A Clockwork Orange

[Barry]

      <> There was me, that is Barry. I sat in the Corona milkbar trying to make up my rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Amazon delivery, I was told, would up to week late, not arriving as scheduled today, but by next week. The Korova Milk Bar sold milkplus, milk plus Hersey’s or Bosco or Nestle’s Quick  which is what I was drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of watching the old ultraviolence.
 
On cable there was some sophistos from the TV studios broadcasting laughing an govoreeting. The Devotchka was smecking away, and not caring about the wicked world one bit. Then the disc on the Panasonic 4k twanged off and out, and in the short silence before the next one came on, It suddenly came with a burst of singing, and it was like for a moment, O my brothers, some great bird had flown into the milkbar and I felt all the malenky little hairs on my plott standing endwise, and the shivers crawling up like slow malenky lizards and then down again. Because I knew what she sang. It was a bit from the glorious 9th, by Ludwig van.


Oh my brothers, A Clockwork Orange, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess,  isn’t a film for everyone, yet it was a big box office hit. I have, and you have, probably never seen another movie like this. It is tough to watch. And yet it very clever and compelling. Burgess even made up much of his own language here.

You should know that I DO NOT generally go to violent films and when I do (Aliens and Godfather) my friends tease me that I don’t watch certain scenes. I never saw anything come out of anyone’s stomach in Aliens, and, for me, Moe Green is still alive in the Godfather.

Yet, I have seen this movie maybe five times.  First, no knowing what it was about, I saw it when it first opened.  It had elements so “We” by Zamyatin, “Brave New World” by Huxley, “1984” by Orwell and Patrick McGoohan’s “The prisoner.”

The major difference between the book and the movie is that Alex, who is very evil, is 15 years old in the book and about 18 in the movie.  Alex is evil, and is indifferent to the suffering of others. He rapes, kills, steals and loves Beethoven.  As awful as he was, the government tries to reform him. Sort of. I suspect that a movie audience, or the movie production people, would not allow a 15 year old to do all that he does.

And the government here is indifferent to the suffering of its citizens and especially to the cause of criminality. 

The American version of the book leaves out the final chapter, where Alex discovers what had happened to his “droogs.” The American version also contain a lexicon which his not needed.

I will, as soon as I get the disc, i WILL add what the Audio and Video were.


Somethings about the movie ratings:
Originally, the ratings had 4 listings:
G
M
R
X
A Clockwork Orange and Midnight Cowboy, which today are definitely “R” were rated “X.” That is because the rating meant something different ln their creation.  The biggest change is that the industry did not trademark the “X” rating.  Meant for movies, such as Midnight Cowboy, that were for adults, it also meant anyone could use it… and he adult porn  industry took it over.

Now we have G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17. Back then,  To apply for a new rating a film had to changed. So both Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange edited a small amount of their films and got an “R” rating.

[David Vaughn]

Thanks for this Barry. I saw this once and vowed never to soil my eyes again. I needed to take two showers after it was over

[AVSCraig]

Looking forward to seeing this on 4K. Give me Eyes Wide Shut on 4K too please. 

[David Vaughn]

Looking forward to seeing this on 4K. Give me Eyes Wide Shut on 4K too please.

That's another twisted movie in its own right, but much more watchable for unstated reasons

[bmoney]

I know everyone has their own taste. But I just don’t understand watching weird things. Idk 

[AVSCraig]

I know everyone has their own taste. But I just don’t understand watching weird things. Idk

It's social commentary, science fiction and " future shock " - I like all of those. And had 4 Academy Awards nominations. 

I don't get adults that watch animated films - they are cartoons. I'm not 5 anymore! 

[Paul Heroy]

Lots of animated films are just for kids, but plenty of them have a blend of adult & kid appeal. I love most of the Pixar movies - Soul for example was a great one for adults. Ratatouille is another for me.

I've never seen ACO and don't really want to. I do watch occasional dark movies, social commentary etc. and have read about ACO for decades but just don't feel like I need to see it b/c we get enough of that in the news. 

[AVSJason]

It's social commentary, science fiction and " future shock " - I like all of those. And had 4 Academy Awards nominations.

I don't get adults that watch animated films - they are cartoons. I'm not 5 anymore!

I like the odd out there movies, I really like the way Kubrik shoots his movies too but this ones for me, was a miss. One of those acclaimed movies I have no interest in watching again, and though the Academy likes it doesn't mean I will, reverse is also true. No nominations for Rushmore or Big Lebowski, something isn't right with that, if you ask me. 

[bmoney]

While I don’t watch animated movies on my own. I enjoy every one I watched (for the most part) 

[Barry]

Well, my brothers, I have seen the 4K version of a clockwork Orange. This is only to comment on the audio and video.

The video is outstanding, the blacks are so black and the whites are so white, It looks very different from the Blu-ray. I give the video a 9 out of 10 for this type of picture.

Rating the audio for me is very difficult. The original movie was Monoral in an era where that was common. They have made this a 5.1 soundtrack which has moments of sounding really good and much more moments of inconsistent and harsh sounding effects. I would prefer to listen to the mono track which is an option. That track is flawed also but it’s closer to the original And it’s not as grading as this sometimes is at 5.1. 

[randman]

I saw this movie on Betamax. It was too twisted for me even back in my younger days. 4K, no thanks...

[David Vaughn]

Well, my brothers, I have seen the 4K version of a clockwork Orange. This is only to comment on the audio and video.

The video is outstanding, the blacks are so black and the whites are so white, It looks very different from the Blu-ray. I give the video a 9 out of 10 for this type of picture.

Rating the audio for me is very difficult. The original movie was Monoral in an era where that was common. They have made this a 5.1 soundtrack which has moments of sounding really good and much more moments of inconsistent and harsh sounding effects. I would prefer to listen to the mono track which is an option. That track is flawed also but it’s closer to the original And it’s not as grading as this sometimes is at 5.1.

Thanks Barry!

[bmoney]

I saw this movie on Betamax. It was too twisted for me even back in my younger days. 4K, no thanks...

hahah.  we chose the wrong format too.  

i was much more lucky choosing bluray over hd-dvd

[randman]

Well, I wouldn't say Betamax was the wrong format, just not as popular .

Funny, I bought HD-DVD and Blu-Ray at the same time. I think I had a total of 3 or 4 HD-DVD discs, two of which came free with the player. I did better with DVD. I did not buy DIVX, so I made the right decision then. I have so many versions of Blade Runner from all these formats. 

OP, Sorry to get off topic. 

[AVSCraig]