A Clockwork Orange

I've recently found myself interested in movies that I either missed because I was born too late, or was simply not allowed to watch as a child due to their content. I have to owe much of this interest to two things:

1. Netflix, for enticing me with its instant play movies, which tend to be older flicks.

2. A growing sense of nostalgia for an era I missed.

Anywho...I recently watched A Clockwork Orange. I first heard of this movie when I was 18 years old, and a friend was explaining to me why the Glasgow Underground was called the clockwork orange (in case you are curious, its because the trains are orange and the track goes around in a circle...makes sense). But, for whatever reason, it has taken me twelve years to actually get around to watching it. And, I've been surprised to find that a lot of my friends haven't see it...maybe its something to do with the movie being banned in the U.S. for a few decades or something, or maybe they too had parents that (unlike some modern folks) censored what they watched. At any rate, I thought it would be fun to review this cult classic.

So, without going into too much detail, A Clockwork Orange follows the misadventures of English miscreant, Alex. Within the first twenty minutes of the film Alex is pretty much pegged: he is a thief, a rapist, a murderer, a megalomaniac, quite possibly a sociopath...and he does it all with a suave sense of sophistication and a love for Beethoven (who Alex annoyingly refers to as "Van Lud"). Now, I have to admit that I secretly root for the bad guys in movies. I'm not sure why, but I always hope that they come out on top, and when they do...well that's a darn good movie in my opinion. But I found it really difficult to like Alex. Anytime anything bad happened to him, I could hear the voice in my head saying things like, "yes! I hope that leaves a scar!" or "ohhhh I hope he's dead!" But since A Clockwork Orange is narrated from the first-person perspective, I could argue that Alex is the good guy, and the establishment, or society, or whatever humdrum thing he is fighting against, is the bad guy...well then, I guess I'm still on target.

One of the things that really grated against my little feminist spine was the blatant sexism of the film. Now, we'll just ignore the rape scenes (Alex's term for rape was even annoying, "the old in/out, in/out, real savage like." Ugh, really? Dork.). The movie was overly cock-centric. Nearly every scene portrayed women as walking pleasure holes. Even mannequins were sexualized with full breasts, erect nipples, and pubic hair, and placed in rather disturbing and compromising positions. And there was so much phallic imagery I felt I was being slapped in the face with a penis (Alex's "nose", girls sucking on erotically-shaped popsicles, ...oh yeah, and the giant cock-n-balls Alex uses as a weapon (which can be purchased in rocking chair form -a rockin'cock if you will- at the following link for a reasonable $950 http://www.toytokyo.com/shopping/index.php/page/product/product_id/6624 ), just to name a few.

Now, to be fair and even, there was some testicle bashing...but not enough to equalize out the inferior status assigned to females. There is only one strong female role in the entire movie, a doctor, and she was so strong (and scary) it wouldn't be a far stretch to imagine her as a part-time dominatrix. But as a general rule the women were portrayed as weak, helpless, and deserving of victimization.

So, its at this point that I have to wonder: did I hate the movie because it really was/is a sexist film (even in its day), or do I just have no appreciation for the role of women in movies from this era? I have to admit that I found my sensibilities equally disturbed by Logan's Run. Okay, there are vast differences between the movies,...but both portray women as giggly little sex toys.

Well, before seeing A Clockwork Orange I really bought into the cult classic hype. I *expected* to like it for its edginess, which I had heard much about. But post-viewing, I really feel as if my inner brain is scarred permanently, and I have lost two hours of my life that I will never get back. But the worst part, I just know Malcolm McDowell got so much in/out, in/out because of this movie. Ugh.