A Clockwork Orange (1971)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Notes-Awards Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1971
Running Time	131:08
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Stanley Kubrick
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Malcolm McDowell Patrick Magee Adrienne Corri Miriam Karlin
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	Wendy Carlos

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Having said all of that, it is important to understand that A Clockwork Orange as a novel is more of a political statement than a story. It begins with the anarchic adventures of Alexander DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), as well as his three cohorts: Dim (Warren Clarke), Georgie (James Marcus), and Pete (Michael Tarn). As their adventures progress, and during this time the film really begins to look a lot like a wrestling match that fooled a lot of critics into lauding it as a masterwork, some measure of dissent stirs within the group. When Alex refuses to change the manner in which he controls the gang, they conclude a violent raid on one house by knocking him out and leaving him for the police to find. From there, we see Alex in a typically overcrowded prison, where it becomes apparent that the usual methods of deterring criminals are not working. When Alex learns about a method of reforming hardline criminals such as himself called Ludovico's Technique, he volunteers to be a test subject in exchange for a rather large reduction in his sentence. The result is an Alex who is "cured" of the urge to be violent, but only because such violent thoughts make him feel physically sick. Thus, the authorities turn him out on the street where he is at the mercy of every vigilante or other ill-intending citizen who wants to dish out a little punishment of their own. Of course, the whole point of this part of the story was to demonstrate that society is more concerned with revenge than justice.

    The film follows the twenty chapters that appear in the American version of the novel quite faithfully, although it is a pity that we do not get to see the last chapter translated into film, as it wraps up Burgess' statement quite nicely. That statement is simply that being bad by choice is far preferable to being good because you don't have any other option. Twenty-nine years after this film was released, and thirty-eight years after the novel was first published, society has still not learned the lessons that both incarnations of the story contain. Indeed, the number of children glassy-eyed or hunched over in pain from being forced to ingest Ritalin in a behaviour control method similar to electrocuting a wild dog every time he urinates on the carpet suggests that society was asleep at the wheel when this film offered a sense of direction. Thus, the social statement of this novel and film is just as relevant today as it was nearly forty years ago, and the film has the benefit of presenting its point in a more coherent and accessible fashion. The film also has the advantage of some truly devilish acting by Malcolm McDowell, who has literally become so linked to the character that his youthful visage still appears on many paperback editions of the novel.

    In any case, if you enjoy a good, intelligent film with something relevant to say about humans and their lost humanity, or just want to view something that will repulse the fainthearted, then A Clockwork Orange is definitely for you. While it is nowhere near as violent or offensive as it is made out to be, the underlying statement of the film is much more powerful than the violence of a thousand slasher flicks.

Video

    The sharpness of this transfer is mostly impeccable, with details leaping off the screen for the benefit of the viewer like clarity is going out of fashion. There is an occasional lapse in sharpness, the sequence in which Alex and his gang fight with Billy's gang being the most prominent example, but this seems to be more a problem with the way these shots were photographed than the transfer. The shadow detail can best be described as adequate, with everything that the director wants you to see being perfectly visible at all times, but blacks are exactly that - black with little apparent detail in them. Lighting is used to provide contrast between details and darkness in a way that is rarely seen in films anymore. There is no low-level noise apparent in the transfer at any time.

    The colour saturation in this film can best be described as surreal, with sharp contrasts between shades in most scenes. There was one moment at 41:53 when the bricks behind Alex change colour for reasons unknown, but this only lasts for about twelve frames and could be missed quite easily. As Alex says during his first treatment at the Ludovico clinic, it is quite amazing how colours and shades look more real when you view them in a film. Some smearing becomes evident in one or two shots, with light colours going slightly past their boundaries, but this appears to be inherent in the source material.

    MPEG artefacts were not a problem at all in this transfer, with both halves of the film being spread quite evenly over the two layers. You can forget about posterization, macro-blocking, or motion blur in this transfer. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some slight telecine wobble and a small amount of aliasing. Some vertical wobble can be seen in an overhead shot of the prison at 45:31, which is probably inherent in the way this shot was taken. Another bout of telecine wobble can be seen in a shot of the warden at 51:11, with the picture wobbling noticeably from left to right. Some aliasing can be seen occasionally, but the most noticeable example at 85:22 is very minor indeed. A moiré effect can be seen in a newspaper photo of Alex at 117:24, but this is again a very minor problem. Film artefacts are much less of a problem than one would expect from a transfer of this film, with the only real problems being in some archival World War II footage, and these artefacts most likely would have been in the material before it was cut into the film.

    This disc is presented in the RSDL format, with the layer change taking place right after Alex's first "treatment" at 71:40. Although the layer change is quite noticeable, it is the best place in the entire film that a pause of this length could have been placed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand in both soundtracks for the most part, and both soundtracks suffer the occasional problem with one line during the prison inspection at 59:19 being difficult to make out. This is also a problem inherent in the way the film was made, so I doubt we're ever going to be able to understand this line without the aid of subtitles. There were no problems with audio sync, subjective or otherwise.

    The music in this film is credited to Wendy Carlos, and is mostly a mixture of movements by Beethoven and some really odd motifs that I couldn't quite place. Being that I don't listen to classical music that often, I couldn't really tell where the modern music and the classical themes merged, but there are one or two pieces of music that were composed and performed entirely on a synthesizer. These pieces of music gave the film an appropriately frightening edge, setting a wonderful tone for the mayhem that is to follow. The rest of the music can best be described as appropriate to the film, although not quite what I would choose if I were making the film myself.

    The surround presence in the mono mix can be described as utterly non-existent, as you'd expect. The funny thing is, there isn't really that much difference in the 5.1 remix, with most of the separation being confined to the stereo channels with some occasional spillage into the surrounds. Very few sound effects in this film overlap, save for the music and the dialogue, and even the music seems to be mostly frontal. In fundamental terms, the 5.1 remix is really just a mono mix with the occasional stereo elements. Regular readers will know that I believe the end result of a remix to be quite reflective of the source material's quality, and this remix reflects the "one sound effect at a time" approach to the film's making. The subwoofer was not active at all during the mono mix, and only sporadically active during the 5.1 remix, supporting the lower registers of the music and the occasional sound effect.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Notes - Awards

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

• Proper aspect ratio (the Region 1 version is instead presented in the ratio of 1.55:1)
• Dolby Digital 5.1 remix

There is also now a remastered version of this disc available in Region 4. Telling the two apart is a simple matter of looking for the "Stanley Kubrick collection" banner at the top of the slick. If it is not there, then you're looking at the disc described in this review which, in spite of its flaws, is the better transfer by virtue of having the original monaural soundtrack included, and less problems with film-to-video artefacts. Whether this version will remain available after the release of the Stanley Kubrick collection remains to be seen.

    The video quality is very good considering the age of the film, but 16x9 Enhancement and a steadier telecine would have made it perfect.

    The audio quality is serviceable and perfectly suited to the visuals in spite of its dated fidelity. The 5.1 remix is actually superfluous to requirements.

    The extras are a disappointment.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall