Clockwork Orange

I saw this movie last night. I don't see many movies - no time to go to the theater, and I always rent movies and never end up watching them. I think I just have a hard time committing myself to sitting still and doing one thing for two hours unless I really want to do it, and it's rare when I find a movie I really want to watch. Although, Sherry and I watched The Devil Wears Prada two nights ago and I really enjoyed it...

But, I digress. My main grievance with Clockwork Orange was that I kept waiting for it to get interesting. The entire movie was a flat plane of no serious development - yes, there are changes that happen to the Alex (the main character), but I think the film relies solely on graphic images of violence and "shocking" sexuality to make the viewer think they're witnessing something really novel and thought-provoking. The score was good, but composed entirely of renowned classical pieces (Beethoven's 9th over and over and over), which made scenes feel so trite...when you've heard the music everywhere your whole life, you can't focus as well on what's going on. Kubrick juxtaposed jaunty music with violent scenes, but it just didn't fit - everything seemed so forced and deliberately trying to be "edgy". The weirdness (different language, strange costumes) was interesting, but not interesting enough to carry the entire film - especially since it didn't come together. There was no development behind any of these things, they were just there and never explained or expanded. In short, I didn't get anything out of the movie. I kept waiting for it to get better, or for the contents of the film to suddenly dawn on me in a new light, but that never happened. In the end, I was just annoyed that I'd wasted 2 hours on a movie that was ultimately a boring, trite...hodgepodge. In fairness, it's about 20 years old now, so maybe these things were unusual "back then", but it's not like the 80s were some ancient time that is completely beyond me.

I think many people, like myself, watch Clockwork Orange because people talk about how weird and unusual it is. The movie sounds fairly intriguing. Really, I think it's a feat that you can make a weird movie with shocking imagery so boring and flat...maybe this is the true "genius" of Kubrick. In any case, the only thing I took away from the film was annoyance. Sorry Stan - two thumbs down.