A Clockwork Orange (1971) *****

Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess' novel tells the story of Britain in the near future that is over run by crime and violence. Malcolm McDowell plays Alex DeLarge, a remorseless criminal leader of a gang who serves two years in prison before volunterring for an experimental treatment that will cure him quickly.
A Clockwork Orange is like that dark ride that Alex and his Droogs take to the writer's house near the beginning of the film. Just when you think Alex is at rock bottom, the state pushes him to even further depths. The film is full of irony, mainly in plot points dealing with the writer.
A Clockwork Orange's reputation as a film of repeated violence is unwarranted. The fact that it was excessive for 1971 and Kubrick's request to remove it from the cinema due to death threats seems to have given the film that reputation. It's not a film about violence, it's a film about one boys reaction to violence. What gets him off during the first half gives him a negative reaction in the second half.
The funny thing is that when I read reviews of Clockwork that are lukewarm or condemning the film it seems that people complain about this not being like Kubrick's other films. When the hell do Kubrick films match anyway? Kubrick's style was that he had no definable style and that's why it took years for him to put out a film whereas other directors could pump one out every year, but you had a good idea what you were going to get. Kubrick was like the lolipop that was in the mystery wrapper. It was always something new and you may like and you may not.
A Clockwork Orange is a masterpiece of filmmaking. The visuals are amazing. For example, the way that Kubrick's sets seem to be designed to point toward a horizon point like a painting. If you were to view a film as pure art this would probably be the closest example you could get without going with some Italian or Eastern European film makers.
Art isn't always pretty.