Sunday, October 9, 2016

Don't Make a Scene: A Clockwork Orange

The Story: Funny thing about horror. It comes in all colors and manners. One wouldn't think of A Clockwork Orange as a "horrorshow*"—the slang word for "good" among the young "droogs" in this dystopian future, but Stanley Kubrick's follow-up to his monumental 2001: a Space Odyssey (after grandiose plans to make a biography of Napoleon collapsed and Kubrick started experimenting with how he could make movies more cheaply and quickly) can be called many things as well as horror. Science fiction. Cautionary tale (whether you're afraid of thugs or behavioral scientists). Satire. Black comedy. Kubrick made films that were hyphenates.

But, if you can't make a case for the whole thing being a "horror-show," you certainly can with this scene, as Alex enjoys the "hospitality" of his host, Mr. Alexander—the very man he crippled earlier in the film—who has just realized that the young man he's rescued is the same one who led the attack on his home years earlier. The fellow is already a bit unhinged (and ironically, he is ideologically in sympathy with Alex over the "aversion-therapy" he received in prison), but knowing the kid is alive and in his clutches has him completely off the rails (and Patrick Magee's blood-vessel-bursting performance turns that description into an understatement). Magee had a history with the Hammer Studios that specialized in horror films and his quivering, spittle-flying acting here is, at the very least, unsettling. Stuck between him and "The Man Who Would be Vader," it's no wonder Alex is a bit worried...scared...frightened.

Filled with dread.

And that's what horror is all about. Dread. Horror makes us familiar with the dreadful without...hopefully...making a commitment. It is both nerve-wracking...and a bit thrilling in one throbbing heart-beat. We get to stare at the abyss without it staring into us. We get to hunt the tiger and not become the tiger. We get the adrenaline but not the jail-time. 

Horror gives us both the thrill of bad and the choice to avoid it.

And, ultimately, choice is what A Clockwork Orange is all about. Choice and what we do with it.

The Set-Up: Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is a bad kid. "Ruffian" is much too refined a word. He's a sociopath who rapes and pillages his way through a London of the future and is completely incorrigible.  After a series of crimes, including a brutal home invasion and a murder, he is finally arrested (set up by his former gang-members) and sent to prison. While there, he is recruited for a scientific experiment in behavior modification of the criminally-minded that is being championed by the current government. Declared cured, he is released back "into the wild," where his ability to fight back is compromised by the treatment—"the Ludovico Technique"—and he finds himself preyed upon by the very people he originally attacked. 

Circumstance, coincidence, Fate, or a particularly dark-humored Justice finds him in the care of the very man he'd earlier attacked and beaten (Patrick Magee) and his care-taker (David Prowse—he would later become the man in the Darth Vader mask). That man—a writer of some repute—has plan for little Alex. Oh, yes, he does.

But enough of words.  Actions speak louder than.  Action, now.  Observe, all.

INT. "HOME" — NIGHT
Alex, alone, in complete silence. Eating a large plate of spaghetti. 
The giant, Julian, appears, carrying Mr. Alexander in his wheelchair. He deposits him at the table.
ALEX Good evening, sir.  
MR. ALEXANDER(very weird) Good evening.
ALEX It was very kind of you to leave this out for me, sir. There was no-one around when I finished my bath, so I started. I hope that's alright, sir.
 MR. ALEXANDER(too loud and voice out of control) Of course. Food alright?
ALEX Great, sir. Great.
MR. ALEXANDER Try the wine!
ALEX Thank you very much, sir. Cheers
ALEX Happy days!
Suddenly the thought occurs to Alex that the wine may be drugged or poisoned.
ALEX Won't you join me, sir?
MR. ALEXANDER No, my health doesn't allow it.
ALEX(to Julian) And you, sir?
JULIAN No thank you.

Alex, stalling for time, reaches for bottle and reads the label.
ALEX 1960, Chateau, Saint Estephe, Medoc, very good brand, sir.
 He doesn't get a penny's change for his remarks from Alexander and Julian.
He holds the glass up to the light.
ALEX Very good colour, sir. 
ALEX Smells mice, too. Very good number, sir. 
ALEX Very good. Here's to it.
He downs the glass.
ALEX Very refreshing, sir, very refreshing.
MR. ALEXANDER(very arch)I'm so pleased you appreciate good wine. Have another glass!
ALEX Thank you, sir.
MR. ALEXANDER My wife...
Alex freezes.
MR. ALEXANDER ... used to do everything for me and leave me to my writing.
ALEX Your wife, sir? Has she gone away?
MR. ALEXANDER No. She's dead!
ALEX I'm sorry to hear about that, sir.
His face contorted in rage.
MR. ALEXANDER She was very badly raped, you see. We were assaulted by a gang of vicious young hooligans in this house, in this very room you're sitting in now. 
MR. ALEXANDER I was left a helpless cripple. The doctors said it was Pneumonia, because it happened some months later during the 'flu epidemic. 
MR. ALEXANDER The doctors told me it was Pneumonia, but I knew what it was. 
MR. ALEXANDER A victim of the modern age, poor, poor girl.
Suddenly his mood changes. He wheels right up to Alex.
MR. ALEXANDER And now you, another victim of the modern age. But you can be helped. 
MR. ALEXANDER I phoned some friends while you were having a bath.
ALEX Phoned some friends, sir?

MR. ALEXANDER Yes. They want to help.
ALEX Help me, sir?
MR. ALEXANDER Help you.
ALEX Who are they, sir?
MR. ALEXANDER They're very, very important people... 
MR. ALEXANDER ...and they're interested in you.
Bell rings. Julian rises,
MR. ALEXANDER Julian. This will be these people now.

Alex gets up.
ALEX Look, sir. I'm sorry to have troubled you. I think I ought to be going, sir.
Julian bars the way.
MR. ALEXANDER No, no my boy. No trouble at all.
Alex slowly sits.
MR. ALEXANDER Have another glass of wine.
He pours. 
Alex picks up glass and takes a drink.
INT. "HOME" — NIGHT
Dolin and Rubinstein enter with Julian.
DOLIN(genial) Hullo, Frank.
MR. ALEXANDER Good evening, sir.
RUBINSTEIN Frank.
DOLIN So this is the young man?
ALEX How do you do, sir?
DOLIN Hullo.
ALEX Missus. Very pleased to meet you.
RUBINSTEIN Hullo.
DOLIN I hope you forgive us for coming over at this ungodly hour, but we heard from Frank that you were in some trouble so we came over to see if we could be of any help.
ALEX Very kind of you, sir. Thank you very much.
DOLIN I understand that you had a rather unfortunate encounter with the Police tonight.
ALEX Yes, sir. I suppose you might call it that, sir.
DOLIN Hahaha, and how are you feeling now?
ALEX Much better, thank you, sir.
DOLIN Feel like talking to us. Answering a few questions?
ALEX Fine, sir, fine.

DOLIN Well, as I've said, we've heard about you. We are...
DOLIN ...interested in your case. We want to help you.
ALEX Thank you very much, sir.
DOLIN But first we'd like to find out a few things about you.
ALEX What would you like to know, sir?
DOLIN Well, shall we get down to it?
ALEX Yes, sir.
Rubinstein takes out a notebook.
RUBINSTEIN The newspapers mentioned that in addition to your being conditioned against acts of sex and violence, you've inadvertently been conditioned against music.
ALEX Well, er, I think that was something that they hadn't planned for, you see, Missus, I'm very fond of music and always have been, especially Beethoven... 
ALEX Ludwig van... Beethoven. B... E... E...
He leans over and looks at her writing in notebook.
RUBINSTEIN It's alright, thank you.
ALEX And it just so happened that while they were showing me a particularly bad film, of like a concentration camp, the background music was playing Beethoven.
RUBINSTEIN So now you have the same reaction to music as you do to sex and violence?
ALEX Oh well, it's... it's not all music you see, Missus. It's just the 9th.
RUBINSTEIN You mean Beethoven's 9th Symphony?
ALEX That's right. Er... I can't listen to the 9th any more at all. When I hear the 9th, I get like this funny feeling.
RUBINSTEIN When you say this funny feeling, you mean the state of mind brought on by the treatment they gave you?
ALEX That is correct, sir. And then all I can think about is like...
ALEX ...trying to snuff it.
RUBINSTEIN I beg your pardon?
ALEX Snuff it, sir... um... death, I mean, missus... Er... I just want to die peacefully like with no... pain.
RUBINSTEIN Do you feel that way now?
ALEX Um... oh no, sir, 
ALEX Not exactly, I still feel... 
ALEX ...very miserable, very much down in spirits.
RUBINSTEIN Do you still feel suicidal?
ALEX Um... well, put it this way... I feel very low in myself. 
ALEX I can't see much in the future, and I feel that any second something terrible is going to happen to me.
He pitches forward, face into the plate of spaghetti.
He pitches forward, face into the plate of spaghetti.
DOLIN Well done, Frank. 
DOLIN Julian, get the car, will you please?
 
Words by Anthony Burgess and Stanley Kubrick

Pictures by John Alcott and Stanley Kubrick

A Clockwork Orange is available on DVD from Warner Home Video.


* The language that Anthony Burgess created for the hooligans in the future he called "nadsat"—a combination of rhyming slang and Russian. Burgess was convinced of future Russian influence in the future, so he incorporated it into his language. For the record, "good" in Russian is "хорошо," which is pronounced "horoshrow."

No comments:

Post a Comment