How to review Clockwork Orange? Difficult, as I have been anticipating seeing this film for years - it having been banned in the UK till Kubrick's death in 1999, which is when I left the UK for Belgium. Anticipation always make it hard to review something. And it's not just a question of objectivity - it's usually a question of disappointment. Was I disappointed by Clockwork Orange? Not sure yet.

The practice of likening one film to another is something I have mixed feelings about always. Sometimes it sounds like a two minute Hollywood high concept pitch - it's like Harry Potter with an Avril Lavigne soundtrack and Scary Movie horror / American Pie gross-out. But the concept of art crit that I follow is always comparitive. I believe you have to understand the genre, the context, the ouvre to understand a work of art. I think this is especially true of modern art - taken in isolation it can seem banal or childlike. It's the thing about Picasso, developing his talent then deconstructing it. (I read somewhere...)

So from which angle to approach Clockwork Orange? In the context of young offenders and correctional centres it reminded me of Alan Clarke's Made in England, and possibly Scum, which is on its way to me. Relevant today as the UK has the larget per capita prison population, 1 in 100 UK Afro-Caribbeans are in jail etc. The old argument about prison breeding criminals. And how to normalise a sociopath without resorting to inhumane methods - up to and including execution. Interesting side thought - that the USA could not currently join the EU due to human rights shortfalls - death row - as well as financial shortfalls - too big a debt of 4% GDP. The priest in the film makes a good point - when you remove the choice from someone, you have removed thier humanity. It's choosing not to harm other people that is important, not preventing it. You don't win a war by killing all your enemy, but by making them choose, and choosing oneself, that they are no longer the enemy.

In terms of why the film was banned I can understand the stylised violence would be misunderstood by those not sophisticated enough to read the film. Such as those who take vigilante action against pedeatricians. Or those on whom irony s lost. The violence and rape still shocked me, but it was only a few minutes at the beginning of the film, and in any case many video games sanitise it more and thus make it more dangerous for some viewers. Of course how can I be an arbiter of who can see and understand this film or not? Am I not being like the politicians? All these questions are intractible and unsolvable, of course.

The scene with Malcom McDowell with the eye clamps is really an iconic image and unforgettable. Yet at the end of it, this was all that remained - this image, the recollection of a wonderful early 70s set design, and Brunel University looking wonderful too. And the moral dilemmas I know I can never really sort out. And I cannot remember the end! Strange - how did it finish. I really cannot recall. Overall then, interesting, frustrating, finally nothing much to say.