire life). It’s pretty clearly of its time, as it’s mostly famous people in England talking about how they managed to get a hold of the film, and how it ended up having a sort of mythic status in that country. Pretty interesting.

“Great Bolshy Yarblockos! Making A Clockwork Orange” is pretty much what it says, and delivers on what it promises. There’s some information that overlaps, and some that contradicts, what we’re told on the commentary, so that’s a little confusing, but it’s still worth a watch.

Finally, there’s a feature-length career profile of Malcolm McDowell called “O Lucky Malcolm!” I didn’t realize how long it was, and there’s a screening of Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales tonight, so I wasn’t able to watch it. My apologies there, but honestly, it can only sweeten the package.

10 out of 10