A Clockwork Orange

And this week's Friday night movie has been... A Clockwork Orange!

Original image located here. Accessed 9th September 2020

This may surprise a number of you readers but I have never seen this movie. Sure I have seen parts of it but I have never seen it all the way through - and not doing so seems dishonest to this serial and myself as a cinema geek. Ironic that this particular movie has a reputation as being one of the most difficult to get through.
Furthermore, this is another case of a movie being so well known that it's reputation precedes it (seems it's something of a touchstone for both film snobs and the anti-sociable). And I have always been suspicious of such proprieties: How can you judge a work on your own terms when it has a weight of a reputation so large that it can't hope to live up to such expectations? (Yes Firefly, I am looking at you).
Finally, there is the issue of shock tactics. For me, the greatest enemy of shock tactics isn't the straight-laced complainers who protest them -- No, it's the march of time. Because the march of time brings copycats who will either replicate the same approach (to some extent) or try to surpass the original to the point where the original looks toothless.
With such factors in mind (whether we like it or not), how do we assess A Clockwork Orange?

In all honesty, i have seen worse.
It may be a bold claim but i this lifetime, I have seen countless movies, a lot of anime, many a music video on rage and a whole lotta weird stuff on SBS.
So yeah, I've see things.

But given the passage of time, I have to admit that there is still some bite in this movie. The art design is extraordinary, the vision of the future is both bleak and plausible, the satire hits with precision and the movie still looks relevant nearly half a century later.
It may be easy to slam Stanley Kubrick for being self-indulgent (seriously how much phallic imagery can you cram into one movie?) but it certainly stands head and shoulders above it's followers. Amusing one moment and downright disturbing the next, this isn't the type of movie I see myself revisiting but at least i can say that I've seen it.
Also, the sci-fi nerd in me finds it funny to see David Prowse in this movie.