Kubrick’s A Clock Work Orange

I would start by saying that Roger’s Scruton’s On Beauty is in my mind as I write this because this film brought home a lot of what Scruton wrote about in On Beauty.

First from the opening titles colors to the first scene you are overwhelmed with kitsch, and the this moves into a pornographic kitsch. First we are in a milk bar with naked milkable manikins, the colors are glaring and the words are scribed with weird pseudo words. The milk is childish and corrupted and so is the language. The costumes of the boys is also kitsch with the long john bed time cloths and the cod pieces. Note also sex/ rape become in and outing, but violence is always called violence with some superlative.

The kitsch and pornography are a gate way to the violence that trumps all. The a rape scene is interrupted by a fight between gangs, and later Alex will sing singing in the rain to violence that proceeds a rape, the rape doesn’t get a dance number. The pornographic, the devastated home of Alex seems to be played as neutral a base line. Again Alex doesn't even need to rape he can walk up to girls and have them follow him home.

Alex relishes the violent and dominance, Kubrick beautifully shot attack of his fellow gang members is contrast against the brawl with the other gang. One is a chaos the other is staged premeditated and ruthless. But this makes Alex unstable in many ways, he has a drawer full of goods he is not fencing and sharing, he also dominates his fellows and thinks that them saying it is OK will make it so.

Beethoven's 9th is the only beautiful thing to Alex, he sees it as theme music to beautiful violence, he also does the same thing with the bible, Alex wants to be the roman scourging Christ, the warrior slaying the enemy in biblical wars. He is wise enough to fool the priest that he will be better. This inversion is always happening from the contempt for his parents, to the playing along with the trunent officer, Alex thinks he can keep this up without ramifications.

Alex is imprisoned after he kills a woman with a giant penis sculpture Kubrick turns her into a pornographic piece of art

I see Kubrick go through a very campy and staged prison scenes, where everything is taken as far as it can go from the warden to the priest to the prisoners eyeing up Alex. It is a corruption of a redemption story.

Alex is selected for brain washing but it isn’t really that it is conditioning to make him ill when he plans to be violent or violently sexual. He still desires the evil just is overwhelmed by nausea. He also is conditioned against Beethoven. When he gets his comeuppance with his former friends, the bums and the man who he brutalized, he learns nothing, he is just bidding his time. He only is suicidal when Beethoven is played from the nausea and the influence of it reminding him he can no longer commit evil. I think the funniest scene is where Alex has to face parents that love a stranger more than him and will not give his room back to him. Also that the renter lays into him and loves his adopted family who merits little or no love.

There is the trial that is more about Alex lack of ablity to do bad and submission to conditioning than growth or morality.

Also the bureaucrat who selects Alex, is really truly cyclical as everyone who Alex deals with is. The bureaucrat does not want Alex to be good but to be inhibited from the bad, controllable. When Alex corrupted redemption story puts him in the hands of them man he tortured and wife who he raped. He fails to kill himself while being tortured by beethovens 9th and wakes up in a ward in body cast to his own modes and a comic very kitsch sex scene.

His redemption ark ends with the bureacrat being cynical and wanting to un-brainwash Alex so he can get back political points he lost. Alex feels redemption by recovering Beethoven, in and outing and violence without nausea. Alex is happy to not be redeemed and is rewarded with a job and alignment with the politically powerful.

I am not sure I like it, but I can not stop thinking about it. It is a very black comedy which I tend to love but maybe a little to black. I think McDowell actually did a good job, there was a jageresque nature to him he had the swagger needed as well as the crushed rock star feel during his downfall and climb back.

The music was disturbing, and very bizarre, I found it haunting and well suited to what Kubrick was doing. I see this as part of Kubirck experiment with the kitsch. I would not hunt this music out.

He also shows two classes one violent poor and young, the other rich pronographic, old, tired and cynical.