A Clockwork Orange

It's a very slick odd affair that may shock the unprepared viewer at first, or discourage further viewing, but once the action moves to the penitentiary, it gets very interesting. The seemingly purposeless violence at the beginning turns into a story that makes the viewer think. Yeah, Kubrick was really good at that. (04/01/2003)

I have mixed feelings, Kubrick has better stuff. (08/08/2009)

Such a suggestive film, it's physically uncomfortable at times. Singing in the Rain, healing, Alex's eyes, and the shock of not having words - I want to hide my disgust and at the same time, I can't tear my gaze away. I'm happy that Kubrick's effort to show the world something for which no one could have been even remotely prepared, was executed flawlessly. Especially since such a complex experience, despite its contribution to film history, has never been repeated. (15/03/2006)

It's nice to see the new dimension "Singin' in the Rain" has taken on here, and it really deserved it, but otherwise, I don't feel like I've come to grips with this generation. Maybe if I had seen A Clockwork Orange when I was 15 or so, or maybe even earlier, I would have found something in it. I don't have a chance to do that now. Now it's just the obligatory bullet point from film history and Malcolm being better in Caligula. But at least I know what to compare all those years in film studies to. (03/04/2013)

A film that is utterly depraved and breaks all standards and textbooks except the formal one. Unfortunately, the level of invention and openness is too high. (28/09/2004)

Imagine any other director getting their hands on “A Clockwork Orange”, a revolutionary, psychologically sophisticated anti-utopian story full of new controversial themes and novel language form, with a huge amount of the author's personality and vision soaked into every line. Many of them would have fallen for the prestigious social status of the book and parroted the master Burgess with a vision of commercial certainty, and the resulting film would have been visually austere and socially inclusive. But Stanley Kubrick was not someone who would parrot, and certainly not someone who would transform any substance in a conventional and austere way. His A Clockwork Orange is a film with a capital F, a singular work of art where every aspect, every camera shot and every musical cue represents not only unsuspected narrative and formal possibilities, but also the direct materialization of a stage in film history that had never before been so aggressive, visionary and controversial. A brilliant supersensory experience that will forever show amateur filmmakers how to make the most effective use of camera movement, editing, acting talents and the emotional incorporation of classical music, and should remind all famous directors who is the filmmaker they should look up to and learn from. Like Space Odyssey, it's not for everyone, but that's the fate of creative personality and genius. 100% (20/11/2015)

With Kubrick I've become accustomed to the fact that each of his films is superbly polished and complex, both in form and content. So from that perspective, A Clockwork Orange didn't particularly surprise me, but on the other hand, it didn't disappoint me in the slightest detail either. The difference from what I've already seen (Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining at the moment) is that I didn't know what I was getting into beforehand and I became absorbed in how precise, accurate, and clean it had been conceived overall. If I had seen A Clockwork Orange first, I believe it would have "shredded" me many times more (which I might have had trouble withstanding:)) I rate the film itself as a brilliant satire whose subject matter, far from staying with violence, also includes the media and the monstrously nefarious power of politics. I'm becoming dangerously fond of Kubrick.:) (21/11/2010)