I've never listened to highbrow music. Children who like classical music know that Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is the culmination of Beethoven's life. Among them, the Ode to Joy in the fourth movement is endowed with the humanistic color of singing freedom, peace and fraternity because of the lyrics. But in director Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, the choral symphony is used as a symphony of sin and violence. With the various brutal crimes of the rebellious teenager in the film, the violin and the trumpet became more and more intense, and finally intertwined into an absurd dark and evil movie.
It took me two days to finish watching A Clockwork Orange because I had to overcome some mental and physical discomfort during the viewing process. It is indeed worthy of the name to call it a banned film with its own style in the history of film, because it is full of violent crime and drugs, but it is also very beautiful. Bright ending. Look closely, and you'll find Dada-inspired symbols in every detail, Alex's attire, the interiors of the room, and the unreality and ageless ambiguity of the surroundings. The careful arrangement of these directors made me feel heavy and even terrifying during the viewing process, as if I was thrown into a society full of oppression like the protagonist. And this society does not really exist. Young Alex is probably the same as the hippies of a certain era, debauched and free, cruel and violent, and full of attacks on the world. Is he a good person? Obviously not, but is he the bad guy? We cannot define it so easily.
It begins with a close-up of his expressionless face, with his right eye exaggeratedly painted with false eyelashes, like a sad and powerless clown. The camera is slowly zoomed out to reveal four young men in similar attire. They were all in white clothes, stained with bloodstains of unknown authenticity, and their eyes were fierce and empty. The camera continues to zoom out, and the surrounding environment begins to appear. It is a milk bar with a very post-modern decoration. The furniture of the dummy exudes an ambiguous symbol of sex. The white, weird beginning is accompanied by the protagonist's low voice-over, which sets the tone of the whole film's satire, and seems to think that this is not an easy movie. What followed was the mischief of four young people, beating up homeless old people at will, and group fights with other youth gangs, which was impressive for this scene. Because the director cleverly arranged the scene in an empty venue that looked like a dilapidated stage. At the beginning, the pushing and shoving of Billy Boy trying to rape the girl seems to be a comic mime. You can only see the ugly smiles on the faces of the protagonists and the desperate screaming mouth shape of the girls, but what leaves the audience is a huge shock, as if atrocities are happening around them. Afterwards, a gorgeous and fierce fight was more like a multi-person dance drama, staged in this dilapidated world. A brilliant interpretation of the meaning of violence aesthetics. The interlacing of white and black, the cheerful music brings a strong irony, are people sad or gloating when facing and watching such evil? Does violence bring people to solve problems or breed greater sins? The director did not answer.
What followed was endless crime. Alex McDowell has a pair of clear blue eyes, but he can crook his mouth with a sinister smile. The ignorance, fearlessness and energetic rebelliousness of young people are well explained by his cool and exaggerated performances. The director used a variety of techniques in the performance of the camera, such as the classic violent slow motion and sexual fast motion, as well as the shaking and bumpy feeling of hand-held photography. In particular, the contrast between fast and slow creates an illusion of time. In the two sets of slow-motion scenes with the group fight with the Billy Boys and the lesson, the violence is deliberately slowed down to create a strange, dance-like aesthetic. Fighting is no longer a crime, and the blood and force are softened to a sense of appreciation. The film seems to convey the idea that the judgment of evil and good is not in the behavior itself but in the perspective of others. And the slow sex scene is comically fast-forwarded, too. It is intended to tell us that it was originally a process of enjoyment, and it was only a temporary vent in the numb and dissolute youth world.
The teenager was driving and drinking, speeding on the field road. On the convertible was a distorted face with wanton laughter, and the bright lights on the opposite side illuminated the entire line of sight. Breaking into the writer's house, beating people without reason, gang-raping. Do nothing wrong. This is one's youth. Then the story takes a big turn after a murder. Alex was put in jail and volunteered to undergo a brainwashing psychotherapy for an early release. It's not a cure at all, it's even the destruction of a person. After being released from prison, young people become numb and disgusting, without the gene for sexual desire and violence. Returning home, sad to find the pet snake dead and parents becoming unacceptable to him. On the road, the old man and his partner who were bullied in the past took revenge, and finally stumbled into the room of the writer who had been beaten by him.
Cruelty is no coincidence, no nothing. Rather, some people use the suppression of the humanity of young people to try to create the society they want. It is clear that writers and governments are opposites. One compliment is the clockworkization of humanity, transforming every bad guy they think is a clockwork toy without any human rights. One is to overthrow the government and advocate liberal subversive parties. They all use the boy as a pawn in their hands. Hypocrisy, hypocrisy is more contemptible than brutality to bring people into submission. Alex finally regains his true nature, cooperates with the government, and sees the call of desire again in a false consummation. The end.
All the characters in the film are distorted. Twisted teenagers, wearing weird clothes to hide their inner restlessness, the exaggerated pace and tone of the police in prisons cover up the fact that they are framed by the system and must obey, the doctors in the hospital are more like Nazis in concentration camps killing people's primitive Desires, doctors and nurses can still cheat, Alex's parents and mother have hippie hairstyles but a weak heart, and only the priest in prison is a sane person. Only he told Alex: Without the right to choose between good and bad, you are not human. Kindness comes from the heart.
How do you judge a person's good or bad? Radical evil is as terrifying as utterly good. Alex in the voiceover is calm and composed, it must be many years later. The boy may grow up to be a good person recognized by this society. Only that cruel time, that chaotic time full of cruelty, is still there, just like the expired film in an old camera. When it finally sees the light of day, there is only a blank silver salt that can't be explained. The world will be good?
View more about A Clockwork Orange reviews
