A Clockwork Orange

A great looking 4K disc for this classic.

I was in the service when I saw this movie and it impressed me instantly. The opening shot of Malcom McDowell's eyes staring intensely at the audience was mesmerizing. I am a big Science Fiction fan so I went to the movie because it was Sci Fi but I had no Idea about what the story was about . The cinematography, colors and music set this film apart from most other movies. Kubrick had a talent for using music in his films like the scene of the Pan Am spacecraft ascending to the orbiting space station in 2001 all the while in perfect synchronization to Strauss's "Blue Danube". This movie also benefited me because I began collecting Deutsche Grammophon LP's of classical music because I saw Alex using this brand in his tape player. The quality and fidelity of these LPs was far superior to other LPs available at the time. I even tried to get a turntable like the one Alex had but with no internet I had no clue who made it and even the salesmen at high end audio stores had no clue what I was talking about. It is interesting that the movie was banned in England for years I guess they felt it was too subversive and disturbing. This from the same folks who thought the Beatles hair was too long ! Get this, the UPS man just delivered my Blue Ray copy of "A Clockwork Orange" while I was writing this review. Not hard to figure what I going to do after I finish this review eh ?I imagine that younger viewers of this film will wonder what all the fuss was about the violence it portrays having seen films like "Saw" and "Silence of the Lambs" but they didn't grow up in a time where censorship and public mores were much more conservative than they are now. About a month after I first saw the film I ran into a gang of youths dressed like Alex and his Droogs down to the fake eyelashes, codpieces and Bowler hats and beret. Needless to say I gave them a wide berth. The Film gave me an appreciation of Beethoven and Rossini that persists today.For viewers who liked Malcolm McDowell in the film I suggest:O' lucky ManTime after TimeIFAll Malcolm McDowell films where he is the star.Addendum: I just started watching the Blu Ray and will inform purchasers that the Blu Ray starts the movie without any menu being presented to the viewer. The menu is available by pressing the menu button but it is a menu for special features only and has no chapter function. This is mollified by the fact that this Blu Ray restarts where it left off when you press stop. I wish all Blu rays would do this.Further Addendum: The Blu Ray has chapters which can be accessed with the chapter forward and back keys on the remote. It just has no chapter menu function.Now I have just finished watching the film and all of the superb extra features. I can recommend this films extras as this is one of the few times I bothered to watch the extras and they are very informative and entertaining.

"A Clockwork Orange" could have been the movie in the Stanley Kubrick canon known only as the film that followed "2001: A Space Odyssey." Released in 1971, three years after that masterpiece, "Clockwork" faced the peril of comparison with what has become the greatest cinematic achievement of all time. In short, how could Kubrick follow "2001," a film that was so incredibly good that one could not imagine a worthy successor?He did it by making a film so different from its predecessor that any comparisons simply fall apart. "A Clockwork Orange" is its own animal -- and "animal" it is, indeed. Whereas "2001" was about the exploration of space but also the exploration of humankind's capacity for change, "Clockwork" was the at-times painful study of a young man caught between violent individualism and repressive society.Malcolm McDowell is brilliant as Alex, the young "droog" who's ever on the prowl for deviant sex, "ultraviolence" and, seemingly, all manner of wickedness for its own sake. The character's relentlessly immoral (or amoral?) behavior stunned audiences at the time. The violent scenes -- of various victims being raped, beaten, kicked, murdered -- proved that, in 1971 at least, people had not yet become inured to extreme depictions of violence. Some of the film's detractors called it sick. In UK, there was a considerable amount of copycat behavior, which so unnerved director Kubrick that he had the film pulled from distribution there -- for quite a number of years.In between those two extremes -- those who would condemn the film, and those who seemingly condoned it by acting it out -- was an audience that pondered the dilemma posed by Kubrick: Which is worse? An insistence upon individual freedom, which allows for such horrible behavior, or a society that may be going too far in trying to cleanse the populace of such villainy?Alex, you see, is caught and subjected to a conditioning program that is supposed to make him incapable of committing any more crimes. But the effect of this behavior modification upon him is so drastic that he is effectively stripped of any free will at all.It's a diabolical film in part because it steadfastly refuses to provide any answers. Kubrick was a filmmaker, not a moralist, and so his audiences were left to decide, for themselves, which could be more cruel -- the solitary human heart, or the collective conscience that sometimes grows so harsh that it, too, seems hopelessly corrupted.This is a brilliant film. Do not see it, though, if you are easily offended. Upon its initial theatrical release, the film was one of a very few non-pornographic productions in those days to receive an X rating. Frankly, I've seen films far more graphically violent than this one that got tagged with an R, not an NC-17, the successor of the X. But it is true that there is something about this film -- something about Alex's gleefully nightmarish world -- that disturbs the mind like nothing else.

Es un estupendo producto, contiene:1 disco Blu RayAudio original de inglés 5.1Doblaje al español 5.1Subtitulos en españolExtrasComentarios de Malcolm Mcdowell y Nick RedmanDocumentales del canal 4Theatrical trailer originales muy recomendable para la colección el envío como siempre excelente gracias.

Tel que présenté. bone qualité

Mon film préféré vu et revu environ une trentaine de fois.

The DVD arrived ahead of time I have always loved this movie and yours didn’t disappoint....very happy

Ojo, comento la edición DVD "Colección Stanley Kubrik", no el Blu Ray.La remasterización es realmente buena, mejorando mucho la imagen y el sonido originales, que ahora quedan en formato pantalla 16:9 compatible y audio Dolby 5.1 tanto en V.O. como en el doblaje al castellano (que siempre me pareció muy bueno, por cierto). Vamos, que se ve y se oye de maravilla. Eso sí, de extras nada, aunque la verdad es que tampoco hacen falta.En cuanto a la película, pues que decir no se haya dicho ya millones de veces: una obra maestra de uno de los grandes genios de la historia del cine. Película futurista, que no de ciencia-ficción (no confundamos los géneros), original, dura, extraña, impactante, genial ... La fantástica interpretación de Malcom McDowell ha pasado a la historia. En fin, posiblemente la mejor película de Stanley Kubrick, con eso ya está dicho todo.Imprescindible para cualquier cinéfilo que se precie.