Clockwork Orange, A (Remastered) (1971)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer Awards
Rating
Year Of Production	1971
Running Time	131:08
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:41)	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	$34.95	Music	Wendy Carlos

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/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 French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    If you've already read the plot synopsis I provided with my review of the original release of A Clockwork Orange, then you may skip this one at your leisure, as I am merely repeating it here.

    A Clockwork Orange is Stanley Kubrick's cinematic interpretation of the Anthony Burgess novel with the same title. Upon its original release in 1971, it attracted a storm of controversy, which, in combination with a string of copycat murders, prompted both Kubrick and Warner Brothers to voluntarily withdraw the movie from sale in England. Kubrick decreed that the film should only be released there after his death. As a result, there has not been a PAL version of the film until now, with a mass of people importing the film from any source possible in order to see what all the fuss is about. On top of this, the novel was published in America with the twenty-first chapter missing, due to an ill-advised decision by the American publisher. This chapter was actually of some importance, as it demonstrates the narrator and lead character starting to think about getting married and living a more productive life. Hence, the vindication of free will in the UK version of the novel was turned into an exaltation of the urge to sin in the US version of the novel and in the resultant film, in which Stanley Kubrick followed the only version of the novel Americans were permitted to know.

    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 as 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 faint-hearted, 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

    I was hoping that, since this is ostensibly a remastered transfer, we would get a 16x9 Enhanced one. To clarify that, 16x9 Enhancement of 1.66:1 transfers produces an image with more active pixels, and more active pixels means a better-looking image. You can consult the table of calculations about this in Michael's PAL versus NTSC article if you have any doubts about that. Unfortunately, we have not been given this rather essential feature.

    The transfer is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.66:1, and as I previously mentioned, it is not 16x9 Enhanced.

    The sharpness of the transfer is pretty much the same as the previous release of A Clockwork Orange, in that objects close to the camera are well defined and detailed, while distant objects are more of a blur. This is mainly due to the methods used in principal photography, I believe, and it would be asking a bit much to expect every part of a film like this one to be razor-sharp. The shadow detail varies from poor to average, but this can be partly blamed upon the film stocks that were available in 1971, with most of the rest of the blame being placed upon the lighting scheme. Low level noise is not present in this transfer.

    The colours in this film generally have a dull, faded look that resembles a series of Polaroid images, with skin tones looking pasty and browns having very little brightness. Part of this relates to the set decor that was used, much of which I experienced leftovers from during the 1980s, and my, weren't we short on taste in those times... The colour scheme is captured without fuss or bother in this transfer.

    MPEG artefacts were not found in this transfer, although grain is rife through some of the archival footage used in the scenes depicting the Ludovico treatment. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some rather nasty telecine wobble that, unlike the original release of this film, where this artefact was confined to a few shots, was quite persistent and irritating. Right from the beginning of the film, the titles wobble up and down in a distracting fashion, and while this improves a little as the film progresses, it is still rather noticeable a lot of the time. What makes this artefact a particular nuisance is that it aggravates a problem with aliasing, examples of which can be found throughout the film, but especially in fine lines such as the painting at 21:31, when Malcolm McDowell and Aubrey Morris are having their charming little conference. Film artefacts consisted of some minor scratches on the picture that were never too much of a problem. The archival footage was more rife with black marks through each and every frame, but this would be inherent in the material used.

    The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles on this disc omit several words and vary from the sentence structure of what is being spoken a lot of the time, and some lines go by with no subtitles at all, but they are otherwise perfectly serviceable.

    This disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change taking place in the middle of Chapter 21 at 71:41, just after we first see Malcolm McDowell with his eyes wired open. This is a noticeable, but very good place for a layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are three soundtracks available on this disc, all of which are encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 with a bitrate of 384 kilobits per second. Purists will note that the English Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack that was available on the previous release of this film is now absent, which is a crying shame since it actually suited the film better and was more space-efficient to boot. Nonetheless, the first and default soundtrack is the original English dialogue, with dubs in French and Italian. I listened to the English and Italian soundtracks, sampling large pieces of the latter soundtrack for the sake of comparison.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand most of the time, but the problematic lines with the Warden screaming into an empty prison block in that rather charming manner of his are still present. I suspect they will remain this way regardless of what happens in terms of remixing the film, so there's little use in crying about it. There were no problems with audio sync.

    The music is credited to Wendy Carlos, and it is more or less entirely based around renditions of various symphonies by Ludwig Van Beethoven. In spite of its pre-existing nature, it is extremely well-matched to the visuals, especially at moments like 95:00, when we learn the identities of the two police officers who rescue our intrepid anti-hero from his elderly attackers.

    I am sure the specifications on the case and the display on my receiver all said that this was supposed to be a 5.1 soundtrack, but it sure doesn't sound like one. The surround channels only get limited use supporting the music, which mostly tends to come out of the front channels, anyway. This film makes very little demand for the surround channels, anyway, with great care obviously having been taken to keep overlapping sound effects to a bare minimum during production. In all honesty, a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack would have done a much better job, and the Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack on the original release of this disc will certainly bear witness to that.

    The subwoofer was used to support some of the musical passages and the sounds of men beating each other up, but it was not worked especially hard. This is the only element where the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is any improvement, and it is not as though there is anything precluding a 2.1 or 1.1 soundtrack being used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Again, there is no commentary by Malcolm McDowell or any of the surviving cast and crew, which is pretty disappointing in light of the extras that we do get. It may well be all about the film, but one that has generated this much controversy and press attention deserves a little more, in my opinion.

Menu

    The menu is static, accompanied by Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, and, to add insult to injury, it is 16x9 Enhanced.

Theatrical Trailer

    This trailer is only fifty-nine seconds long, and a rather unusual effort it is, too. It is presented Full Frame, with Dolby Digital 1.0 sound.

Notes - Awards

    A listing of all the awards that A Clockwork Orange has won since its theatrical release in 1969, one that merely mentions each award in passing without giving any contextual notes to explain the significance of each award. It is therefore not much chop as extras go.

    It has been drawn to my attention that, as is the case in Region 4, another version of this title has been released in Region 1. These two remastered discs would seem to be identically specified, and neither are 16x9 Enhanced. 16x9 Enhancement means more resolution, which is a terrible thing to leave out of any widescreen transfer, so we'll call this one even.

    In this day and age where children must be silent and obedient or be forced to ingest drugs that seem deliberately designed as a device of torture, a statement like that of A Clockwork Orange could not be more relevant. Unfortunately, the film fails to capture the message that Anthony Burgess was trying to get across, thanks in no small part to the actions of the American publisher. Choosing to be evil is a bad thing, but forcing a man to be good without letting his morals make the decision for him is without doubt the greatest evil of all, and if the presence of this film on DVD-Video causes more people to investigate the book and learn from its pages, then that can only be a good thing.

    The video transfer is reasonable, but the lack of 16x9 Enhancement and added telecine wobble weigh heavily against it.

    The audio transfer is a waste of channels, and the Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack, perhaps even with an added LFE channel, would have been preferred.

    The extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall