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A Clockwork
Orange (1971, UK)
In Stanley Kubrick's futuristic film adapted from
Anthony Burgess' novel:
- the opening close-up of slyly grinning hoodlum Alex
(Malcolm McDowell) with one eye decorated with a false eyelash
staring directly at the camera, followed by the pull-back view
of him lounging with his 'droogie' friends in a milk bar with white
furniture of nude women - accompanied by the voice-over beginning
with: "There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs..."
- the delinquent gang's stylized "ultra-violence" rampages
including the fight scene in an old theatre with a rival gang of
five, led by Billyboy (Richard Connaught), while they were in the
midst of raping a buxom victim or 'devotchka' (Shirley Jaffe) on
an empty opera house stage, all synchronized with music from Rossini's The
Thieving Magpie
- the scene at novelist Mr. Alexander's (Patrick Magee)
futuristic home when the droogs wore masks and delivered brutal kicks
to the old man's body during the rape of his wife - rhythmically
punctuated with the lyrics of Singin' In The Rain (1952)
Singin' in the Rain: Rape
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- the persistent use of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and
Alex's ecstasy: "Oh bliss, bliss and heaven..."
- the sped-up, slapstick orgy scene accompanied by
the William Tell Overture in Alex's bedroom with two teenage
girls that he had just met at a record store
- the scene of Alex's brutalization of the 'Catlady'
(Miriam Karlin) with an enormous penis sculpture/weapon
- Alex's "aversion therapy" brainwashing
against sex and violence with his eyes painfully held open
Testing of Aversion Therapy Against Sex and Violence
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- the scene with an almost-nude woman to demonstrate
the effectiveness of his behavioral modification
- the use of unique doublespeak slang-dialogue throughout
- Alex's final closeup and line:
"I was cured all right" accompanied by his fantasy of frolicking
in slow-motion on piles of white snow while making love to (or raping?)
a nude woman (Katya Wyeth), while two rows of Victorian Londoners sedately
applauded
- Gene Kelly's original rendition of Singin' in
the Rain heard during the end credits
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Alex
Korova Milk Bar
Opera House Stage Assault
Sped-Up Orgy
Penis-Sculpture Assault of Cat-Lady
"I was cured all right"
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