special topics in film studies: the films of stanley kubrick dr. david lavery fall 2012 special...

Special Topics in Film Studies: The Films of Stanley

Kubrick

Dr. David LaveryFall 2012

1964

The Making of Dr. Strangelove

A Documentary

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bce_1315526687

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bce_1315526687

Chapter Titles (as listed on the DVD)Dr. Strangelove1. Start2. Condition Red3. Wing Attack Plan R4. Fred Calls Buck5. Three Simple Rules6. Attack Profile7. Captain Mandrake8. In the War Room9. Six Points10.Survival Kit Check11.Ambassador De Sadesky12.Friendly Fire13.Merkin and Dimitri14.A Monstrous Commie Plot15.Dr. Strangelove16.Ripper’s Theory17.The Base Surrenders

18.Evasive Action19.Colonel “Bat” Guano20.Assessing the Damage21.Deviated pervert22.One Plane Left23.A Change of Target24.“Is There Really a Chance?”25.Final Check”26.“Yahoo!!!”27.100-Year Plan28.“We’ll Meet Again”

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombUK (1964): Science Fiction/Comedy/War93 min, No rating, Black & White Production CreditsProducer: Stanley KubrickDirector: Stanley KubrickScreenwriter: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George, based on the novel Red Alert by GeorgeCinematographer: Gilbert TaylorEditor: Anthony HarveyComposer: Laurie JohnsonProduction designer: Ken AdamArt director: Peter MurtonSpecial effects: Wally VeeversCostumes: Bridget SellersMakeup: Stuart Freeborn

Cast ListPeter Sellers: Capt. Lionel Mandrake/President Merkin Muffley/Dr. StrangeloveGeorge C. Scott: Gen. "Buck" TurgidsonSterling Hayden: Gen. Jack D. RipperKeenan Wynn: Col. "Bat" GuanoSlim Pickens: Maj. T.J. "King" KongPeter Bull: Ambassador de SadeskyTracy Reed: Miss ScottJames Earl Jones: Lt. Lothar ZoggJack Creley: Mr. StainesFrank Berry: Lt. H.R. DietrichGlenn Beck: Lt. W.D. KivelShane Rimmer: Capt. G.A. "Ace" OwensPaul Tamarin: Lt. B. GoldbergGordon Tanner: Gen. FacemanRobert O'Neil: Adm. RandolphRoy Stephens: Frank

MAD: Mutually Assured

Destruction

Watch the whole film online here.

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_atomic_cafe

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_atomic_cafe

50 Years Ago This Month: The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962

November-December 1963November 22nd: President Kennedy

assassinated.November 23rd: First episode of Doctor

Who airs.December 12th: Scheduled premiere of

Doctor Strangelove scheduled but cancelled.

Dr. Strangelove, 93 minutes

A Dr. Strangelove Lexicon

merkin: a genital hairpiece or toupee


turgid(son): swollen , engorged, tumescent

General Buck Turgidson


(Bat) guano: A substance composed chiefly of the dung of sea birds or bats, accumulated along certain coastal areas or in caves and used as fertilizer.

Colonel “Bat” Guano


mandrake: A southern European plant (Mandragora officinarum) having greenish-yellow flowers and a branched root. This plant was once believed to have magical powers because its root resembles the human body.

Group Captain Lionel Mandrake

In 1960 the novelist Philip Roth predicted that by the 21st century the front page of the New York Times would be satire.

Black HumorFrom Murfin, Ross and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Boston: Bedford 1997.black humor: A dark, disturbing, and often morbid or grotesque mode of comedy found in certain modern texts, especially antinovels and Absurdist works. Such humor often concerns death, suffering, or other anxiety-inducing subjects. Black humor usually goes hand in hand with a pessimistic world-view or tone; it manages to express a sense of hopelessness in a wry, sardonic way that is grimly humorous.

EXAMPLES: Thomas Pynchon's V (1963), Joseph , Heller's Catch-22 (1961), and John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) contain a great deal of black humor. Little Shop of Horrors, originally a Roger Corman film that was made into a long-running musical and then remade as a movie (1986), contains many instances of black humor. Other contemporary films utilizing black humor include Eating Raoul (1982) and Fargo (1996). The writer and illustrator Edward Gorey consistently incorporates black humor into children's books; in The Gashly'crumb Times (1962), Gorey presents each letter of the alphabet via the name of a child who met an untimely death: "A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs. B is for Basil, assaulted by bears...."

Black HumorFrom the Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2003)[I]n literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce. For example, Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963) is a terrifying comic treatment of the circumstances surrounding the dropping of an atom bomb, while Jules Feiffer’s comedy Little Murders (1965) is a delineation of the horrors of modern urban life, focusing particularly on random assassinations. The novels of such writers as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth contain elements of black humor.

Black HumorFrom Cuddon, J. A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Fourth Edition. NY: Penguin, 1998.BLACK COMEDY. The term is a translation of comedie noire, which we owe to Jean Anouilh (1910-88), who divided his plays of the 1930S and 1940s into pieces roses and pieces noires. It is more than likely that the term also in part derives from Andre Breton's Anthologie de I'humeur noire (1940), which is concerned with the humorous treatment of the shocking, horrific and macabre. Black comedy is a form of drama which displays a marked disillusionment and cynicism. It shows human beings without convictions and "with little hope, regulated by fate or fortune or incomprehensible powers. In fact, human beings in an 'absurd' predicament. At its darkest such comedy is pervaded by a kind of sour despair: we can't do anything so we may as well laugh. The wit is mordant and the humour sardonic.

This form of drama has no easily perceptible ancestry, unless it be tragi-comedy (q.v.) and the so-called 'dark' comedies of Shakespeare (for instance. The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, All's Well that Ends Well and The Winter's Tale). However, some of the earlier works of Jean Anouilh (the pieces

Black Humornoires) are blackly comic: for example, Voyageur sans ba.ga.ge (1936) and La. Sauvage (1938). Later he wrote what he described as pieces grincantes (grinding, abrasive), of which two notable examples are La Valse des toreadors (1952) and Pauvre Bitos (1956). Both these plays could be classified as black comedy. So might two early dramatic works by Jean Genet: Les Bonnes (1947) and Les Negres (1959). Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), Pinter's The Homecoming (1965) and Joe Orton's Loot (1965) are other examples of this kind of play. The television dramatist Giles Cooper also made a very considerable contribution.

In other forms of literature 'black comedy' and 'black humour' (e.g. the 'sick joke') have become more and more noticeable in the 20th c. It has been remarked that such comedy is particularly prominent in the so-called 'literature of the absurd'. Literary historians have found intimations of a new vision of man's role and position in the universe in, for instance, Kafka's stories (e.g. The Trial, The Castle, Metamorphosis), in surrealistic art and poetry and, later, in the philosophy of existentialism {q.v.). Camus's vision of man as an 'irremediable exile', lonesco's concept of life as a 'tragic farce', and Samuel Beckett's tragi-comic characters

Black Humorin his novels are other instances of a particular Weltanschauung (q.v.). A baleful, even, at times, a 'sick' view of existence, alleviated by sardonic (and, not infrequently, compassionate) humour is to be found in many works of 2oth c. fiction; in Sartre's novels, in Genet's non-dramatic works also, in Giinter Grass's novels, in the more apocalyptic works of Kurt Vonnegut (junior). One might also mention some less famous books of unusual merit which are darkly comic. For example, Serge Godefroy's Les Loques (1964), Thomas Pynchon's V (1963) and his The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1961), D. D. Bell's Dicky, or The Midnight Ride of Dicky Vere (1970) and Mordecai Richler's St Urbain's-Horseman (1966). See NONSENSE; SURREALISM; THEATRE OF CRUELTY; THEATRE OF THE ABSURD.

Stills from the Set of Dr. Strangelove

John Hall WheelockEarth

"A planet doesn’t explode of itself," said drilyThe Martian astronomer, gazing off into the air."That they were able to do it is proof that highlyIntelligent beings must have been living there."

Complete Kubrick Talking Points Kubrick’s shock upon

learning about the first atomic bomb test (about the possible chain reaction that might result).

Kubrick claimed he considered moving to Australia to avoid nuclear war.

The “people will laugh” concern.

Discovered Terry Southern via The Magic Christian (given to him by Peter Sellers).

Scott claimed he deserved screen credit.

Sellers came up with the idea that his hand was still a Nazi.

15 weeks of principal photography.

Terry Southern (1924-1995) Terry Southern Official Site Perspectives

in American Literature on Southern

Internet Movie Data Base Page

Terry Southern, "Notes from the War Room"

http://www.terrysouthern.com/

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/southern.html



http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0816143/

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0816143/

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0081.html



Complete Kubrick Talking Points Shepperton Studios outside

of London—13,000 square feet.

Complete Kubrick Talking Points Sellers was originally to play Kong but was

reluctant. Southern helped with the accent, but after falling on the bomber set, Sellers opted out.

John Wayne was offered the role of Kong, and Dan Blocker was considered, but rejected it as “too pinko.” Kubrick remembered Slim Pickens from the One-Eyed Jacks project.

Sellers might have played “Buck Schmuck” as well.

Sellers paid $1,000,000—50% of the entire budget.

Kubrick spotted James Earl Jones on stage and cast him as Lt. Lothan Zogg.

Complete Kubrick Talking Points Hayden had trouble with the technical jargon

but found Kubrick very understanding. Reliance on Jane’s. Often contrasted to Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet,

1964)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058083/

Complete Kubrick Talking Points Names in earlier versions: Admiral Buldike,

Private Tung, Major Nonce, Lt. Binky Ballmuff. Always eating—according to Jones. Composer Laurie [a man) Johnson built the score

around “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” Was Columbia’s biggest success of 1964. The pie fight that was cut.

Complete Kubrick Talking Points

From Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986.DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (BRITISH/I 964) B&W/93m-102m. Stanley Kubrick directed this classic nightmare comedy, which he, Terry Southern, and Peter George adapted from George's more serious novel Red Alert. It's so funny because, as ludicrous as the characters and events are, there is nothing in this picture that is beyond the realm of possibility. Perhaps we are laughing at ourselves (instead of worrying) for living in a world whose fate is controlled by buffoons. One buffoon is General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden). Believing that the communists have poisoned the water supply—that, he believes, is why his sexual proficiency has diminished—he orders U.S. bombers to conduct a nuclear attack on Russia. He kills himself rather than reveal the recall code to his British assistant, Capt. Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers). President Muffley (also Sellers) explains the situation to the Soviet Premier (we never see him), who informs Muffley that if a nuclear bomb goes off in Russia then a

From Danny Peary, Guide for the Film FanaticRussian Doomsday device will destroy the world. Perverse Dr. Strangelove (Sellers again), a former Nazi who works for the U.S., reveals his contingency plan in which America's politicians, top brass, and bigwigs will retreat to underground chambers where there will be ten women for every man. Kubrick considered ending the film with a slapstick pie fight in the war room. I'm glad he didn't. Watching the film today, I grow impatient with most of the scenes outside the war room. Inside there are many classic bits: gum chewing Gen. Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) explaining to Muffley what Ripper has done; Muffley having hilarious Bob Newhart-type conversations over the hot line; Strangelove (who's not in the film enough) trying to stop his out-of-control metal hand (which automatically gives a Nazi salute) from strangling him. Sellers is marvelous in all three roles (he has a terrific American accent) —somehow he lost out on the Oscar, which went to Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady. Photography is by Gilbert Taylor. Production design is by Ken Adam. Vera Lynn's WWII recording of "We'll Meet Again" is used effectively at the conclusion. Also with: Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens (who rides a bomb to cinema glory), Peter Bull, Tracy Reed, James Earl Jones.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review: 3.5 stars out of 5 More relevant with each passing year, Stanley Kubrick's uproariously funny yet deadly serious DR. STRANGELOVE did much to bring underground filmmaking techniques and concerns into the commercial mainstream. Combining a satirical indictment of U.S./U.S.S.R. Cold War policies, brilliantly limned caricatures, and an inventive visual style, this extraordinary black comedy, like Stanley Kubrick's masterful 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), makes an important statement about the apocalyptic consequences of humankind's relinquishment of its destiny to machines. Synopsis. Mad bomber. After opening with the midair refueling of a long-range bomber, the film shifts into high gear when Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) goes completely mad, seals off Burpelson Air Force Base, and sends his bomber wing to attack the Soviet Union. U.S. President Merkin J. Muffley (Peter Sellers, in one of three roles he performs) responds by calling a desperate meeting with his advisors, including blustery Gen."Buck" Turgidson (George C. Scott) and Dr.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide ReviewStrangelove (Sellers again), a mysterious, wheelchair-bound German scientist whose mechanical arm is always on the verge of launching his black-gloved hand into a Nazi salute. After a hot-line consultation with the Soviet leader, Premier Kissoff who is finally tracked down at a Moscow brothel, drunk, a plan is formulated to shoot down the American planes. Although the Soviets have been informed of every U.S. move, they remain suspicious and set into motion their dreaded "Doomsday Machine"—a defensive system with a destructive capacity so great that the world will be engulfed in fallout for more than ninety years should even one bomb be dropped on the USSR and automatically trigger the buried nuclear weapons. Back at Burpelson, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (once more Sellers), a British liaison officer, busies himself with trying to trick Gen. Ripper into revealing the code that will recall his bombers. He is unsuccessful, however, as the mad general—who is convinced that the fluoridation of water is a communist plot—puts him off with tales of how he has kept his "precious bodily fluids" to himself, "denying women [his] essence." Gen. Ripper then excuses himself, goes into a washroom, and blows out his brains.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review Code busting. Meanwhile, a force commanded by Col. "Bat" Guano (Keenan Wynn) breaks through Ripper's defenses just as Mandrake has determined the recall code. With only a pay phone to alert the White House but without a dime, Mandrake suggests they break into a soda pop vending machine. Col. Guano, who warns the Briton against trying any "preeversions," shoots into the machine, but not before warning Mandrake that he will have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company of America. Armed with the code, President Muffley's War Room staff is able to recall all of the bombers that haven't been shot down except the one piloted by crafty Maj. T.J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens), who guides his damaged plane through the Soviet defenses on its way to a secondary target. As the plane approaches its objective, however, trouble arises with the bomb release mechanism. Ever the enterprising warrior, Maj. Kong manually releases the bomb, and, cowboy hat in hand, rides it to earth like a bronco buster.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide ReviewDoomsday. The explosion, of course, triggers the Russian "Doomsday Machine." Just before the end of the world, President Muffley and Dr. Strangelove fritter away precious time discussing how society's male elite and a proportionately larger contingent of beautiful women might survive the nuclear holocaust in underground hideouts, eventually repopulating the planet. Then, moments before the screen is filled with mushroom clouds and the sound track swirls with Vera Lynn's version of "We'll Meet Again," Dr. Strangelove staggers to his feet, proclaiming, "Mein Fuhrer, I can walk." Critique. One of the finest, funniest, most intelligent black comedies ever made, DR. STRANGELOVE demonstrates Kubrick's mastery of cinematic art from its first frame to its last. The film is more than just funny or didactic, however, becoming engrossingly suspenseful as Kubrick continually shifts his focus from one of the film's three principal settings to another, cutting among them with increasing rapidity as the film nears its climax, catching the audience up inextricably in the tension-filled race to save the world.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide ReviewExpressive set design. Moreover, each of the film's relatively inexpensive sets is skillfully designed and photographed to heighten the impact of the events that transpire there. As production designer Ken Adam explained to Michael Ciment, author of Stanley Kubrick, the War Room was rendered larger than life to lend the distanced decision-making that occurs there an appropriately fantastic quality. Gen. Ripper's office and Kaj. Kong's bomber, The Leper Colony, on the other hand, are presented with a gritty realism. Indeed, the scenes inside the bomber are claustrophobically framed and filmed with source lighting, while the assault on the Air Force base—shot in a cinéma vérité style with a hand-held camera that was operated most of the time by Kubrick himself—has the look of a documentary. In each case the results are among the 1960s' most expressive black-and-white images. Sexual imagery. Throughout the film Kubrick also uses his visuals to suggest the connection between the warring impulse and the male sex drive. From the sensual quality of the midair refueling that opens the film to Maj. Kong's wahooing ride to destruction on the huge oblong bomb at the film's end, DR. STRANGELOVE is full of phallic and sexual imagery. All of it mirrors the sexual

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Reviewobsessions of the film's most militant warriors: Jack Ripper's hoarding of his precious bodily fluids and Buck Turgidson's profligacy with his, most notably with his secretary, Miss Scott (Tracy Reed), who also appears as the centerfold in the Playboy ogled by Maj. Kong. Comedy started as drama. Significantly, Kubrick intended his adaptation of Peter George's novel Red Alert to be a straightforward drama, along the lines of FAIL-SAFE, 1964's other cautionary tale about the horrors of nuclear weaponry. However, as Gene D. Phillips notes in Stanley Kubrick: A Film Odyssey, Kubrick decided to make the film "a nightmare comedy" after discovering, while trying to flesh out the screenplay, that he was continually forced to leave out things "which were either absurd or paradoxical in order to keep [the screenplay] from being funny; and these things seemed to be close to the heart of the scenes in question." Collaborating with George and Terry Southern, Kubrick crafted an immensely clever script, loaded with hilariously memorable scenes and dialogue, enlivened by the improvisational contributions of the film's accomplished cast.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review Cast. At the time of the film's release, none of the cast members had attained real star status (though Sellers and Scott would later, of course). Rather, Kubrick assembled an extraordinarily talented lineup of character actors and let them run with their roles. Scott is unforgettable as gut-slapping hawk Buck Turgidson (the film's character names are themselves a howl). His War Room scuffle with Soviet Ambassador de Sadesky—played with terrific tongue-in-cheek stoicism by Peter Bull—is among the film's highlights, topped off by Muffley's killer punch line: "Gentleman, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!" Equally delightful is Scott's bug-eyed description of a lone bomber's chances against the Soviet defenses. But as good as Scott's performance is, Sellers steals the show, bringing deft comic shading to each of his three roles: milquetoast liberal President Muffley; reserved but exasperated Group Captain Mandrake (whose slow burns bring to mind those of Monty Python's Cleese); and the absurdly grinning Dr. Strangelove, whose battles with his arm with an ideology of its own are worth the price of admission as he whips, bangs, and even sits on it before his hand finally attempts to strangle him. Hayden, Pickens, Wynn, and, in a smaller role, James Earl Jones also contribute wonderfully over-the-top supporting performances.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review Surprisingly, Kubrick originally intended to end DR. STRANGELOVE with a colossal custard pie fight in the War Room. In fact, he spent nearly a week filming the melee before opting to culminate the film with a bang and sneer—the ironic combination of exploding hydrogen bombs and "We'll Meet Again." Certainly Stanley Kubrick is one of the masters of the American cinema, his impressive oeuvre including such outstanding films as THE KILLING (1956); PATHS OF GLORY (1957); SPARTACUS (1960); LOLITA (1962); 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968); A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971); BARRY LYNDON (1975); THE SHINING (1980); and FULL METAL JACKET (1987). Awards. Sellers was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, as well as Kubrick for Best Direction and the film itself for Best Picture, but all lost to MY FAIR LADY. Kubrick, Peter George and Terry Southern were also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.


Kubrick


1968

"[Like the monolith in 2001, Stanley Kubrick] was a force of supernatural intelligence, appearing at great intervals amid high-pitched shrieks, who gives the world a violent kick up the next rung of the evolutionary ladder."

David Denby

Chapter Titles (as listed on the DVD)2001: A Space Odyssey1. Overture2. Opening Credits3. The Dawn of Man4. From Earth to the Moon5. Voice Print Identification6. Squirt7. A Great Big Mystery8. Off to Clavius9. Purpose of the Visit10.Deliberately Buried11.The Monolith12.Jupiter Mission13.The World Tonight14.Frank’s Parents15.Chess with HAL16.Sketches and Suspicions17.Removing the AE3518.Human Error?19.A Bad Feeling

20.Intermission21.Cut Adrift22.Rescue Mission23.The Big Sleep24.“Open the Doors!”25.Emergency Airlock26.My Mind is Going27.Prerecorded Briefing28.Jupiter29.. . . And Beyond the Infinite30.Through Space and Time31.Star Child32.End Credits

2001: A Space OdysseyUK (1968): Science FictionProduction Credits139 min, Rated PG, Color, Available on videocassette and laserdiscProducer | Stanley KubrickDirector | Stanley KubrickScreenwriter | Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, based on the short story "The Sentinel" by ClarkeCinematographer | Geoffrey Unsworth, John AlcottEditor | Ray LovejoyProduction designer | Tony Masters, Harry Lange, | Ernest ArcherArt director | John HoesliSpecial effects | Stanley Kubrick, Wally Veevers, Douglas TrumbullCostumes | Hardy AmiesMakeup | Stuart Freeborn

Dave: Open the pod bay doors, please, HAL. Open the pod bay

doors, please, HAL. Hello, HAL. Do you read me? Hello, HAL. Do you

read me? Do you read me, HAL?

HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.

Dave: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.

Dave: F&*K you HAL!

HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave, you're going to find that

rather difficult.

--Found on the door of a toilet stall, St. Cloud State

University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, 1972

W. R. Robinson on 2001:

(with Mary McDermott), “2001 and the Literary Sensibility”

“The Birth of Imaginative Man in Part III of 2001: A Space Odyssey”

David Lavery, “Like Light: The Movie Theory of W. R. Robinson”

2001: A Space OdysseyCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review: 3.5 stars out of 5 A beautiful, confounding picture that had half the audience cheering and the other half snoring. Stanley Kubrick clearly means to say something about the dehumanizing effects of technology, but exactly what is hard to say. One of those works presumed to be profound by virtue of its incomprehensibility, 2001 is nevertheless an astounding visual experience—one to be enjoyed, if possible, only on the big screen. SynopsisThe distant past. The story can be synopsized, but can it be understood? For the first half hour or so, we are treated to the sight and grunts of a tribe of apes, circa 4 million years ago. Kubrick uses actors in ape suits plus a few real animals, and they happily cavort as vegetarians in their prehistoric world. Then a large black monolith appears and seems to be calling to the apes. The moment they touch the ebony slab, the peaceful simians become carnivorous, territorial, and begin using the bones of their prey as weapons to keep other apes away from their small domain. A bone is tossed in the air, begins to revolve in slow motion, and the film jumps 4 million years forward to 2001.

2001: A Space OdysseyCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review At the lunar station. The rotating bone becomes the rotating spaceship Orion. Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) is a scientist aboard the spaceship on his way to a lunar station. When he is questioned by Russian colleagues about why they have been banned from the space station despite having an agreement with the U.S., Dr. Floyd says he has no idea why they are not allowed. He arrives at the station and talks to several Americans. It turns out he knows full well why the Russians have been kept in the dark, but he has been forbidden to speak of it to anyone other than people cleared on the highest classified level. Discovery. There has been a tremendous discovery, and the U.S. government fears that any leak of the "discovery" might cause a panic back on Earth. Dr. Floyd and his compatriots use a lunar buggy to go to the site and come upon the monolith that is, as near as they can determine, 4 million years old. They approach the edifice, which lets out an ear-piercing screech that seems to be in the direction of Jupiter.

2001: A Space OdysseyCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review Meet HAL. Dissolve to a year-and-a-half later, as a spaceship makes its way to Jupiter. David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) run the ship with the help of HAL 9000, the most sophisticated computer ever devised. The voice of HAL (Douglas Rain) has a pleasant tone but with the slightest malevolent edge. (Martin Balsam had originally recorded the voice but was replaced.) There are three other men in a deep freeze, and neither Poole nor Bowman knows the real mission. HAL knows, but he has been programmed not to tell them until they reach their destination. Poole and Bowman take care of the minor business aboard the ship, exercise, and try to keep from going nuts as HAL runs the voyage. HAL takes over. The computer is not supposed to ever tell a lie or make an error, so they take it as Gospel when HAL says there is a malfunction in the spaceship's antenna. They plan to go outside and do an on-site check. On Earth, the men at mission control report that HAL is wrong and that it is impossible for such a thing to have happened. Poole and Bowman wonder now about the efficacy of their on-board computer. Poole goes outside the spaceship, and HAL arranges to have the lifeline cut. Poole is floating in space, and Bowman attempts to rescue him but fails. At the same time, HAL shuts off the units that are keeping the deep-frozen astronauts alive.

2001: A Space OdysseyCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review Bowman tries to get back on board but is being stopped by the machinations of HAL. He finally gets back on the ship by manually overriding the computer. Once on board, Bowman cuts off the electrical system that keeps HAL going and now learns about the slab found on the moon. The ship approaches Jupiter, and Bowman sees a slab go past his ship. The next sequence has Bowman immersed in a light show, a vast array of many-colored oceans and seas and skies and explosions, none of which he can fathom (and all of which were sheer delight to the drug-laden viewers of the late 1960s, who thought this movie was heaven-sent). Next thing he knows, he is in a bedroom circa 1700, where he discovers an old man, himself at age 100. Bowman plays both characters, who have an enigmatic conversation. Then a monolith appears in the room and moves toward the bed. Finally, an embryo that looks vaguely like Bowman is seen floating toward Earth as the film concludes.

2001: A Space OdysseyCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review CritiqueFor sheer spectacle, it may be unsurpassed; for storytelling, it stays as dark and deep as the monolith that is its focal point. Kubrick was delighted by the confusion the movie caused and maintained that he deliberately kept questions unanswered because he wanted to pique the curiosity of audiences. The rebirth of Bowman at the film's end has been thought to signify the next leap forward of humankind, but that is still open for discussion. Some have said that it broke new ground by creating a new film "language." We think that a bit more story would have helped, or at least a translation of this new language. 2001 continues to annoy and delight audiences years later, and its real meaning cannot be explained to anyone's liking. The casting of Lockwood, Dullea, and Sylvester, three undynamic actors (in these roles), must have been deliberate, as Kubrick didn't want anything in the way of his vision (whatever that was). The movie has many Woody Allen-like jibes at Howard Johnson's, Hilton Hotels, and others.

2001: A Space OdysseyCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review Clarke's short story was first made into a novel, then into the screenplay that MGM financed for $6 million. The budget kept rising, and the studio execs feared a disaster. They didn't reckon with Kubrick's vision. Made at a cost of only $10.5 million, the film began to build slowly but eventually took in almost $15 million in North America, then about half that upon rerelease in the slightly shorter version (141 minutes) in 1972. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was followed by a sequel in 1984, 2010. AwardsUnderstandably, the movie won the Oscar for Best Special Effects in 1968, and was nominated for Best Direction, Best Screenplay, and Best Art Direction. It also took the BFA Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Art Direction.

2001: A Space OdysseyCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review MusicMade at Boreham Richard Wood's British Studios in England, it featured many classical tunes as the background score: Aram Khatchaturian's "Gayane Ballet Suite" (played by the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky), Richard Strauss's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" (played by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Karl Boehm), Johann Strauss's "Blue Danube Waltz" (played by the Berlin Symphony, conducted by Herbert von Karajan), Gyorgy Ligeti's "Atmospheres" (played by the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, conducted by Ernst Baur), Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" (played by the Stuttgart State Orchestra, conducted by Clytus Gottwald), and Ligeti's "Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra" (played by the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, conducted by Francis Travis).

From Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986.2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (BRITISH/I 968) C/ 141m-160m. The most awesome, beautiful (the visuals and classical music), mentally stimulating, and controversial science-fiction film ever made was directed by Stanley Kubrick, adapted from Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel" by Kubrick and Clarke, and photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth and John Alcott, and features incredible, Oscar-winning special effects by Wally Veerers, Douglas Trumbull (who supervised the miraculous star-gate sequence). Con Pederson, and Tom Howard. It begins four million years ago when a black monolithic slab appears to a family of apes. Once peaceful vegetarians, they become meat-eaters and intelligent enough to use bones as weapons to kill other animals for food and to chase other apes away from their territory. They have evolved into apemen and their human descendants will retain their warring instincts—progress and brutality go hand in hand—the territorial

From Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY imperative, and a notion of God. It is for the viewer to decide if the superior alien intelligence that sent the monolith and caused man to evolve from the apes (instead of the neighboring tapirs!) is God as we define God. (I believe that Kubrick thinks the concept of God is so unfathomable to us that if an alien intelligence has the power over us that we always associated with God, then we might as well call it God.) Film moves from the past to 2001, when Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester), an American scientist, investigates the discovery of a monolith on the moon. The monolith sends a piercing signal (through space's vacuum?), a distant intelligence, no doubt, that man has evolved to the point where the monolith has been discovered. But man is nothing special: he is boring, untrusting (Floyd keeps the discovery secret from the Russians), nationalistic, uncommunicative; while man

From Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY has made great technical advances in communication, men are incapable of meaningful, intelligent conversation, and are unworthy of their own scientific achievements. American big business has expanded: Pan Am, Bell Telephone, the Hilton chain, and Howard lohnson's are prominent at the space station. On a spaceship we see that the astronauts. Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Poole (Gary Lockwood), are completely subservient to a computer named HAL. HAL is actually more interesting than the men—they are mechanized; HAL is a neurotic. HAL represents both a Frankenstein monster turning on its human creators (he tries to dispose of the crew) and a Big Brother in which, unlike the situation in Orwell, men intentionally have set up to spy on them. There is no scarier scene than when HAL reads the lips of Bowman and Poole as they plan to dismantle this rebellious computer. In an unforgettable scene Bowman dismantles HAL. The battle between man

From Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic2001: A SPACE ODYSSEYand computer, resulting in HAL'S death, releases emotions that Bowman had previously held in check: fear and sorrow. The destruction of the oppressive computer is the signal to the aliens—who may have set up the combat, if we are to believe the dualist concept of God's omnipotence and man's having free will under God's auspices—that Bowman is worthy of being the human being who comes to them. After traveling through space—"the ultimate trip"—Bowman finds himself in a terrarium observed by alien creatures. There he ages rapidly and becomes the first character in the film to eat at a table and the first to eat tasty food—from a plate, too. He becomes civilized man; Kubrick believes that "the missing link between the apes and civilized man is the human being—us." Lastly, Bowman dies and evolves into a star child, floating through space toward earth. The evolution of man from ape to angel is complete. Originally released in Cinerama at 160m. Peter Hyams directed the badly muddled, forgettable 2070. Also with: Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Douglas Rain (voice of HAL).

The Music of 2001

The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss

The Music of 2001

“Thus Spake Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss

The Music of 2001

Atmosphères by György Ligeti

Complete Kubrick Talking Points Working Titles: How the Solar System Was Won,

Universe, Tunnel to the Stars, Planetfall, Journey Beyond the Stars

Kubrick admired Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956).

Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008).

Complete Kubrick Talking Points Kubrick sought out Clarke, whose Childhood’s End

he admired greatly

Complete Kubrick Talking Points Kubrick was worried about “outguessing the future.” Concerned about the ending. Budget of $10.5 million. The moon based was built at Shepperton. Kubrick didn’t like filming further than 10 miles from home. “The Dawn of Man” used second unit work in Namibia. The crotch problem. The centrifugal cylinder The role of Douglas Trumbull. The Stargate sequence and Jordon Belson (1926-2011).

(The image below is from Allures (1961).

Complete Kubrick Talking Points No name cast. Bland, inane dialogue. HAL (and IBM). Rejecting North’s score. Last minute choices.

Complete Kubrick Talking Points The bone to spaceship match cut.


Kubrick


1971

Production Credits137 min, Rated R, Color, Available on videocassette and laserdisc Producer: Stanley KubrickDirector: Stanley KubrickScreenwriter: Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel by Anthony BurgessCinematographer: John AlcottEditor: Bill Butler (cinematographer)Composer: Walter CarlosProduction designer: John BarryArt director: Russell Hagg, Peter ShieldsStunts: Roy ScammellCostumes: Milena CanoneroMakeup: Freddie Williamson, George Partleton, Barbara Daly

Chapter Titles (as listed on the DVD)1. Alex and His Droogs2. The Old Ultraviolence on a

Tramp3. Battling Billy Boy4. Through the Real Country

Dark5. Country House6. Disciplining Dim7. At Home with Ludwig Von8. Home Ill; Mr. Deltoid9. The Music Shop10.Two Ladies11.Dissent Among Droogs12.A Real Leader13.The Cat Lady’s House14.Now a Murderer15.Prisoner #65532116.The Chaplain’s Remarks17.Big Book Fantasies18.The Minister’s Visit

We will watch all the chapters in bold.

19.Arrival at Ludovico20.“And Vidi Films I Would”21.“I’m Cured, Praise God!”22.On Display23.The Sickness24.Your True Believer25.Family Reunion26.No Room for Alex27.Three Familiar Faces28.Droogs with Badges

Break

29.Return to the Country House

30.Mr. Alexander’s Hospitality31.The Hospital32.A Slide Show33.A Very Special Visitor34.“I Was Cured All Right”35.End Credits

Lindsay Anderson (1923-1994)

Six Degrees of Separation (me,

Clockwork)

Lindsay Anderson (1923-1994)

Six Degrees of Separation (me, Clockwork)

1973


Clockwork)

1968


Clockwork)

Clockwork as a Cult Film

Eco, Umberto. "Casablanca:

Cult Movies and

Intertextual Collage."

Travels in Hyper Reality.

Trans. William Weaver. New

York: Harcourt, Brace

Jovanovich, 1986: 197-211.

LIVING TEXTUALITY. The authentic cult work, Eco observes, must seem like "living textuality," as if it had no authors, as postmodernist proof that "as literature comes from literature, cinema comes from cinema" (199).


A COMPLETELY FURNISHED WORLD. Another closely related prerequisite of The Cult, Eco observes, is its capacity to "provide a completely furnished world so that its fans can quote characters and episodes as if they were aspects of the fan's private sectarian world, a world about which one can make up quizzes and play trivia games so that the adepts of the secret recognize through each other a shared experience" (198).


DETACHABILITY. The cult work, according to Eco, must also be susceptible to breaking, dislocation, unhinging, "so that one can remember only parts of it, irrespective of their original relationship with the whole." The cult viewer watching these moments--indeed watching for such moments—may let out an audible "I love this."


Anthony Burgess (1917-1993)

Cast ListMalcolm McDowell: AlexPatrick Magee: Mr. AlexanderMichael Bates: Chief GuardWarren Clarke: DimJohn Clive: Stage ActorAdrienne Corri: Mrs. AlexanderCarl Duering: Dr. BrodskyPaul Farrell: HoboClive Francis: LodgerMichael Gover: Prison WardenMiriam Karlin: Cat LadyJames Marcus: GeorgieAubrey Morris: DeltoidGodfrey Quigley: Prison ChaplainSheila Raynor: MumMadge Ryan: Dr. BranomJohn Savident: Conspirator DolinAnthony Sharp: Minister of InteriorPhilip Stone: DadPauline Taylor: PsychiatristMargaret Tyzack: Conspirator RubinsteinSteven Berkoff: Constable

Lindsay Campbell: InspectorMichael Tarn: PeteDavid Prowse: JulianJan Adair: HandmaidenPrudence Drage: HandmaidenVivienne Chandler: HandmaidenJohn J. Carney: C.I.D. OfficialRichard Connaught: BillyboyCarol Drinkwater: Nurse FeeleyGeorge O'Gorman: Bootick ClerkCheryl Grunwald: Rape VictimGillian Hills: SoniettaCraig Hunter: Dr. FriendlyBarbara Scott: MartyVirginia Wetherell: Stage ActressKatya Wyeth: Girl in Fantasy

*appy polly loggy—apologybaboochka—old womanbaddiwad—badbanda—bandbezoomny—madbiblio—librarybitva—battleBog—Godbolnoy—sickbolshy—big, greatbrat, bratty—brotherbratchny—bastardbritva—razorbrooko—bellybrosay—to throwbugatty—richcal—feces*cancer—cigarette

cantora—officecarman—pocketchai—tea*charles, charlie—chaplainchasha—cupchasso—guardcheena—womancheest—to washchelloveck—person, man, followchepooka—nonsensechoodessny—wonderful*chumble—to mumbleclop—beakcollocoll—bell*crack—to break up or "bust"*crark—to yowl?crast—to rob or steal; robbery

GLOSSARY OF NADSAT LANGUAGE (originally prepared by Stanley Edgar Hyman). Words that don't seem to be of Russian origin are distinguished by asterisks.

creech—to shout or scream*cutter—moneydama—ladyded—old mandeng—moneydevotchka—girldobby—good*dook—trace, ghostdomy—housedorogoy—dear, valuabledratsing—fighting*drencrom—drugdroog—friend (ie: my droogies)*dung—to defecatedva—twoeegra—gameeemya—name*eggiweg—egg*filly—to play or fool with*firegold—drink

*fist—to punch*flip—wild?forella—"trout"gazetta—newspaperglazz—eyegloopy—stupid*golly—unit of moneygoloss—voicegoober—lipgooly—to walkgorlo—throatgovorett—to speak or talkgrahzny—dirtygrazzy—soiled

GLOSSARY OF NADSAT LANGUAGE

gromky—loudgroody—breastgruppa—group*guff—guffawgulliver—head*gulliwuts—guts*hen-korm—chickenfeed*horn—to cry outhorrorshow—good, well*in-out in-out—copulationinteressovat—to interestitty—to go*jammiwam—jamjeezny—lifekartoffel—potatokeeshkas—gutskleb—breadkootch—key

knopka—buttonkopat—to "dig"koshka—catkot—tomcatkrovvy—bloodkupet—to buylapa—pawlewdies—people*lighter—crone?litso—facelomtick—piece, bitloveted—caughtlubbilubbing—making love


*luscious glory—hairmalchick—boymalenky—little, tinymaslo—buttermerzky—filthymessel—thought, fancymesto—placemillicent—policemanminoota—minutemolodoy—youngmoloko—milkmoodge—manmorder—snout*mounch—snackmozg—brainnachinat—to beginnadmenny—arrogantnadsat—teenagenagoy—naked

*nazz—foolneezhnies—underpantsnochy—nightnoga—foot, legnozh—knifenuking—smellingoddy knocky—lonesomeodin—oneokno—windowoobivat—to killookadeet—to leaveooko—earoomny—brainyoozhassny—terribleoozy—chain


osoosh—to wipeotchkies—eyeglasses*pan-handle—erection*pee and em—parentspeet—to drinkpischcha—foodplatch—to cryplatties—clothespletcho—shoulderplenny—prisonerplesk—splash*plosh—to splashplott—bodypodooshka—pillowpol—sexpolezny—useful*polyclef—skeleton keypony—to understandpoogly—frightenedpooshka—"cannon"

prestoopnik—criminalprivodeet—to lead somewhere*pretty polly—moneyprod—to produceptitsa—"chick"pyahnitsa—drunkrabbit—work, jobradosty—joyraskazz—storyrassoodock—mindraz—timerazdraz—upsetrazrez—to rip, rippingrock, rooker—hand, armrot—mouthrozz—policeman


sabog—shoesakar—sugarsammy—generous*sarky—sarcasticscotenna—"cow"shaika—gang*sharp—femalesharries—buttocksshest—barrier*shilarny—concern*shive—sliceshiyah—neckshlem—helmet*shlaga—clubshlapa—hatshoom—noiseshoot—fool*sinny—cinemashazat—to say

*skolliwoll—schoolskorry—quick, quickly*shriking—scratchingshvat—to grabsladky—sweetsloochat—to happensloosh, slosshy—to hear, to listenslovo—wordsmech—laughsmot—to looksneety—dream*snoutie—tobacco?*snuff it—to diesobirat—to pick up


*sod—to fornicate, fornicatorsoomaka—"bag"soviet—advice, orderspat—to sleepspatchka—sleep*splodge, splosh—splash*spoogy—terrified*Staja—State Jailstarry—ancientstrack—horror*synthemesc—drugtally—waist*tashtook—handkerchief*tass—cuptolchock—to hit or push;blow, beatingtoofles—slipperstree—threevareet—to "cook up"

*vaysay—washroomveck—(see chelloveck)*vellocet—drugveshch—thingviddy—to see or lookvoloss—hairvon—smellvred—to harm or damageyahma—hole*yahoodies—Jewsyabzick—tongue*yarbles—testiclesyeckate—to drive*warble—song


zammechat—remarkablezasnoot—sleepzhenna—wifezoobies—teethzvonock—bellpullzvook—sound


Alex: There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie Boy and Dim. And we sat in the Korova Milk Bar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova Milk Bar sold milk plus - milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old Ultra-Violence.

Clockwork Dialogue

Alex: “Viddy well, little brother, viddy well!”

Clockwork Dialogue

Alex: I woke up, the pain and sickness all over me like an animal. Then I realized what it was. The music coming up from the floor was our old friend Ludwig Van and the dreaded 9th Symphony. Let me out. Open the door, open the door. Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off, turn it off, turn it off. Stop it. Turn it off. Turn it off. Turn it off. Turn it off. Please, turn it off. Suddenly I viddied what I had to do and what I had wanted to do and that was to do myself in. To snuff it, to blast off forever from this wicked cruel world. One moment of pain perhaps and then sleep forever and ever.

Clockwork Dialogue

Dim: What did you do that for? Alex: For being a bastard with no manners. Without a dook of an idea about how to comport yourself public-wise, O my brother. Dim: I don't like you should do what you done and I'm not your brother no more and wouldn't want to be. Alex: Watch that. Do watch that O Dim, if to continue to be on live thou dost wish. Dim: Yarbles, great bouncy yarblockos to you I'll meet you with chain, or nudge, or britva, any time, I'm not have you aiming tolchoks at me reasonless. It stands to reason, I won't have it. Alex: And I'll scrap any time you say. Dim: Right, right. Doobidoob. A bit tired may be best not to say more. Bedways is rigthways now, so best we go homeways and get a bit of spatchka. Right, right.

Clockwork Dialogue

It had been a wonderful evening and what I needed now to give it the perfect ending was a bit of the old Ludwig Van. Oh bliss, bliss and heaven. Oh it was georgeousness and georgeosity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest spun heaven metal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship gravity all nonsense now as I slooshied I knew such pretty pictures.

Clockwork Dialogue

Alex: This is the real weepy and tragic part of the story being O my brothers and only friends. After a trial with judge and a jury and some very hard words spoken against your friend and humble narrator, he was sentenced to fourteen years in Stargent number 84-F among smelly perverts and hardened crustoodniks.

Clockwork Dialogue

And viddy films I would. Where I was taken to, Brothers, was like no cine I ever viddied before. I was bound up in a straight jacket and my guliver was strapped to a headrest with like wires running away from it. Then they clamped like lidlocks on my eyes so that I could not shut them no matter how hard I tried. It seemed a bit crazy to me but I let them get on with it. If I was to be a free young malchick again in a fortnights time I would put up with much in the meantime, O my Brothers. So far the first film, was a very good professional piece of cine. Like it was done in Hollywood. The sounds were real horroshow, you could slooshie the screams and moans very realistic. You could even get the heavy breathing and panting of the tolchcoking malchicks at the same time. And then what do you know, soon our dear old friend the red red vino on tap. The same in all places, like it was put out by the same big firm, began to flow. It was beautiful. It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen. Now all the

Clockwork Dialogue

time I was watching this, I was beginning to get very aware of like not feeling all that well. And this this I put down to all the rich food and vitamins. But I tried to forget this concentrating on the next film which jumped right away on a young devotchka who was being given the old in-out, in-out. First by one malchick, then another, then another. When it came to the sixth or seventh malchick leering and smecking and going into it, I began to feel really sick. But I could not shut my glassies and even if I tried to move my glassballs about, I still not get out of the line of fire of the picture.

Clockwork Dialogue

From Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986.

CLOCKWORK ORANGE, A (British/1971) C/137m. In the not too distant future our Humble Narrator, young Alex (Malcolm McDowell), and his pals (“droogs”) spend the nights practicing ultra-violence: beating, raping, terrorizing citizens. One night Alex kills a snobbish man, and his droogs, who are angry with him, knock him out and leave him for police. He's sent to prison. His only chance for freedom is to undergo the Liberal Party's experimental "Ludovico" treatment whereby he's made ill when watching violent movies; afterward violence and Beethoven make him nauseous. When freed he is unable to hurt a fly; he becomes the victim of the droogs (now policemen) and ends up in the house of liberal Mr. Alexander (Patrick Magee), who doesn't recognize Alex as the one who raped and caused the death of his wife. Eventually Alex gets that evil gleam back in his eye. You can't cure the habitual thrill criminal.

From Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic.

Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's novel is visually brilliant and thematically reprehensible. Because Alex is meant to embody our savage, anarchic impulses, Kubrick figured we'd identify with him. At least, that is what he intended—so that we wouldn't identify with Alex's victims, he manipulates us into accepting Alex in relation to the world. Played by McDowell instead of by a less appealing actor of the Sean Penn mold, Alex is energetic, handsome, witty, and more clever, honest, intelligent, aid interesting than any of the adults in the cruel world. Without exception, Kubrick makes Alex's victims more obnoxious than they are in the book (his treatment of women is insulting). Kubrick makes their abuse at Alex's hands more palatable by making them grotesque, mannered, snobbish figures. Kubrick uses other distancing devices: extreme wide angles, slow motion, fast motion, surreal backgrounds, songs that counterpoint the violence. The violence that Alex perpetrates is very stylized, but when it comes time for him to


endure violence (a bottle to the head, police brutality, the Ludovico technique), it is much more realistic. Poor Alex we think. Our hostility is directed toward everyone, but he is like an alley cat who is declawed before being returned to the streets. Burgess believed that the book and film were parables that expressed two basic points: "If we are going to love mankind, we will have to love Alex as a not-unrepresentative member of it; it is preferable to have a world of violence undertaken in full awareness—violence chosen as an act of will—than a world conditioned to be good or harmless." But the mankind Kubrick shows us is totally alien to us and not worthy of our love. And even before he undergoes the Ludovico treatment, Alex's violent acts don't seem to be made through free choice, but are reflexive, conditioned by past violence—he is already a clockwork orange (human on the outside, mechanized on the inside). Film's strong, gratuitous violence is objectionable (as is the comical atmosphere when violence is being perpetrated) but the major reason the film can be termed fascistic is Kubrick's heartless, super-intellectual, super-orderly, antiseptic,


anti-human, anti-female, anti-sensual, anti-passion, anti-erotic treatment of its subject. In his cold world, all emotional stimuli, from drugs to Beethoven, are lumped together as being harmful; all art (classical music, theater, literature, painting, sculpture, and film) is pornographic. Film has cult following due to wild clothes, visual design, and violence. John Alcott is the cinematographer. Also with: Anthony Sharp (as the Minister who wants to us "cured" Alex for political purposes), Warren Clarke, Aubrey Morris, James Marcus, Michael Tarn, Adrienne Corri, Michael Bates

Complete Kubrick Talking Points Was considering Eyes Wide Shut when he decided to do

Clockwork. Terry Southern once owned the rights. A producer (Sandy Lieberson) wanted to do it with Mick

Jagger (a big fan) as Alex and the others Stones as his droogs; Ken Russell considered doing it as well.

Fears of censorship from the beginning. Abandoned Napoleon to embark on Clockwork. Kubrick ignored previous screenplays and wrote his own

(using a computer).


McDowell’s injuries: near drowning, broken ribs, scratched corneas, freezing in the shower.

Abuse of Adrienne Corri McDowell was 28, twice the age of the novel’s Alex. Prowse [Julian] + James Earl Jones = Darth Vader.

Complete Kubrick Talking Points Walter/Wendy Carlos hired to do electronic versions of

Ninth. Rossini’s William Tell, Purcell’s Music on the Death of Queen Mary.

“Singin’ in the Rain”: the only song McDowell knew. “There seems to be an assumption that if you’re offended by

movie brutality, you are somehow playing into the hands of the people who want censorship. But this would deny those of us who don’t believe in censorship the use of the only counterbalance: the freedom of the press to say that there’s anything conceivably damaging in these films — the freedom to analyze their implications. If we don’t use this critical freedom, we are implicitly saying that no brutality is too much for us — that only squares and people who believe in censorship are concerned with brutality. Actually, those who believe in censorship are primarily concerned with sex, and they generally worry about violence only when it’s eroticized. This means that practically no one raises the issue of the possible cumulative effects of movie brutality. Yet surely, when night after night atrocities are served up to us as entertainment, it’s worth some anxiety. We become clockwork oranges if we accept all this pop culture without asking what’s in it. How can people go on talking about the dazzling brilliance of movies and not notice that the directors are sucking up to the thugs in the audience?”—Pauline Kael


Kubrick was vehemently anti-censorship but his “self-imposed became the most effective censorship of a film in British history.”

Production budget: $2 million; worldwide gross $15.4 million

Teenage delinquents Alex (Malcolm McDowell), Dim (Warren Clarke), Georgie (James Marcus), and Pete (Michael Tarn) living in a futuristic British state, indulge in nightly rounds of beatings, rapings, and, as they call it, "ultraviolence." Among their victims is prominent writer Mr. Alexander (Patrick Magee); they beat him senseless, and brutally gang-rape his attractive wife (Adrienne Corri). (Mr. Alexander later becomes manic, and his wife dies as a result of the attack). After violently quelling an uprising among his own gang, Alex is betrayed by them during an attack on another home, having been knocked senseless and left for the police. In prison, he agrees to undergo experiments in "aversion therapy" in order to shorten his term. Now nauseated by the mere sight of violence, he is pronounced cured and released into the outside world. There, vengeance of one kind or another is wreaked upon him by his erstwhile fellow gang-members (now policemen), and by his former victims (including Mr. Alexander). After another spell in prison Alex returns home, where we expect him to resume his old criminal ways.

A Clockwork OrangeCineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review: 4.0 stars out of 5

CritiqueAdapted from the novel by British author Anthony Burgess, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is a visually dazzling, highly unsettling work that revolves around one of the few truly amoral characters in either film or literature. It pits a gleefully vicious individual against a blandly inhuman state, leaving the viewer little room for emotional involvement (though McDowell gives such an ebullient, wide-eyed performance as the Beethoven-loving delinquent that it is hard for us not to feel some sympathy toward him). Meanwhile, we are dazzled by Stanley Kubrick's directorial pyrotechnics—slow motion, fast motion, fish-eye lenses, etc.; entertained by John Barry's witty, ostentatious sets; and intrigued by dialogue laden with Burgess's specially created slang (gang members are "droogies," sex is "the old inout," etc.). This is a particularly graphic film which has divided critics, but which no serious moviegoer can afford to ignore.


AwardsA CLOCKWORK ORANGE won four Academy Award nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Adapted Screenplay; and Best Editing. The film was also honored by the New York Film Critics Circle with awards for Best Picture and Best Director.


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