Wednesday 20 August 2014

Clockwork Orange
(1971)

Also Known As:
Unknown
Year:
1971
Countries:
United Kingdom… United States…
Predominant Genre:
Science-Fiction
Director:
Stanley Kubrick…
Best Performance:
Michael BATES…
Premiss:
A charismatic delinquent is jailed and volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society’s crime problem.
Themes:
Alienation
Political Correctness
Totalitarianism
White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Unknown
Review Format:
Cinema

Crime-Prevention Banana

Unsettling vision of the present-day in the form of a social comedy about political expediency.

The movie critiques a cynical, crime-creating culture that uses criminals as scapegoats for its ills and then exacerbates its own creation by conflating moral goodness with obedience; leading to the inevitable calls for totalitarian solutions to the self-created problems. Crime cannot be reduced, so politicians work with criminals to gull the electorate into believing the best approach to crime is curative rather than preventive.

Told from the first person point-of-view of a violent rapist, we are invited to laugh at the goings on; reducing this film’s audience to those who understand the underlying themes – and violent rapists, themselves.

The acting is superb from all concerned with Michael BATES as an ex-forces prison officer a genuine tour-de-force.


Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.