#244 A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick) at CineLux Capitola

After the show, I immediately texted a friend, “That film was pointless and deranged.” Apparently, I wasn’t alone in finding it morally repugnant. When A Clockwork Orange (1971) was first released, it was met with fierce criticism for what many saw as its social irresponsibility and glamorization of sexual violence. In the UK, reports of copycat crimes intensified the backlash, and the controversy ultimately led Kubrick to withdraw the film from British cinemas for decades.

I spent most of the movie distracted and angry at the sense that Kubrick wanted us to feel sympathy for Alex, the sadistic teenage gang leader, whom he called “a victim of the modern age.” I understand the argument: Alex is a monster, but the state’s punishment and attempts to reform him are monstrous too. The problem is, I  just don’t agree. The moral equivalency felt forced. His sadism is so gleefully staged that when the government turns cruel, it doesn’t deepen the film.

What unsettled me most was the way women are depicted throughout. The film opens with women as furniture in the milk bar. Literal foot stools for the male patrons. The "cat lady" character is introduced crotch-first, only to be murdered moments later with a giant porcelain penis. The women in this film aren’t written as people so much as props.

Kubrick's sentiment was: in the future, we're all monsters. And he created a world in which no one is good. But his vision was so stripped of humanity that I found it hard to care. 

What an asshole.

A Clockwork Orange on Letterboxd