#70 A Clockwork Orange (1971) and LASIK

I have decided to go out of order, because in 2 days I get LASIK, and I can't help thinking about A Clockwork Orange.

As the day quickly approaches, I am getting increasingly nervous.  I hate anything near my eyes, and one particular image from A Clockwork Orange keeps springing to mind.  Eek!



Otherwise, my procedure has absolutely nothing in common with the movie (at least, I sincerely hope not!), but here goes anyway.

#70 A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Prison Chaplain: Choice!  The boy has not a real choice, has he?  Self-interest, the fear of physical pain drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement.  The insincerity was clear to be seen.  He ceases to be a wrongdoer.  He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice.
Minister: Padre, there are subtleties!  We are not concerned with motives, with the higher ethics.  We are concerned only with cutting down crime and with relieving the ghastly congestion in our prisons.  He will be your true Christian, ready to turn the other cheek, ready to be crucified rather than crucify, sick to the heart at the thought of killing a fly.  Reclamation!  Joy before the angels of God!  The point is that it works.

This is a particularly disturbing movie, with an excess of violence and graphic images.

I think it is over the top.  By that I mean that it is going so out of its way to shock and horrify at every turn that the plot gets lost.  We are so immersed in brutality, rape, nudity (there are explicit sexual images everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE), that I couldn't help but wonder if there was any point to the movie other than to say "Look!  Shocking and horrifying, right?"

In actuality there is an interesting plot: a violent sociopath is put through intense aversion therapy to "cure" him of his violent tendencies, posing some moral questions.  Is he really good if he is only avoiding criminal behavior to prevent himself from becoming terribly ill?  Is it worth blurring ethical boundaries to get an otherwise incurably violent man to stop being a menace to society?

The way the characters speak is also kind of interesting to listen to -futuristic and old-fashioned simultaneously:

Dim: What did you do that for?
Alex: For being a bastard with no manners, and not a dook of an idea how to comport yourself public-wise, O my brother.
Dim: I don't like you should do what you done, and I'm not your brother no more and wouldn't want to be.
Alex: Watch that.  Do watch that, O Dim, if to continue to be on live thou dost wish.
Dim: Yarbles!  Great bolshy yarblockos to you.  I'll meet you with chain or nozh or britva anytime, not having you aiming tolchocks at me reasonless.  Well, it stands to reason I won't have it.
Alex: A nozh scrap any time you say.
Dim: Doobidoob.  A bit tired, maybe.  Best not to say more.  Bedways is rightways now, so best we go homeways and get a bit of spatchka.  Right, right?

Overall, I would recommend avoiding it.  I only watched it because it was on the AFI list; otherwise, I have purposely avoided it in the past, and will continue to do so in the future.

It did bring to mind the Red Dwarf episode, Justice, in with the Red Dwarf crew visits a prison colony that uses a system called the Justice Field to reform the convicted.  Rimmer is imprisoned temporarily until his crew-mates successfully get his sentence overturned, and demonstrates the Justice Field to Lister:

Lister: Hi, Killer.
Rimmer: Nine thousand years.  Nine!
Lister: I brought you a book.
Rimmer: Oh, thanks.  That'll help the centuries fly past.
Lister: Look, don't panic, man.  We're going to get you out of here.

Rimmer: Why bother?  I'll be up for parole in a couple of Ice Ages.
Lister: Kryten reckons you've got right of appeal.  He's trying to get a case together.  This isn't a bad place for a prison.  How come there are no locks or bars or guards or anything?
Rimmer: There doesn't need to be.  The whole prison is covered by something called a Justice Field.  I had to sit through this tedious lecture.  Apparently it's physically impossible to commit any kind of crime here.
Lister: What d'you mean?
Rimmer: Try and commit a crime.  You'll see.
Lister: Like what?
Rimmer: I don't know.  Anything...Arson.  Try and set fire to those blankets.
Lister: Eh?
Rimmer: Just try it.  [Lister holds a lighter up to the blankets, but his jacket catches fire instead]  Whatever crime you try and commit, the consequences happen to you.
Lister: Smegging hell!  Nice example, Rimmer!  You couldn't just have explained that to me verbally?
Rimmer: Same with stealing.  Same with everything.
Lister: With you.  So if you nick something, something of yours goes missing?
Rimmer: Right.  Try it.
Lister: [Thinks about it] No.
Rimmer: See?  It's the perfect system.  It forces the inmates to adhere to the law.  And when they get out, it's become second nature.

Later, Lister reflects on many of the same issues that A Clockwork Orange examines: "Makes you think, doesn't it?  Mankind's history has been one long search for justice.  That's what all religions are about.  They accept life as being basically unfair but promise everyone will get their just desserts later:  heaven, hell, karma, reincarnation, whatever.  Those guys who built the penal colony tried to give some order to the universe by creating the Justice Field.  But when you're living in an enviroment where justice does exist, there's no free will.  That's why in our universe there can never be true, eternal justice -good things will happen to bad people, and bad things will happen to good people.  It's the way it's got to be.  Life, by it's very nature, has to be cruel, unkind and unfair."

To the relief of the others, he then falls into a manhole cover and can't continue.  Before closing the lid, the Cat tells the others, "Thank god for that," and it ends on a laugh.  Fear not, Lister is fine.

A Clockwork Orange was nominated for Best Picture, and was up against 4 other movies from 1971: Nicholas and Alexandra (see review here: http://kaleenasmith.blogspot.com/2013/05/nicholas-and-alexandra-1971.html), The French Connection (which won), The Last Picture Show (#95 on the AFI list), and The Fiddler on the Roof (my favorite from that year).