Posted on 09/21/2021 10:59:26 AM PDT by Cronos
In a recent interview, veteran actor Malcolm McDowell has revealed he cannot stomach rewatching his 1971 dystopian crime film, A Clockwork Orange. The film was adapted from Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel about a disturbingly violent gang of youths in an alternate near-future Britain. McDowell played the violent delinquent Alex DeLarge in the infamous and controversial film directed by Stanley Kubrick.
It follows Alex, leader of his gang known as the Droogs. Following a series of drug-induced fights with another gang and various disturbing and brutal assaults, Alex is arrested and imprisoned for his crimes, before being subjected to an experimental form of therapy to make him averse to his former violence. A Clockwork Orange celebrates its 50th anniversary this year with a 4K rerelease, but originally, the film was met with bans upon its release due to the levels of violence and brutality on screen, an aspect which its star still struggles with.
McDowell revealed that he still finds it difficult to rewatch, stating that he cannot stomach sitting through the film despite the time that has passed. McDowell elaborated that despite any updates in quality the film might have received, it still holds the same violent content that made the film infamous upon its release, though he is proud of the impact it has made since last time he watched the film was during a screening at the Cannes Film Festival to celebrate its 40th Anniversary alongside Warner Bro's executives, before saying how glad he was that he could avoid similar screenings for the latest milestone.
...Despite becoming a film of historical significance , A Clockwork Orange had a complex and controversial history. Upon release, the film was met by polarizing reviews for its depictions of graphic violence and sexual assault, as well as condemnation from different groups,
(Excerpt) Read more at screenrant.com ...
They also refer to old people as “starry loodies” (старые люди—old people).
Paths Of Glory is one of the greatest films of all time. Likewise Dr. Strangelove.
Spartacus is a very good epic.
I found Barry Lyndon unwatchable. Eyes Wide Shut was strange and shallow. Clockwork Orange just didn’t surprise or impress me. Steel Metal Jacket was an uneven effort, mixing humor and gore. All his films had their moments.
Well, in nearly identical fashion, O'Toole as Tiberius tried to sabotage the movie, giving Tinto the actor's 'treatment' and then disappearing from overdubbing.
Sir John Gielgud rejected the Tiberius role and then later recanted his smaller role as Nerva. At least Nerva got out early via a fairly gruesome suicide.
Maria Schneider quit the film early, and that was after she had done Last Tango in Paris.
Guccione died a horrible cancer death in 2010. Tinto Brass is 88 but nearly died earlier this year.
“Perhaps a bit too harsh.”
Nah...
He had a Mick Jagger look when he was young. It probably helped his career. It would have been harder for him to become a celebrity in another era.
Kiss it. If it moves, suck it.
There is a prevalence of violent images and pornography related materials readily available to youth in today’s society, so the film and book weren’t too far off in that respect. Also... Young people today feel they are entitled to everything they have, no matter how they obtain it and they have no respect nor reverence for the wisdom of their elders. They often show disdain and ignorance towards their elders and society as a whole.
The book (which I found unreadable) and the movie were a bit shocking at the time... Today, the movie and book appear very much like many other books written in the few decades after World War 2, to be sadly more prophetic than fictional.
I could never get through Paths of Glory or Strangelove.
Moments shouldn’t account for the overblown reputation of Kubrick.
I won’t go into his treatment of women on the screen. I’ll just leave it at the word disguising.
He steals the show in “Tank Girl.”
I can’t stand watching him in Blue Thunder anymore, either.
A bit too much of the ‘ultra-violence’ for my tastes.
Kubrick’s daughter claims “Eyes Wide Shut” was a documentary.
He was trying to expose the dark side of the American elite class.
He died of a heart attack just before the movie was released.
From Wikipedia:
“The film centres on Sam Lowry, a low-ranking bureaucrat trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living in a small apartment, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines. Brazil's satire of technocracy, bureaucracy, hyper-surveillance, corporatism and state capitalism is reminiscent of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and has been called Kafkaesque and absurdist”
When I saw Brazil in 1986 it help me resist being programmed into a Marxist while I was getting my BA in anthropology. For those who don't know it the science of anthropology is just Marxist theory with a little bit of evolutionary theory plus a sprinkling of archaeological dirt on top. The takeover of anthropology colleges/departments was one of the first beachheads of the leftist takeover of American education.
Check out the computers from the Ministry of Information - hilarious!:
Here are some great clips from the movie:
Brazil (1985) Official Trailer https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKPFC8DA9_8
Fight for office desk scene https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tSY1VnNUJzQ
The Ministry of Informationhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7xNnRBksvOU
Barry Lyndon took me a couple tries. It’s actually a comedy but the humor is very dry and messed up. His style was always a little off kilter, most of his movies need multiple viewings to find your footing.
Right right Droog.
Drove to LA to see with a well connected friend at at an early screening.
As I recall it was about about 3 hrs long.
What freaked me was the audience laughing at places I was horrified.
Went to it again in the theater and was not as bad as the First viewing.
Oh yes, saw it my 1st year in university and we all walked out wondering what we just saw. Jonathan Price is another one of those real British actors (like Derek Jacoby or my favorite, Brian Blessed) who just quietly built his reputation until fake and cheap Hollywood can't ignore him.
I didn’t really care for it. I thought it was stupid and senseless. I like Malcom Macdowell, he’s a good actor, but I am not crazy about some of the choices of roles he’s chosen.
Gratuitous violence was the entire point of the film.
My wife hates it because she cannot listen to “Singing In The Rain” the way she used to.
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