Stanly Kubrick’s film A Clockwork Orange(1971, UK), does not offer an explanation for youth violence other that that it is a result of the choice between good and evil. It explores the conflict between the rebellious youth and established society and depicts the strife between the two forces. Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clock Work Orange was written in 1961, not long after an attitude of destructiveness and rebellion was taking hold in many kids around the world. Films such as Rebel Without a Cause(1955, Nicholas Ray, US) and The Wild One(1953, Laslo Benedek, US) epitomized this often violent attitude and lack of explanation for it.
The film meets the generic criteria of science fiction because it takes place at a time other than the present and helps us consider the nature of humanity as a result of a technology or science that threatens the view of humanity we hold today. In the film, society is crumbling9as expressed in the dilapedated commons area in the still image) and it seems to be a situation where the rebellious attitude of the youth which was prevalent in the 1950’s has gotten out of control.
The government, growing more and more desperate, has developed a machine (pictured here)that can make its subject physically incapable of doing a bad deed. The character, who does not have an explanation for his bad behavior, but who has decided he wants to be “good,” then goes out into the world and we see that he has been stripped of his humanity by being stripped of his ability to choose between good and evil. However, at the end of the film, when the effects of the machine are reversed, it is hinted that he has immediately returned to his old ways. It seems as though the film is stating that there is no explanation for the clash between the youth and society, just that it is a confrontation between two forces that feel threatened by the other. As long as there is the choice between good and evil, evil will likely be there, as well as conflict.The film was made in 1971, ten years after the book, at a time when a new wave of disconnect was happening between the youth and established society, A similar situation was still occurring, however the tables had turned to where the youth were not advocating violence and the established society was. Perhaps Kubrick is commenting on the interchangeability and uncertainty of societal roles by having the gang members become police men and the teenagers wearing bowler hats or military garb as part of their style.
This tweaking of classical style is often inherent in the mise en scene of A Clockwork Orange and creates a new meaning separate from the icon or the past. Vivien Sobcheck says in her article “Images of Wonder, The Look of Science Fiction”, “It is the very plasticity of objects and settings in SF films which help define them s science fiction, and not their consistency.”Stanley Kubrick has directed other science fiction films such as Dr. Strangelove(1954,US) and 2001: a Space Odyssey(1968,US). He also made non-science fiction such as the historical epic Barry Lyndon(1975, US), the horror film, The Shining(1980, US), and the war film Full Metal Jacket(1988, US). Dr. Strangelove is a comedic look at the lunacy of the Cold War and the people in charge, and the threat of the nuclear bomb. 2001 is a high budget film showcasing the filmmaking technology that was available as well as a glimpse at what life might be like in the future. A Clockwork Orange is low budget, due to a lack of available funding, and is more character and plot driven. The vastly different qualities of Kubrick’s films show his versatility and skill as a filmmaker. Other science fiction films of the time such a La Jetee(Chris Marker, France, 1962) and The Time Machine(1960, US, George Pal) dealt with such issues at alien invasion, nuclear warfare, time travel, and censorship. “Thus, the writer and legendary pulp editor John W. Campbell Jr. instructed that science fiction should be ‘an effort to predict the future on the basis of known facts , culled largely from present day laboratories. ’” Like many science fiction films of the time, A Clockwork Orange took a technology that was not yet developed, as well as a environment that had not yet developed, and made it a visual reality, all the while commenting on the present society as well as the nature of humanity as a whole.
Sobcheck, Vivien “Images of Wonder, The Look of Science Fiction” CR
Telotte, JP “Introduction: The World of Science Fiction Film” CR
Telotte, JP “Introduction: The World of Science Fiction Film” CR
