Today we are here to talk a little bit about a movie called A Clockwork Orange. It is based on a book by Anthony Burgess of the same name and as the title unceremoniously spoils it my ultimate goal here is to convince you to give this movie a chance!

Reading that I know what question comes to your mind ,Oh my Brothers and Only Friends! Your question is: Why? Fear not my little droogies for all shall be reveled soon by your humble narrator.

You see, A Clockwork Orange takes place in the close future. A future which will seem very retro to today’s viewer since the movie was made in 1971. The story is about a person called Alex DeLarge. Alex is ,in almost every possible way, a horrible person. One of his greatest joys in life is doing wrong. He is also fifteen years old. But hey, a little of the ol’ ultra-violence can get anybody’s blood pumping right?

Despite that however Alex is a very relateable character. He is intelligent, well spoken, he enjoys classical music. He is very charismatic and his diabolical enjoyment of what he does is almost infectious. No matter how despicable the act he is committing may seem you still reluctantly cheer him on and when he falls on hard times you genuinely feel sorry for him. However, one day as most people, Alex will have to pay for his sins.

This character is portrayed very well by Malcolm McDowell. His performance and director Stanley Kubrick’s direction, help you see a morally bankrupt world where the young go out to prey on others at night and where politics seems to be way to caught up in it’s own game of thrones to be able to handle to problems of the common people. A world where today’s society could very well be heading.

The story of our dear Alex DeLarge however is not the only interesting thing about A Clockwork Orange. The events of the movie raise many interesting question. What is a man when his ability to make his own choices is taken away? What makes a person enjoy causing harm to others? Just how much can somebody like that ever realize the error of his ways and redeem himself? This story asks all these question and many more like them and it might just make you question yourselves ,Oh my Brothers and Only Friends!

That is what elevates this piece of cinema above a lot of others.This story is not just about one man but an exploration of human nature in general. Asking questions about ourselves and the nature of things around us is what drives our lives forward after all ,my little droogies. And few things can make you ask questions better than good fiction.

The last few things of note I’d like to mention about this movie are connected to it’s history. It was very controversial back in it’s own time. It won’t shock today’s viewer much of course, but back then this was one of the boldest and most violent movies in cinemas. Unfortunately, that led to some people trying to copy the ill chosen past times of our dear Alex in real life. That’s why Stanley Kubrick asked for this movie to not be distributed to the public in the United Kingdom and until his death it remained unavailable in that country. This is one of the events that lead to it’s relative obscurity today. You have seen Clockwork Orange parodied and/or referenced in other works of fiction (The Simpsons, South Park, Tenacious D just to name a few) countless times already ,have no doubt about that my dear reader. And you have surely felt it’s impact on our culture.

A Clockwork Orange is a remarkable movie in the history of cinema which stood the test of time. I hope I managed to convince you to give it a chance my dear reader and if not I thank you for making it this far all the same. If you do decide to see „our hero’s” story through grab a glass of milk and get ready for a bit of the ol’ Ultra-Violence...