525. A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange
1971
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Pictured above is the device that was needed to make me sit through this film.  I promise there will come a time when I like a Stanley Kubrick film, but this isn't it.  In fact, this is one of my least favorite movies of all time. Please be gentle in the comment section.  I have a family!

All right, let's get this over with.  Alex and his "droogs" get high off of milk, presumably milk that is laced with drugs or maybe they just go really crazy for milk.  Anyway, they engage in "ultra-violence" which includes crippling a man for life and raping a woman in front of her husband.  Blah, blah, blah, Beethoven music.  Alex is sent to prison and volunteers to do an experimental procedure to cure him of his violence in exchange for a shorter sentence. Blah, blah, blah is safety better than free will?  Wasn't that a mature and sophisticated synopsis?

I think I have mentioned before how any rape scene in a film completely ruins the movie for me.  It is extremely upsetting for me to watch, I have nightmares for days afterward, and I can't stop thinking about it.  I am not sure what exactly I want done about it.  On the one hand, a crime that is so traumatic and prevalent in society can't just be completely ignored in film.  On the other hand, if it is being used for shock value or, in this case, portrayed in a disgustingly silly way, shouldn't we eliminate it altogether?

I am all for having an anti-hero, but surely the filmmakers can't expect us to mourn Alex's loss of free will?  However, that is what it felt like at the end.  I wish he had been strapped in that chair longer.  They should have forced him to watch W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism.  Or this film.  That's true punishment.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Stanley Kubrick added the snake to the movie because Malcolm McDowell was afraid of reptiles.  This guy had some serious issues.

Gene Kelly was extremely upset about how the song "Singin' in the Rain" was used in the film.  Don't blame him one bit.

Several copycat crimes were committed in the UK after this was released.  It was then withdrawn.  Dear lord.

Malcolm McDowell's corneas were scratched several times during filming.

524. W.R.: Misterije organizma

W.R.: Misterije organizma
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
1971
Directed by Dusan Makavejev

Boyfriend was recently complaining to me that every movie that comes out today is the same.  I don't really agree with his opinion but if any of my readers agree and are looking for something radically different, you could give this film a shot.  I don't even think you would like it, but it would make boring, conventional movies seem phenomenal.  I actually don't believe anyone could like this movie.  How it got on The List is the real Mystery.

So we start the film with some guy singing some anthem or hymn off key.  I had to watch this part three times since my internet kept freezing.   After three times, I still don't really understand what that was about or why the singer was so bad.  Next, we are treated to a scene of a bunch of random people playing with an egg yolk.  Gross. There is really no plot to this movie so let me just pick out a few random scenes.  Scientists study the orgasm by studying women while they climax.  I have no idea how they made the women climax since that part isn't shown but I am calling bullshit on the whole thing.  No woman is that loud when she has an orgasm.  If any woman screamed that loudly, her partner would flee from the scene while neighbors called the police.  There is another scene where an artist masturbates a man then makes a cast out of his penis.  There is a whole other side plot where a woman is yelling about communism and watches other people have sex.  There, wasn't that a beautiful synopsis?

I would like to give a Darwin Award to the genius that decided to make the subtitles white, when the background was also constantly white.  Maybe they were just seeing how unbearable they could make the film.  Kudos.  I give you a ten in that department.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Banned in Yugoslavia.

One of Roger Ebert's Great Movies.  Oh Roger.