Review Detail

8.6 2 10
FanMix May 26, 2016 8456
Overall rating
 
7.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
5.0
Enjoyment
 
4.0
I should probably preface this review by saying that 'A Clockwork Orange' is my favorite film of all-time. I think this edit misses the point of the entire film, for me.

Maniac often shortens up classics to put the violence or action on top. A lot of times I think this serves the film just fine (Assault on Precinct 13, The Shinging, Escape from NY) however this time the entire purpose of the film is excised, in my opinion, and a bunch of narrative holes are opened up. For starters, I'm cool with (actually thoroughly enjoy) movie violence with a purpose. A lot of the added scenes in this felt designed to shock, but not with a lot of rhyme or reason. They actually detracted from the film working as well as it could have. For instance, when Alex undergoes the Ludovico Technique, 85% of the scenes are from other movies. That alone is fine, it could even be cool, but the scores are from the films themselves mostly. The pint is, there's no Beethoven until the very end of the treatment. But the entire point is the Beethoven, so this did not work for me. Instead of a twisted scene wrapping Beethoven up with a sick feeling in Alex's mind, we're left with him watching a ton of rape scenes with different music. Then on the last day, he hears some Beethoven and complains. Also, the dramatic beat and the "First Day," "Two Years Later," "Second Day", etc, all of them, didn't feel like a Kubrick film. I think the Ludovico scene would work best without the title cards, edited as it is in the "theatrical" version of this edit. The Caligula footage was inserted at a time that made sense, and was the footage that I thought would have worked the best. However, in the unrated cut the footage goes on for a full four minutes with most of it just graphic porn. I get it, but it's not helping the movie. I'm no prude, it just slows down the narrative and makes the viewer wonder if they're going to show the whole thing (they are).

Musically, "Singing' in the Rain" is used as a more universal theme now. That is an interesting choice but it didn't work for me. It's used during the writer's wife rape scene as in the theatrical, but now also it's overdubbed when Alex attacks his droogs. Then it's overdubbed while he's singing it in the writer's house (but not in sync which was frustrating), and again at the end. So in this edit, it's more of a theme of violence as a whole. I preferred it when it was clearly the reason for Alex's recognition at the end.

Most confusingly, the three most important scenes to this entire movie are all gone here. The part of the demonstration with the naked woman is completely removed. What??????? That is the only time nudity is used in its proper context, and it's very powerful given that we've seen Alex pillage and lust throughout the whole film. Without this part, everything earlier just feels gratuitous. Then the part about Alex's mates having grown up and become cops is cut. This is baffling. That's like the entire point of the whole narrative coming together in that part. I agree with Stanely Kubrick that the last chapter of the book is unnecessary, but removing it all renders it kind of meaningless. Alex commits suicide in this one. I suppose at that point, it had felt as if a lot of violence was put in, important character scenes were all cut, and I figured it would end with his death.

Prior to that, there is the scene where Alex comes home. But all the previous stuff with his parents was cut so there is no emotional weight to him coming home finding his room rented out. Also, the hobos are kicking his ass in an urban tunnel and in this cut he is just randomly wandering and finds the same writer's house. It's even more unbelievable in this. It's kind of unrealistic in the theatrical cut but the cops/droogs take him out to the country a bit so at least it makes a little bit of sense.

I may be too close to the source material here but the entire essence of the film is the cyclical nature of life and how we can/must choose to break the cycle. In this edit, there's just a lot of twisted, violent shit added but Alex doesn't even have an arc. I was extremely uncomfortable with some of the added footage in the uncut footage. I don't actually mind anything with a purpose but it just felt like a lot of gratuitous rape, to be honest. With the new ending and cutting every redeeming arc, it made all the added stuff feel slight in hindsight. It didn't have a narrative point. It makes it very nihilistic, which may be the point but I have no interest in revisiting.

On the plus side, the editing was invisible and I enjoyed a lot of the musical cue work outside of the "Singin' in the Rain." There were lots of bits played with. I actually loved the musical side of the Ludovico Technique if it weren't for the video and the fact that so much non-Beethoven hurts the film, in my opinion.
T
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Comments

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Ordering
(Updated: June 07, 2016) June 05, 2016
Well, too bad it didn't work for you brother
Like i told you a few times, i could be a cold shower to you if you like the original so much
What is the reason for making this edit?
I just wanted to make a sick violent cut, not only that mainstream horror what i always do
Some cuts you have a problem with:
The naked woman: well after the treatment of Alex they show a naked woman in front of him and when he was trying to touch her tits he gets sick.
I had a problem with that because this treatment is in my opinion that he can't use violence to other people anymore
In Kubrick's version we all have to believe that Alex is not gonna make love to a woman anymore in a normal way ? Well that was not gonna work for me
So i cut it.
Of course i cut out the cops. Do you really take that seriously? Known criminals who become cops suddenly after the two years since Alex was arrested?
I cut out most of the dialogue of the parents because these characters begin to work on my nerves in the making of this edit
Especially the father, so his room is rented, end of story
It was unbelievable that he finds Alexanders house? Well, i think that was also "unbelievable" in the original , but what the hell it's a story nothing more
This is nothing more than a slasher cut in a more twisted way
That is also the fact with "Singing in the Rain" i used the version of Gene Kelly at the end and of course not in sync to make it more twisted
I was just to make Alexander completely nuts.
This edit was also shown to a group of Kubrick lovers in the Amsterdam film museum
In the last imagine festival in April i was telling to some about it that i was busy with a Clockwork Orange cut in a more gruesome way
Well, they saw it two weeks ago with 10 guys and 7 thought it was great what i did with it
The rest wanted to shoot me for what i did to their Clockwork Orange.....
But to each his own i guess......
M
maniac
(Updated: June 05, 2016) June 05, 2016
EDIT: Mistakenly created a new comment when I meant to reply to Maniac's existing comment.
T
thecuddlyninja
June 05, 2016
In reply to an earlier comment

I understand where you were coming from. Perhaps I could have emphasized more but you made exactly the cut you were aiming to make.

I wouldn't want to shoot anyone for editing a classic, every movie is up for reimagining .By the way, of course it is unrealistic that his friends become cops. But it has thematic resonance. By that logic, it's ridiculous that he stumbled back to the same writer's house in the first place. Then the ending sucks, I'd imagine. So for me it is necessary though not 'realistic.' In the film, they at least set it up by taking him to that area, that's what I was saying was lost.

Your reimagining of 'A Clockwork Orange' did not work for me. The way you wanted to do it lost the essence of the movie for me. Oh well. We move on to the next edit, which I'm sure is coming out within a week or two. :)

It's always to each his own, and I review based on my subjective feelings whether they're good or bad, or whether I like the editor and his/her other work.
T
thecuddlyninja
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