A Clockwork Orange

Today's review is actually a double, as in both a movie and book review of the same thing.  As you can tell from the title, today is about A Clockwork Orange, a novel by Anthony Burgess that was later made into a movie by Stanley Kubrick.  The story behind A Clockwork Orange is that the main character Alex is telling his story of how he went from the de facto leader of a small gang to a proverbial sacrificial lamb for the Ludovico Technique and back to "normal."  The book actually has one more chapter added than what most American readers are used to, something that Burgess had in the beginning, but due to his American publisher's demands, had to cut the chapter out (the last one).  The novel paints a dark, unforgiving world that points out some social commentary.  The narration is in "Nadsat," a variation of Russian mixed with English, with influences from Cockney slang and the King James Bible.  After a while, the narration can get a little annoying, but it doesn't take away from the basic story, and one of the most endearing aspects of the novel is that it forces deep thought from the reader.  Many questions arise from the novel, many of them of the moral variety.

The movie stays mostly true to the novel, with a few exceptions.  Where the movie differs the most from the novel is that it becomes a little more of a dark comedy (e.g. the rape scene where Alex sings "Singing in the Rain" while doing so) and relies heavily on the use of color, particularly in Frank Alexander's residence.  The bright scenery in many respects clashes heavily with the overall message, which unintended or not, provides something for those who place great value on visual aspects while keeping the main story as the focus.  The movie is considered a cult classic for good reason: it portrays the novel as close to perfect as it can, and it helps that Malcom McDowell's portrayal of Alex ended up being perfect.