A Clockwork Orange (DVD, 2001, Classic Collection Box Set)

This movie is disturbing, yes. If you are easily upset by violence or mental torture, then this movie is NOT for you!

This movie is very well filmed, from a 1st person flashback that doesnt involve lots of back and forth. The linear timeline is nice and only the voiceover shows it to be a flashback.

If i had only ten movies to watch forever, it would be hard to take this out of the list.

Stanley Kubrick did the movie The Shining in the early 80's, and at the time, I did not like the movie. The reason I didn't like the movie was because I had read the book, and many things were different, examples of this being the ending and the maze instead of the animal shaped shrubbery. With the release of Stephen King's The Shining, I actually liked that version compared to Stanley Kubrick's version. As time as passed though, I have rewatched the Stanley Kubrick version and have taken more of an appreciation to what he did with that film, especially with what he did with the camera work. I don't like it better than the Stephen King version (actually I like it about the same), I just think it's different. Same thing happened for me with A Clockwork Orange. When I initially saw the film, I hated it. I thought it was weird and I just wanted the movie to get over with. I've also rewatched this movie several times since then, and I have a different take on the movie than when I was younger.

Set in the future sometime from the 70's (when the film was made), A Clockwork Orange is about a guy named Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell) who, along with his gang of "droogs", goes around committing acts of violence with no care for anyone else and no remorse for his actions. Among these acts of "ultra-violence" (a term I've never heard before or since) are beating up on old drunks and raping women. Alex eventually gets caught when he attacks a woman who has called the police while he is breaking into her home. Upon realizing that the police are coming, Alex hurries outside only to have his cronies turn on him, by smashing a milk bottle over his head and leaving him helpless. This movie then takes a turn, as Alex is charged with murder (even though he didn't realize that the woman had died). He then claims he doesn't know right from wrong and agrees to take controversial experimental treatment to change his ways. Unable to do evil things anymore, Alex is let back into the world a free man. Things then get really tough for him, as bad things begin to happen to him.

A Clockwork Orange is a strange movie, but I really like the way that Stanley Kubrick has used a lot of irony. The viewer doesn't know who to cheer for really because even though Alex is so evil, Kubrick actually makes him look like a victim later in the film. So you don't know if Alex is actually a hero, victim, or villain. The ending kind of leaves you going "What the...?", but it's also kind of a fitting ending for the type of film that it is. It's truly an imaginative and original story that can make for interesting conversation (I've talked with other who like the irony of the violence and reform, and others who just simply hate the movie).

I think this movie is a classic and should be viewed by pretty much everyone at least once (young viewers not included, it was initially rated X when it first came out for the rape scenes). But since many people I know actually hate this movie (not nearly as many who love it though), I recommend renting it first before you decide to own it.