[psycho d]

A Clockwork Orange (1971). Why my mom let me see this as a child is confounding. Having another peek at this near classic, I realized that this is simply a masterpiece, one that most people will not have the fortitude to appreciate. No one wants to look in the mirror and see reality, only preconceived notions. A Clockwork Orange offers no such convenience, but instead agglutinates the worst of human nature into a noxious though charming young man. Kubrick takes us on a journey of this little monster, a man we come to loathe, only to find that society's answer to this little problem is even more loathsome. We are left with no common thread of morality and only a discombobulated sense of humanity whose only repose is found couched in denial. A Clockwork Orange will likely say different things to different people, but it will never offer a palatable morsel of existence verite, leaving us humans without direction for our compulsive and grimy fingers to point at in our efforts to pin down the culprit of humanity's misfortunes. Malcolm McDowell portrays the perfect manifestation of humanity gone awry, a character we'd all like to disassociate ourselves from but that will always remain lurking as an integral element of our own shadows. Technically, artistically, and symbolically, this was a masterpiece of film making on all levels. The choice of music was genius in that it helped to disconnect us from the atrocities that accosted us. The result is an icky layer of scum that cannot be washed away as it is in fact housed in our basic genetic code. We are gritty human animals and no sense of cultural inculcation will ever brainwash human nature out of us. Merci beaucoup.
Genruk