Usually, before watching any movie I look up IMDb to see its rating and viewers' comments on it. I did the same before seeing the Clockwork Orange. It said, mostly, yes, violence, yes, the main hero's a monster, but what a masterpiece! It seemed to deserve its place in the first 50 in the IMDb rating... Then I watched the film. And I believe it is one of the most disgusting films I ever saw. It is no doubt intended to be full of hidden significance, the grotesque manner in which characters speaks, move, dress, live. This is supposed to be "new and frighteningly surrealistic", a "sharp, futuristic social satire". The viewer is probably supposed to be saturated with disgust to the point that he/she realizes, oh my God, that's us! That's the worst part of a person in modern society, bla-bla-bla. Suppose, however, that you don't go along with this idea. What do you see then? You see an empty film. It is filled with violence that serves to get the oh-so-new idea of a social satire through. Because, you see, without it the viewer won't understand. He won't understand the idea of mixing English with misused and twisted Russian words. He won't understand that the Music line is supposed to be thought-provoking and not just stupid: ah, Beethoven and the Nazi, Beauty and the Beast, whatever. This film is two wasted hours of your life. After having watched it, you get the awful feeling you've been taken for an idiot. One way to deal with the situation is try to look thoughtful and say, "hmm, so new, so sharp". Another way is throw the DVD into the waste bin and try to forget you've ever watched it.
Review of A Clockwork Orange
