SCI-FI MOVIE PAGE PICK: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

Malcolm McDowell Alex
Patrick Magee Mr. Alexander
Michael Bates Chief Guard
Warren Clarke Dim
John Clive Stage Actor
Adrienne Corri Mrs. Alexander
Carl Duering Dr. Brodsky
Clive Francis Lodger
Michael Gover Prison Warden
Miriam Karlin Cat Lady
James Marcus Georgie
Aubrey Morris Deltoid
Godfrey Quigley Prison Chaplain
Sheila Raynor Mum
Madge Ryan Dr. Branom
John Savident Conspirator Dolin
Anthony Sharp Minister of Interior
Philip Stone Dad
Pauline Taylor Psychiatrist
Margaret Tyzack Conspirator Rubinstein
Steven Berkoff Constable
David Prowse Julian

Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Written by Stanley Kubrick (based on the novel by Anthony Burgess). 1971. Running time: 137 minutes.

A month or so ago I had the opportunity of seeing Stanley Kubrick's 1971 A Clockwork Orange again for the first time since it was unbanned in South Africa back in 1988. Yup, you read right: A Clockwork Orange was banned here in South Africa for something like 17 years. But Kubrick need not be needlessly impressed with himself - his film was simply one of literally thousands of films to be bestowed this honour by the apartheid-era censors. Arch conservatists, the apartheid censors not only banned films which they deemed politically "subversive" (such as Cry Freedom, Richard Attenburough's depiction of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko who died at the hands of the security police), but a host of films they considered to be to be too violent (The Exorcist), too sexually explicit (Last Tango In Paris, Emmaneulle) or just plain too controversial (The Last Temptation Of Christ).

In an ironical sense I am glad that these movies were banned for such a long time because I could get to see them as they were meant to be seen: on the big screen, as was the case with Clockwork and as will be the case with the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre due to be widely released later this month. In 1971, I was after all a mere four years old . . .

Today we have a much more liberal censorship approach under the ANC government that came into power after the country's first democratic elections in 1994. After all, we were one of the first countries to have seen David Cronenberg's controversial Crash movie a few years back. In fact, the movie were already out on video here by the time the United States (after much dithering) finally released it - a rare reversal since movies take almost forever to reach us after debuting in the States!

However, some censorship oddities remain to this very day largely due to our local film distributors not going to any trouble applying for certain movies to be reclassified. One major hangover from the apartheid era is that Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ never made it to the big screen. Apparently the film was released on video earlier this year, but I have yet to see a copy of it on the video shelves, so I am doubtful about the news reports I have read on the subject. (When I visited London a year or so back I eagerly snapped up a copy of it from HMV's shelves to buy.) Another hangover is that A Clockwork Orange is not available on video here . . .

However, while I am uncertain about the exact legal technicalities behind the movie's banning, I am sure that director Stanley (2001- A Space Odyssey, Dr Strangelove) Kubrick's own edicts on the film might be applicable in South Africa. You see, after accusations of some copycat crimes in the United Kingdom, Kubrick abruptly withdrew the film from circulation and refused for it to be released on video. The UK is also in the interesting position that The Exorcist is basically "banned on video" because their censor officials "haven't gotten around to certifying the movie for video release yet." Yeah right! (By the way, The Exorcist is available on video in South Africa . . .)

Anyway, Kubrick it would seem was hardly the artist who'd stick his neck out for his art type as some of his devoted fans might suggest. While he no doubt revelled in the controversy Clockwork generated upon his release, he never defended his film when the criticism got really stringent,  unlike the way, let's say, Oliver Stone defended Natural Born Killers against critics. So he simply withdrew the film - and his studio Warner Bros., who obeyed his every wish, acquiesced . . .

So when I accidentally discovered that a local video shop, which stocks mostly movies imported from overseas, had a copy I decided to rent it again. A friend of mine wanted to see it and, as I said, I saw it more than ten years ago. Renting the movie turned out to be very much like renting a porno movie under the old government (yeah, they obviously banned those too). Firstly, Clockwork wasn't to be found on the shelves of said shop, so I assumed they didn't have it. But soon after Kubrick's death they had a special on his movies that they stocked.

And lo and behold! They had a mini-poster on their special display. Still no video cover though. So I asked whether it was in. It was it would seem, they just didn't keep it on the shelves with the other movies the clerk informed me. "One must ask for it," he told me. Okay, so I did - and were discreetly handed an unmarked video box with an unmarked video in it from underneath the counter. "The movie is not really banned," the clerk seemed eager to inform. "It's just difficult to find." So I asked him where they got the copy from and he replied, "the States."

Turned out that the video wasn't of the highest quality. No doubt they had to convert the video from NTSC format (used in the States) to PAL format (used elsewhere - including Europe and here).

But my friend came around and after watching it, he remarked that he couldn't see what the big fuss is about. Why did they ban it for so long? And why is it still not freely available on video? He has a point. The famed "ultra-violence" in Clockwork seems quite tame by today's standards. Even by the standards of films made in the early 1970s when films grew excessively violent after the relaxation of censorship measures in the States, it isn't that violent. Sam Peckinpah's violent 1969 western, The Wild Bunch (which I also saw rather recently) for example was definitely more graphic in its depiction of violence.

Despite more violent films made since then (all of which we've sadly become accustomed to) like Natural Born Killers and the like, the sad truth is that the crime-riddled dystopic future depicted in Clockwork doesn't seem a patch on the reality South Africans have to cope with nowadays. A few days prior to watching Clockwork a 64-year-old senior UN official was repeatedly gang-raped for example - the sort of thing that happens daily in this country . . .

Watching A Clockwork Orange I however realised what is truly disconcerting about the film. It's not the violence perpetrated by the thirteen-year-old (in the book at least, in the movie the character is older) thug Alex deLarge, but the way the audience is manipulated into responding towards the violence. The brutal gang rapes, knifings and assaults perpetrated by Alex and his "droogs" (gang members) are almost comical in a cartoon fashion as filmed by Kubrick. Juxtaposing scenes of ultra-violence with strains of Rossini's very upbeat Thieving Magpie music lessens the impact it would otherwise had had. Infamously singing "Singing in the Rain" while preparing to rape a woman with her husband helplessly looking on doesn't only make for a disturbing movie moment, but it also affects the way the violence is perceived by the audience. The rape in question seems almost comical in the way Warner Bros. cartoons are. However, when the tables are turned on him and Alex is tormented by his former victims, the violence against him is presented in a gruesome and more real way. Throbbing synthesiser chords (by Walter Carlos) accentuates every blow landed on him with police truncheons by his former "droogs" for example.

A Clockwork Orange is a reminder of the power of film - of how a well-made film can change the perceptions of audiences even against their own better judgement. Alex is a nasty piece of work. He enjoys and delights in senseless violence and thuggery. An average evening out with his fellow gang members consists of getting stoned at a bar (the milk in the bar is laced with drugs in case you hadn't caught on), sadistically beating up an old drunk bum, getting into a fight with a rival gang about to gang rape a woman, forcing all other cars off the road in the middle of the night.

And so forth - that's just the first ten minutes or so of Clockwork. Despite his psychopathic nature, Alex is the only real and interesting character in the movie. All the others are stereotypes and caricatures. Speaking a future slang consisting of Russian mixed with English (called 'Nadsat', invented by author Anthony Burgess), Alex is brilliantly portrayed by British actor Malcolm McDowall fresh from his movie debut in If . . . No wonder you'd find some audience members exiting theatres trying to imitate his speech patterns: "well, well, well, now, my little droogies . . . "

A Clockwork Orange is quite simplistic in its message, namely that a man with no free will isn't really a man at all. As one character states: "The question is whether or not this technique really makes a man good. Goodness comes from within. Goodness is chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man." Which is why the audience is manipulated into resenting the behavioural treatment doled out by the movie's authoritarian government. The treatment rids Alex of his liking of and capacity towards violence, but it also destroys his enjoyment of classical music reducing him to a husk, unable to cope in real life (he cannot defend himself against aggressors).

Clockwork makes us question our perceptions of crime and punishment. But the movie isn't really honest with its audiences. The deeds perpetrated by Alex are horrible, but they are presented in an almost sympathetic way. Compare for example the rape scenes in Clockwork with director Oliver Stone's depiction of the gruesome (real-life) gang rape of a group of nuns by Salvadorian government soldiers in his excellent Salvador. Sure, Stone has other intentions with this scene (he is basically asking audiences whether it is right for the American government to be supporting a dictatorship who allows this sort of thing to happen), while Kubrick needs our sympathy to Alex to make his ultimate thesis. But the ultimate reality of rape I am sure is closer to what Stone depicts . . .

(Just how bad is crime in South Africa? Here are some statistics: there were 434 murders, 7 210 thefts, 1 218 armed robberies and 952 rapes every week in South Africa in 1997. That's nothing to sneeze at, considering there are only 40.5 million people in the whole country. To put these numbers in better perspective, South Africa's 1997 murder rate was 52 people per 100 000, compared with a U.S. rate of 6.8 the same year.)

Copyright © July 1999  James O'Ehley/The Sci-Fi Movie Page