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#A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 dystopian crime film
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Best Malcolm McDowell movies and performances:
1. A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick (1971)
2. O Lucky Man! - Lindsay Anderson (1973)
3. Time After Time - Nicholas Meyer (1979)
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lockedincinema · 1 year
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- A CLOCKWORK ORANGE -
Kubrick / 1971 / 2h 16m
Rating : ★★★★★
“A visual masterpiece“
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spoilers … duh!
tw: rape, murder, graphic violence.
I first saw ‘A Clockwork Orange’(1971) almost 6 years ago, after my interest in cinema started to develop beyond the modern hollywood blockbuster. Since I first saw it my appreciation and fascination only grew for the film itself and Kubrick as an Auture. Since then I have watched it and studied it many times, it never loses its novelty, each time I notice something different and feel as though it’s my first time watching. From the shot compositions, to the sound track choices i dont think I’m alone in claiming it to be an impeccable film. The film was released in 1971, it was the fastest film shoot of Kubrick whole career. Upon release, it received diverse responses from American and British audiences. American audiences hailed it ‘thought-provoking’ and a ‘work of art’ yet the British were most displeased. It was revoked from theatres upon Kubrick's request due to the brutal backlash it received.
A Clockwork Orange, Set in a dismal and dystopian England, Alexander de Large (Alex) is the central character, portrayed extraordinarily Malcolm McDowell. Alex is a charismatic teenage delinquent whose most interested in classical music, engaging in rape, theft and the ‘ultra-violence’. he is the audiences narrator and speaks in a dialect of his own - nadsat, a kind of Cockney slang/Russian hybrid. He is the leader of his small gang of friends also known as his ‘droogs’ who partake in his antics. When the law catches up with him, he undergoes state-sponsored psychological rehabilitation for his hideous behaviour. He is forcefully exposed to films of sex and violence whilst under the influence of a nauseating drug. The second act entails the effects of this experiment when he is released back into the world. The film explores ideas such as free will and lack of, crime, punishment, human nature and extreme political systems.
A clockwork orange is a powerful production but what makes it so impactful ?
Firstly, Kubrick nails the adaptation, as expected. He released ‘2001: a space odyssey’ (1968) only three years earlier, which was a very loose adaptation of Arthur c. Clarke’s ‘The Sentinel’ andended up a complete box office it. A Clockwork Orange was then released a while later, an adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ novel. Kubrick keeps the classic essence of the book, using nadsat and Alex’s direct address narration. But most successfully is his character development of Alex. Malcolm McDowell offers an astonishing Performance. The Russian-Cockney hybrid is extremely interesting, difficult to grasp at first but enables Alex's obvious sense of charisma. You find yourself proud when you begin to understand the key words and phrases of nadsat and what they mean, Through this Kubrick builds a great connection between audience and character. Kubrick is known for book to film adaptation, A Clockwork Orange is structured into distinct acts, much like chapters of a book. Most adaptations seem to have a translation issue, almost as if the novelty of the book is never captured, Kubrick only enhances it.
And what would a Kubrick film be without extremely stylised cinematography? Possibly his most recognisable trope. You can watch 2-5 minutes into a Kubrick film and before his name pops up on those credits, you’ll most likely know it’s him. This is no exception. there is an unmistakable dreamlike quality to the film, deriving from Kubrick's intentional use of a wide-angle lense to distort space and character dynamics on screen, altering the audience's perception. He is no stranger to heavily stylised and visually pleasing sets. his use of symmetry is unmatched and his skill with shot composition is truly a masterpiece. Violence is at the centre of a clockwork orange - it is easy to see the Kubrick signature in these scenes. multiple times throughout the film he distorts and stylises the violent actions, causing a kind of artistic detachment that seems to reflect Alex’s detachment from the crimes. For example, in the first act of the film, Alex’s gang of droogs fight a rival gang in an abandoned grand theatre. As the battle unfolds between the two groups, the camera pans in and out, offering wide angled shots and slow motion of the action, all accompanied by racing classical music. creating an almost circus-like fight between them, artistically detaching spectators. In a multitude of scenes, Kubrick controls the image of violence in a similarly artistic way. but you’ll have to see that for yourself…
the film is timeless, a stunning example of the power of style. Through A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick has created some of the most iconic scenes and symbolism seen in cinema, it’s impact on literary, musical and visual culture has been imence. it’s issues are still relevant in todays world - the individual vs the state, punishment and redemption. Through this production, Kubrick perfectly executed his definable style, his legacy continues as a artistic master and Auture. you’d almost sound mad to say this is your favourite film but honestly, it’s mine. the film features on many ‘best films of all time’ lists and i can’t imagine that changing anytime soon. I know im not alone in claiming it’s status as a classic…so what’s it going to be then eh?
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influencermagazineuk · 2 months
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From Bonfires to Bans: Movies that Caused Uproar in the UK
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The United Kingdom, a nation steeped in tradition and a touch of reserve, has had its fair share of cinematic controversies. These films, some notorious, others merely misunderstood, faced everything from public outcry and boycotts to outright bans, leaving an indelible mark on British film history. Let's delve into the fascinating, and sometimes scandalous, world of movies that ruffled feathers across the pond. 1. A Clockwork Orange (1971): Stanley Kubrick's dystopian masterpiece, depicting a future ravaged by youth violence, was deemed "so horrific" by the director himself that he withdrew it from UK cinemas for decades. The film's graphic violence and unsettling themes of morality and free will sparked immense debate, even leading to copycat crimes. 2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): Tobe Hooper's gruesome tale of cannibalistic Texans terrorizing a group of friends was met with international infamy. The film's graphic violence and disturbing imagery led to bans in several countries, including the UK, where it was only released with cuts for 20 years. Image Credit: Production Team of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Image Credit: Production Team of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 3. Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979): The British comedy troupe's irreverent satire on religion and biblical figures caused religious groups to erupt in protest. Despite facing boycotts and censorship attempts, the film became a cult classic, proving that sometimes, poking fun at sacred cows can be hilarious. 4. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988): Martin Scorsese's exploration of Jesus' inner struggles and human desires ignited a firestorm of controversy. Accused of blasphemy by religious groups, the film was banned in several countries, including Singapore, and faced protests outside cinemas in the UK. 5. Child's Play (1988): Chucky, the killer doll, gave nightmares to a generation of children and adults alike. The film's graphic violence and dark humor led to calls for bans, with some toy stores even refusing to stock dolls resembling Chucky. 6. Shallow Grave (1994): Danny Boyle's dark comedy about three flatmates who dispose of their deceased lodger and discover his hidden fortune sparked controversy for its black humor and portrayal of morally ambiguous characters. The film was initially refused a classification certificate in the UK but was eventually released with cuts. 7. Trainspotting (1996): Danny Boyle's unflinching depiction of Edinburgh's heroin scene, complete with graphic drug use and dark humor, was met with mixed reactions. While praised for its raw honesty, the film was also criticized for glorifying drug use and leading to copycat behavior. 8. Crash (1996): David Cronenberg's body horror exploration of sexual desire and car crashes divided audiences and critics alike. The film's graphic imagery and disturbing themes led to protests and calls for a ban, but it also garnered praise for its originality and unflinching exploration of human psychology. 9. Eyes Wide Shut (1999): Stanley Kubrick's final film, a psychological drama about a married couple's sexual odyssey, caused a stir for its erotic content and exploration of taboo themes. The film was met with mixed reviews but has since gained cult status for its enigmatic atmosphere and Kubrick's masterful direction. 10. V for Vendetta (2006): Based on the dystopian graphic novel, V for Vendetta's anarchist protagonist and masked rebellion against a totalitarian government resonated with some but alarmed others. The film's political themes and violence sparked debate about freedom of speech and the dangers of government overreach. These are just a few examples of movies that have caused a stir in the UK. While some faced temporary bans or censorship, others sparked important conversations about art, censorship, and the role of film in society. Whether you love them or hate them, there's no denying that these controversial films have left their mark on British cinema history. So, the next time you settle in for a movie night, remember that the seemingly innocuous flick on your screen might have a more turbulent past than you imagined. These controversial films, though sometimes misunderstood or even banned, have undeniably added a layer of intrigue and complexity to the tapestry of British cinema. But the story doesn't end there. The landscape of film censorship in the UK has evolved significantly since the days of bonfires and boycotts. The introduction of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) in 1985 brought a more nuanced approach to film certification, replacing outright bans with age ratings and advisory warnings. This shift reflected a growing understanding of the diverse tastes and sensibilities of audiences, as well as the artistic merit of film as a medium. However, the debate around film censorship continues to this day. Some argue that the BBFC's role is crucial in protecting children and vulnerable audiences from harmful content. Others believe that it stifles artistic expression and imposes unwarranted restrictions on adult viewers. Ultimately, the question of whether a film is "too much trouble" remains subjective. What one person deems offensive or disturbing, another might find thought-provoking or even liberating. The beauty of art, after all, lies in its ability to evoke a range of emotions and challenge our preconceived notions. So, as we continue to navigate the ever-changing world of cinema, it's important to remember that the films that cause the most uproar are often the ones that push boundaries and spark important conversations. Whether you agree with their content or not, these controversial movies deserve to be recognized for their contribution to the vibrant tapestry of British film history. And who knows, maybe the next time you find yourself at the cinema, you'll be part of the audience witnessing the birth of the next cinematic storm. Read the full article
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kd8bxp · 8 months
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Liked on YouTube: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE'S Prediction of DYSTOPIAN DEMOCRACY: the Rise & Failure of AUTHORITARIANISM
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE'S Prediction of DYSTOPIAN DEMOCRACY: the Rise & Failure of AUTHORITARIANISM For a hundred years now, we have been fascinated by DYSTOPIAS: nightmare-visions of environmental disasters, squalor, societal decline, or tyrannical governments maintaining complete control over a society—whether through brute force, propaganda, censorship or denial of free thought, brainwashing, or all of the above, leading to the complete loss of individuality. But in this ever-expanding genre, there is one dystopian film that stands out as horrifyingly unique, breaking the mold, and creating a dystopian world unlike any other—except maybe, potentially, our own. Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film adaptation A Clockwork Orange follows the deviant peregrinations of a young criminal named Alex Delarge, as he navigates a dystopian of version of London, England. This video explores the nature of crime, government, and culture. Why does authoritarianism fail to create safety and prevent crime? Can democracies be totalitarian? What makes policing ineffective? How do liberals respond in a world where liberalism is falling out of favor? How does culture, art, and architecture reflect the character of a society? Are their similarities between A Clockwork Orange and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World? If so, what do these classic novels have to say about our own societies? SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Instagram: https://ift.tt/mox7Wqy Facebook: https://ift.tt/xwvj3Rb Twitter: https://twitter.com/_empireofmind PATREON: https://ift.tt/VeBYvDG Email: [email protected] CHAPTERS Chaotic Totalitarianism: A Dystopia Unlike Any Other 00:00 Corruption of Police & Politicians 6:12 How Liberalism Betrays Itself 10:03 Failing Families: Society's Poisoned Well 14:45 The Precursor of a BRAVE NEW WORLD 19:36 Modern Art: the Décor of Dystopia 23:50 BRUTALISM: the ARCHITECTURE of Dystopia 26:55 Synthetic Pop Music: Rhythm of the Subjugated 29:15 Misery Through Avoiding Struggle 31:29 FURTHER READING "A Clockwork Orange," The International Anthony Burgess Foundation (“‘the dream of liberalism going mad’.”) https://ift.tt/pvhZe4G Kubrick on A Clockwork Orange: An interview with Michel Ciment https://ift.tt/vezxPNm Kubrick Tells What Makes A Clockwork Orange Tick by Bernard Weintraub https://ift.tt/nmVfpdY ‘A Clockwork Orange’: Kubrick and Burgess’ Vision of the Modern World https://ift.tt/JEo1RtW via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WLqAN4DWac
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wikisocials · 1 year
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A Clockwork Orange (film)
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel of the same name. It employs disturbing, violent images to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian near-future Britain. Read the full article
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jasonsutekh · 5 years
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A Clockwork Orange (1971)
A young criminal is given an experimental cure in an effort to reintegrate him with a dystopian society.
 The most interesting thing about this film was the subtext that it uses to represent society; in this way it’s a film designed to think about than to entertain. There are various messages about corruption and ignorance in health, the authorities, and prisons, all of which show how despoiled the fundamental basis of each system has become.
 The language is structured in a very odd way. It seems to be mostly in colloquial English but it flits between using archaic vocabulary that makes it sound faux-Shakespearian, to childish perversions of words like “eggy weggies”. The lead character who narrates also has a tendency to refer to most familiar things as “the old...” which starts of quirky but devolves quickly into irritating repetition.
 The use of art in various forms throughout the film was interesting, particularly in the way that it blends with sexuality. By depicting scenes of violence counterpointed with classical or jovial music creates many iconic scenes which is no doubt part of the reason the film was considered controversial and also allows the film to draw parallels between social violence and art; the lead character is like The Joker on a budget.
 The main aspect which separates this film from similar stories like 1984 or Logan’s Run is that the main character is part of the dystopia. He never learns anything despite all his suffering and can’t even shake his arrogant self-confidence which lands him in most of the trouble. In this way he could be viewed as a traditional psychopath but the film spends so much time on how to reform him that it never analyses how to prevent people turning into him which could be a deliberate, notable omission from the film. All the same it still leaves the flaw that he’s an unlikable main character no matter how much he suffer and demands sympathy through his control of the narrative structure.
 4/10 -It’s below average, but only just!-
 -In the novel, the women in the time-lapsed sex scene are around 10-years-old.
-The original cut of the film was X-rated before some parts were cut for the final version.
-In the book Alex is 15 at the beginning and 17 at the end, to slightly reduce controversy this was changed to 17 at the beginning and 19 at the end for the film.
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brokehorrorfan · 3 years
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A Clockwork Orange will be released on 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray and Digital) on September 21 via Warner Bros. A Steelbook edition of the 1971 dystopian crime film will also be available exclusively at Best Buy.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the movie is written and directed by Stanley Kubrick (The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey), based on Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel. Malcolm McDowell stars with Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri, and Miriam Karlin.
A Clockwork Orange has been restored in 4K with High Dynamic Range and has DTS-HD MA 4.1 and Dolby Digital audio options. Special features are listed below, where you can also see more of the Steelbook art.
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Special features:
Audio commentary by actor Malcolm McDowell and film historian Nick Redman
Malcolm McDowell Looks Back - 2011 featurette
Still Tickin': The Return of Clockwork Orange - 2000 Channel 4 documentary
Great Bolshy Yarblockos!: Making A Clockwork Orange - 2007 featurette
Theatrical trailer
Stomping, whomping, stealing, singing, tap-dancing, violating. Derby-topped teddy-boy hooligan Alex (Malcolm McDowell) has his own way of having a good time - at the tragic expense of others. His journey from amoral punk to brainwashed proper citizen and back again forms the dynamic arc of Stanley Kubrick's future-shock vision of Anthony Burgess' novel.
Pre-order A Clockwork Orange from Amazon.
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illogicalconclusion · 3 years
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This is a list of dystopian films. A dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος, alternatively, cacotopia,[1]kakotopia, cackotopia, or anti-utopia) is an imaginary community or society, that is undesirable or frightening.[2][3] The literal translation, from its Greek origin into the English language, reads as "not-good place"; an antonym of utopia. Dystopian societies appear in many artistic works, most notably, in stories set in a future time-period. Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization,[2]totalitarian governments, ruthless megacorporations, environmental disaster,[3] or other characteristics associated with a dramatic decline in society. Dystopian societies appear in many subgenres of fiction, oftentimes being used to draw attention to potential or real-world trends combined with societal issues. Examples of popular topics include: environmental, cultural, political, economical, religious, psychological, ethical, scientific, and technological issues; all of which, if left unaddressed, have the potential outcome of a dystopia. 
List
Things To Come 1936
1984 1956 A bureaucrat falls in love in a futuristic, totalitarian, surveillance state. Loosely based on George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen-Eighty-Four (1949).
Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 Based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, depicts an extraterrestrial invasion that begins in the fictional California town of Santa Mira. Dr. Miles Bennell and his friends discover vegetal cocoons that prove to be an alien race that duplicate human beings when they sleep.
The Time Machine 1960 Film adoption of H. G. Wells' novel The Time Machine (1895). Looking to test his time travel device, a scientist travels by mistake to 802701 AD to find a neo-primitive primitive world divided between two races: the pacific but totally insensitive Eloi, and the brutal and savage Morlocks, degenerate mutants who live in caves, raising Eloi as livestock for food.
The Last Man on Earth 1964 The first of three adaptations of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend. A scientist tries to survive in an apocalyptic world, where a global disease has turned humans in light-sensitive "vampires."
Planet of the Apes (original series) 1968—1973 Most of humanity is extinguished in a thermonuclear war. In the course of the two following millennia, intelligent apes (chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans) become the dominant species and establish an organized society. During the 40th century, an ultra-powerful nuclear bomb is launched as a last resort in a conflict between mutant humans and gorillas, ultimately destroying the entire planet.
A Clockwork Orange 1971 Adapted from Anthony Burgess' 1962 novella of the same name. In a future England overrun by violent gangs and ruled by an increasingly authoritarian government, a hoodlum gang leader is brainwashed into subservience as an experimental "cure" for criminality. 
The Omega Man 1971 The second of three adaptations of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend. In a world collapsed after a worldwide disease, Robert Neville is a scientist immune to the plague in permanent searching for a cure for the infected, turned in an religious cult of albino mutants named The Family and lead by demented Matthias, who is obsessed to destroy Neville and all trace of technology he believes blame of the world downfall.
Soylent Green 1973 Based on Harry Harrison's novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966). It centers around the issue of overpopulation.[53]
Logan's Run 1976 Depicts a dystopian future society set in 2274 in which population and the consumption of resources are managed by the simple notion of killing everyone who reaches the age of thirty.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978 Remake of 1956 film, which is based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. A public health inspector realizes that an alien vegetal spores, that have arrived on the planet, are replicating human beings when they are asleep and consuming their original bodies to take over their lives. [54]
Mad Max 1979
Brave New World 1980
Escape from New York 1981 In 1997, when the US President crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber named Snake Plissken is sent in for a rescue. It extrapolates the crime and decay of inner cities.[53][10][28] 
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior 1981
Scanners 1981
Blade Runner 1982
Nineteen Eighty-Four 1984 Based on George Orwell's 1949 novel of the same name.
The Terminator 1984 A waitress named Sarah Connor is saved from the Terminator T-800, a time-traveling android assassin, by Kyle Reese. He reveals to her that in the future the computer system Skynet will cause a nuclear war in order to allow machines to take over the world, and reveals that she will be the mother of the future resistance leader against the machines.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 1985
RoboCop 1987 In 2043, Detroit is a city besieged by crime. Police officer Alex Murphy is killed by a criminals secretly supported by OCP's CEO Dick Jones, to increase delinquence in the city in order to approve a new police robot, ED-209. But the younger CEO Bob Morton chooses Murphy for a special project to revive as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer, Robocop. [12][104] 
The Running Man 1987 Loosely adapted from Stephen King's 1982 novel of the same name.
Steel Dawn 1987
They Live 1988 Adapted from Ray Nelson's play Eight O'Clock in the Morning. A man who finds a pair of sunglasses that shows the world as it really is, discovers that an alien race live disguised as human beings, putting subliminal messages in all kind of books and advertising posters to submit the human race.
Batman 1989 Based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. Gotham City is a place overrun with disorder, where the reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne fights crime as the masked vigilante Batman. Trying to stop a raid on Axis Chemicals, he unwittingly causes a gangster, Jack Napier, to fall into a tank of acid thereby causing his transformation into the demented Joker.
Total Recall 1990 Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966). A jackhammer worker named Douglas Quaid that goes to a travel agency to be implanted with the false remember of a vacations in planet Mars discovers that all his life and his own identity could be another false remember.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991 John Connor is a teenager who learns his true fate as future leader of the resistance against Skynet, when a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back in time to save him from the T-1000, a liquid metal model Terminator, sent back in time to kill him. 
Freejack 1992
Demolition Man 1993
The Stand 1994 Based on Stephen King's 1978 novel of the same name. A mega-virus wipes out most of humanity, and the few people who are immune congregate to try and form a new society. [114] 
12 Monkeys 1995 A convict is sent back in time to gather information about a virus responsible for wiping out most of the human population. Based on Chris Marker's short film, La Jetée (1962).
Ghost in the Shell 1995 Based on the 1989 manga by Masamune Shirow of the same name, follows the hunt by the public-security agency Section 9 for a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master.
Judge Dredd 1995
Strange Days 1995
Tank Girl 1995
Waterworld 1995 Massive ice caps have melted, and most of Earth's land became submerged. The few surviving humans, who live in big ships and artificial atolls, are poor and ignorant since they have lost most of their resources, as well as their technological and historical knowledge.  
Escape from L.A. 1996 Sequel to the 1981 film, Escape from New York. In 2013, Snake Plissken is sent to the turned-in-island Los Angeles after The Big One earthquake to rescue The President's daughter, kidnapped by the revolutionary group Shining Path lead by Cuervo Jones that it rules Los Angeles.
The Fifth Element 1997
Dark City 1998
Pleasantville 1998
The Matrix 1999 A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.
Equilibrium 2002 In a totalitarian future where all forms of feeling are illegal and citizens are required to take daily drug-injections to suppress emotion and encourage obedience, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones 2002 Master Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and his young apprentice Anakin Skywalker, must protect Senator Padmé Amidala from being killed by a faction of galactic separatists, led by the former Jedi Count Dooku. [153] 
The Time Machine 2002 Remake of the 1960 movie. Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) is a 1899 scientist who soon after his marriage to his girlfriend Emma, (Sienna Guillory) she dies in an accident. Attempting to fix it, Hartdegen builds a time machine for travelling to the future, hoping to find the way to correct his own past. However, at 2037 a mining operation in a lunar colony alters the moon's orbit for destroying it, causing a great shock on Earth and he's accidentally impulsed on time to 802701 AD, finding a restored nature world with any trace of the previous human cities and technology. Inhabited by a pacific tribe named Eloi, who live ignoring their former world, his attempts to learn them about the past ends when he discovers the existence of a savage and brutal underground race, Morlocks, who live hunting Eloi to survive. [194][195] 
The Animatrix 2003 Movie shorts set in The Matrix's universe.
The Matrix Reloaded 2003 Neo, Trinity and Morpheus looking for a man named Keymaker, who is property of a powerful Matrix's program called Merovingian, to discover the origin of The Matrix and the way to win the war against the machines, while the former Agent Smith has resurrected and he lives obsessed to kill Neo again. [10] 
The Matrix Revolutions 2003 Neo, Trinity and Morpheus try to save Zion from The Matrix, that it launched a mass invasion of machines against the underground city to annihilate all human being, while Neo must face to an out-of-control Agent Smith, who is duplicating himself in any other people in his attempt to conquer The Matrix. [10] 
Terminator 3 2003 An adult John Connor lives as a transient worker, when he meets by chance a former friend, vet Kate Brewster. When a second T-800 is sent back in time to protect them from T-X, a new model of Terminator sent to kill not only John Connor, but all of Connor's deputies in the war against Skynet.
I, Robot 2004 Adapted from the I, Robot series by Isaac Asimov. An A.I. creates a potential dystopian future by logically applying the Zeroth Law of Robotics but is stopped.
The Island 2005 A man goes on the run after he discovers that he is actually a "harvestable being", and is being kept as a source of replacement parts, along with others, in a facility. [119][120] 
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith 2005 Anakin Skywalker is seduced to the Dark Side of the Force by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, turning him into Sith Lord, Darth Vader. With the help of Vader, Palpatine (a.k.a. Darth Sidious) destroys most of the Jedi Order, and ushers in the age of the Galactic Empire.
V for Vendetta 2006
I Am Legend 2007 The third adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend.
Sleep Dealer 2008 A fortified wall has ended unauthorized Mexico-US immigration, but migrant workers are replaced by robots, remotely controlled by the same class of would-be emigrants. Their life force is inevitably used up, and they are discarded without medical compensation.
WALL-E 2008 Centuries in the future, Earth had become toxic due to the extreme amounts of waste produced by a megacorporation, which also endorsed consumerism and technological dependency.
Daybreakers 2009 In the year 2019, a plague has transformed almost every human into vampires. Faced with a dwindling blood supply, the fractured dominant race plots their survival.
The Road 2009 Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2006 novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. A man and his young son struggle to survive after a global cataclysm has caused an extinction event. They scavenge for supplies and avoid roaming gangs as they travel on a road to the coast in the hope it will be warmer. [10][28][114] 
Terminator Salvation 2009 In a world consumed by a nuclear holocaust, an adult John Connor (who leads the war against machines) is looking for a young Kyle Reese among the Terminators' prisoners so that someday Reese can travel back in time and meet his mother, Sarah Connor.
The Book of Eli 2010 A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America, in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind. 
Planet of the Apes (reboot series) 2011—present A colony of apes in a sanctuary is affected by a viral gas which enhances their intelligence. As a result, they flee the sanctuary and form an organized society apart from humans. Ten years later, that same virus causes a massive pandemic disease called the Simian flu, which ultimately wipes out all humans with the exception of those genetically immune to the virus. A group of immune human survivors form a colony and eventually engage in a war with the apes.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2011 Will Rodman, a scientist at the San Francisco biotech company Gen-Sys, is testing the viral-based drug ALZ-112 on chimpanzees to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. ALZ-112 is given to a chimp named Bright Eyes, greatly increasing her intelligence. But then, during Will's presentation for the drug, Bright Eyes is forced from her cage, goes on a rampage, and is shot to death. Will's boss Steven Jacobs terminates the project and has the chimps slaughtered. However, Will's assistant Robert Franklin discovers that the reason for Bright Eyes' rampage was that she had recently given birth to an infant chimp. Will reluctantly agrees to take in the chimp, who is named Caesar. Will learns that Caesar has inherited his mother's intelligence and decides to raise him. Three years later, Will introduces Caesar to the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument. Meanwhile, Will treats his dementia-suffering father Charles with ALZ-112, which seems to restore his cognitive ability.
Cloud Atlas 2012 Adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell. Set across six different eras (1849, 1936, 1973, 2012, 2144 and 2321), the movie tells the story of a group of souls crossing each other's paths along different incarnations, and how it changes the world accordingly as time passes. [24][50][51] 
Dredd 2012
The Hunger Games 2012 Directed by Gary Ross, based on Suzanne Collins' novel of the same name. Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to compete.
Total Recall 2012 Remake of the 1990 film of the same name. In need of a vacation from his ordinary life, factory worker Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) visits Rekall, a company that can turn dreams into real memories. Thinking that memories of life as a superspy are just the ticket, Quaid undergoes the procedure -- but it goes horribly wrong. Suddenly, Quaid is a hunted man. He teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) on a search to find the head of the underground resistance and take down the leader (Bryan Cranston) of the free world. [24][196][197][198] 
Elysium 2013
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013 Directed by Francis Lawrence, based on Suzanne Collins' Catching Fire. [10][24]
Oblivion 2013 Based on Joseph Kosinski's unpublished graphic novel of the same name.
The Purge 2013 In a futuristic world where America is plagued by crime, the government sanctions a 12-hour period once a year in which all criminal activity is legal. The Sandin family is in danger after their younger son Charlie saves a stranger, only to be killed just before he got close to the house, causing the killers to surround it to get into the home and kill everybody.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 2014 Ten years after the pandemic of the deadly ALZ-113 virus, or Simian Flu, the worldwide human population has been drastically reduced, with only about one in five hundred genetically immune to the virus. Apes, with genetically enhanced intelligence caused by the same virus, have started to build a civilization of their own. Caesar is the chimpanzee leader of an ape colony in the Muir Woods near San Francisco. Caesar's son Blue Eyes and his friend Ash encounter a man named Carver in the woods, who panics and shoots Ash, wounding him. Carver's party, led by Malcolm, arrive while a number of apes join Blue Eyes and Ash. Caesar orders the humans to leave, and they flee to their community in San Francisco, centered around "the tower", a partially finished skyscraper. Prompted by Koba, a scarred bonobo who holds a grudge against humans for experimental mistreatment. [66] 
Divergent 2014 Based on the adaption of Veronica Roth's novels of the same names.
The Giver 2014 Based on the 1983 dystopian novel of the same name
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 2014
The Purge: Anarchy 2014 During the 12-hour period once a year in which all criminal activity is legal, LAPD Sargeant Leo Barnes is looking for revenge after the death of his son, at the same time that the married couple formed by Shane and Liz are trapped in the streets to be killed by urban biker gangs and that a man named Carmelo Johns leads a revolution against The Purge. [24][157] 
RoboCop 2014 Remake of the 1987 film of the same name. In a 2028 where there are police robots in entire world but the United States, Alex Murphy is a police officer killed in the line of duty. The company Omnicorp, trying to validate a law to approve the use of police robots in the country (with it as prime supplier), saves the Murphy's brain and face to fuse with a robotic body, creating a cyborg named Robocop.
Transcendence 2014
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 2015 The Lobster 2015 Somewhere in the near future, single people face a choice: join a program to find a mate in forty-five days or be transformed into an animal. [133] 
Mad Max: Fury Road 2015
The Purge: Election Year 2016
Blade Runner 2049 2017 Sequel to Blade Runner
What Happened to Monday 2017 Circa 2043, overpopulation has led to a strict one-child policy where all but a mother's eldest child are put into cryosleep. [202] 
The First Purge 2018 Fourth installment of The Purge's franchise and a prequel focused in the New Founding Fathers of America, a totalitarian politic party that after take the power in USA make an experiment in Staten Island where for a span of 12 hours all kind of misdemeanor and crime (murder, rape, arson, and anarchy) will be legal.
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A Clockwork Orange (1971)  adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick
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bostonfly · 3 years
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1971 gave us, among other things, A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick's shocking descent into dystopian cruelty; Get Carter, the British crime film, whose murky fatalism offered an antithesis to the cheerful escapism of the swinging sixties; Dirty Harry, in which Clint Eastwood's squinting, gravel-voiced cop announced a return to cowboy justice against hippie "punks"; and Two-Lane Blacktop, the minor-key masterpiece of US road movies, with its disaffected, drifting youth, sun-browned and scruffy-haired, melancholy against the roar of their Hemi engines.
And that's not even scratching the surface: in British and American cinema alone, there was artwork as varied and accomplished as Shaft, McCabe and Mrs Miller and The French Connection; Harold and Maude, The Last Picture Show and The Devils; Sunday, Bloody, Sunday, Klute and Vanishing Point.
And 1971 was also situated bang in the middle of several remarkable movements: American blaxploitation, Italian crime movies, and Bollywood cinema, among others. It was the year that gave us works from masters like Robert Bresson (Four Nights of a Dreamer) and Nicolas Roeg (Walkabout), and directorial debuts from Elaine May (A New Leaf) and Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me).
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dreamsofthescreen · 3 years
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The Abstract Point Of A Clockwork Orange - Review
Released for streaming on Netflix two years ago, is this a so called ‘masterwork’ of a film, or just cinematic satire?
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Malcolm McDowell in 'A Clockwork Orange'
Based on the book by Anthony Burgess, Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 adaptation of ‘A Clockwork Orange’, proved greatly controversial, yet influential. The dreamy, edgy swinging 60s sets up the scene for ultra violent home invasions and tortuously explicit murders performed by ‘The Droogs’. Released for streaming on Netflix two years ago, is this a so called ‘masterwork’ of a film, or just cinematic satire? Surrounding the idea of free will, this can be tossed around endlessly and reviewed in philosophy as something problematic. But is this film’s talk of freedom and suppression all really necessary? It’s upfront commentary on humanity that can be deemed as abstract, yet is this label of abstract just an excuse to glamorise the utter violence? Or does ‘A Clockwork Orange’ stand strongly with a point in hand? We can say both. The retro aesthetics, in terms of costume & production design that Kubrick can be recognised for, do play into the significance and absurdity of this work.
Set in a dystopian England where the governed rules are anything but at liberty for citizens, morals aren’t only tested, but are completely rejected. In this world, the government find order in good behaviour, something that the main character, Alex, (Malcolm McDowell) completely detests. Alex has no moral limits and gains pleasure from violence with no concern for the consequences. Within the first half an hour of the film, we see him and his gang of ‘droogs’ beat up a homeless man and mercilessly invade an old mans home, robbing it as well as raping and murdering his wife. Though labelled as a lesson in testing how far freedom of choice can go, A Clockwork Orange’s meaning can seem scattered.
Seen to represent someone so outwardly alive in his lack of concern for society, Alex’s mad challenging of human morals tests the meaning of freedom. But given themes, are they just barren and only strive to portray substance? It can just be seen as senseless violence for many. The intensely rebellious attitude is a reflection of the oppression faced in this film’s universe, and ultimately is an exaggerated comment on society today. Yet, you could say this about a film like Dirty Harry or Pulp Fiction, given their brutality. This theme, focusing on order vs chaos in society, is no doubt relevant, but however meaningful is it? The meaning left in it could be that, through it’s distressing realism, it so rawly opens ones eyes to today’s illicit society. Commenting on the confusion surrounding the film’s meaning, Kubrick stated that, “It is a story of the dubious redemption of a teenage delinquent by condition-reflex therapy. It is, at the same time, a running lecture on free-will.” Furthermore, author Anthony Burgess writes in ‘A Clockwork Orange Resucked’, that the meaning is in the title, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ referring to one who “has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice, but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or the Almighty State”. In saying this, Burgess does confirm that from his perspective, this is a comment on human nature being sucked away by a totalitarian government. Yet, even given the comment from the author, our perspective as an audience is truly subjective.
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In the author’s word, commenting that ‘A Clockwork Orange’ reflects someone who “has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour…but is only a clockwork toy to be wound up by the Almighty State”, refers to our potential for evil, and the importance of it in human nature. This is certainly a thought provoking theme, as most of the film is. The extreme capabilities of human beings can be an incredibly positive light or looming darkness, given which we choose to act on. Yet when this potential is squashed by a higher state, we can question whether one has free will, if it is still controlled. In a scene where Alex’s rebellion in lessened by Ludovico’s Technique, a process in which he is brutally forced to watch films of atrociously violent acts, with treatment in order to make him physically sick at even the thought of committing any crime. In hope to make him less of a threat to present society, he is less of himself. Again, we can think about the fact that is is of course necessary to change such wicked behaviour, but we can also think about how it could be, had we not chosen to create any governed rules.
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After seeing state officials confirm that Alex has been cured of his homicidal behaviours, a prison chaplain states, “Choice! The boy has not a real choice, has he? Self-interest, the fear of physical pain drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. The insincerity was clear to be seen. He ceases to be a wrongdoer. He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice.” In total, Alex’s behaviour is ceased to be wrong, but he is also ‘ceased to be capable of choosing for himself, since he had been rewired to believe what the state had wanted him to believe - that acts of violence simply are wrong. To the normal mind, this isn’t a hard concept to grasp, as we are surrounded by basic morals that tie in with our empathy. Yet to someone with more sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies, this concern isn’t there. So, again, Kubrick leaves us questioning whether or not people in this state of mind should have the choice there in the first place, as they are unable to distinguish that morals are important in humanity.
Furthermore, in 1973, Kubrick decided to ban A Clockwork Orange in the United Kingdom, due to continuous upheaval. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert gave it two out of four stars, stating that it was an “ideological mess”. Comments on it’s explicit sexuality, dehumanisation and violence were made, with some thinking that the point of the film in itself was missed. As some claimed it’s content was to create a raw piece of art, others claimed it an offensive excuse to pointlessly portray horrific scenes. And horrific the scenes are, though with fashionable features, the torturously disturbing scenes of ‘The Droogs’ murders’ are certainly crude, and have no backstory whatsoever. These brutal scenes can be seen as damaging to on audiences, or even dangerous. What kind of insight are audiences given when shown such destructiveness?
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If we talk about the stylistic features of Kubrick’s adaptation, they have certainly played into it’s iconic status, having audiences sometimes classify it as a performance art piece, rather than a film. The renowned costumes of ‘the droogs’ have been used repetitively as Halloween costumes, as well as the storyline being referenced in The Simpsons. The production design is, without a doubt, gorgeous, kooky and as abstract as the film’s meaning. The interiors stun with colour blocking wallpapers, framed pictures of 1960s models and record players spinning in one room. The sense of 1960s jazz certainly is there, with a slanted, modern design, that Kubrick is known for in other works like ‘The Shining’. Whilst Alex and his gang members commit crime, they dance along to Gene Kelly’s ‘Singin’ In The Rain’, and as Alex is tested through Ludovico’s Technique, a recognisable symphony by Beethoven is played. The 1960s wardrobe bursts with colour, an exaggerated view of the Britain in the swinging sixties. Audiences are attracted to these joyful features like music and fashion, the stylistic features making it such a cult classic. A cult classic needs to be fashionable, but is this fashion in the film pretentious? Especially when surrounded by such violence, as though to say that it’s chaos can be softened by pretty interiors or a recognisable score. Or does it make it all the more disturbing through adding joyful song or colourful designs, as they so oppose the distressing acts that Alex and his droogs perform. Had it not had Kubrick’s touch, would we view it the same way? Though Academy Award winner Milena Canonero’s costumes and John Barry’s production design remaining outstanding, does their glamorisation gloss over the underlying trauma of the plot? This type of questioning is something we can participate in throughout watching Kubrick’s production, as both it’s ideas and meaning are not black and white. 
Kubrick’s adaptation of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is clever in that it has us wondering whether or not it has a point, yet regardless, audiences are still left thinking about the impact of immoral behaviour and how our society responds to it. However consequential it attempts to be, it really can also be seen as blank, leaving audiences to decide on which to focus on. The pop-art aesthetics of the film can overrun the meaning or either try to stir us away from the barren landscape that it can be seen as. However strongly critiqued and analysed it may be, it’s meaning is all the more subjective, both creating interest and successfully winding up audiences.
Stars Out Of Five: 3.5/5
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studiok2sims · 4 years
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7 Comfort Movies thingy...
I was tagged by @drawing-way-outside-the-lines​ to do this...  
Lets be honest a minute, shall we.  I don’t watch movies very often.  I can’t remember the last one.  Like literally.  Because I fell asleep 10 minutes in.  That’s how it is for me.  It doesn’t matter how good, loud, scary, interesting.  I call it “movie-narcolepsy” and I can’t help it.  The only way I can get through a movie is if I am doing something. But that means I’m not watching the movie fully.
So... These are movies I remember liking for various reasons.  Some are mental candy and some more thought-y. Some are not really comforting (welcome to my disquietude)  I’m pretty shallow though... reasons... don’t get your hopes up...
Oh and before we get to it.... I tag ALL Y’ALL.  Yes, you over there. DO. IT. All of your friends are.  Blame me.
The Fifth Element
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Do you really need me to describe it? Seriously? You know the movie in all it’s campy splendor.  Gary Oldman, Bruce Willis, Chris Tucker and some other people... But Gary Oldman.  Did I mention Gary Oldman???  Cuz, Jean Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg.  Come on. Seriously.  The Man.
Delicatessen
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Probably need to give a blurb on this one... Probably not gonna know it.
"Post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who occasionally prepares a delicacy for his odd tenants."  
It was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet... you would probably recognize his other film, Amélie, which is good too... but... THIS ONE.  
(SPOILER: It’s a comedy about cannibalism..)
A Clockwork Orange
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Maybe, maybe not need a description here... It’s an oldie.  But it’s Kubrick. And Iconic.  So yeah.
"A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange. It employs disturbing, violent images to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian near-future Britain."
Okay... not really “comforting” in the classic definition.  No spirit uplifting, but if that is what you are looking for... you shouldn’t have tagged me, I’d imagine.  But I will watch it again and again.
Gattaca
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Another maybe ya heard of it, maybe not. Jude Law, who I like but can never remember his name and I have to do a 6 degrees of who the f*** starting with Ewen McGregor in Eye of the Beholder, working sideways through The Talented Mr. Ripley and  landing here.  Don’t as me why.. but that’s how I get to this one. I can’t remember shit.
"In the not-too-distant future, a less-than-perfect man wants to travel to the stars. Society has categorized Vincent Freeman as less than suitable given his genetic make-up and he has become one of the underclass of humans that are only useful for menial jobs. To move ahead, he assumes the identity of Jerome Morrow, a perfect genetic specimen who is a paraplegic as a result of a car accident."
The antithesis of “comforting”.  Its fucking soul shatteringly depressing to me.  I am destroyed every time I watch it. Oh, sure, he goes to space... but THE FURNACE SCENE. OMFG. I die. GUTTED.
Titus
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Oh, you probably aren’t gonna know this one... but ya should. My favorite Shakespeare play...  Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming. Mmmm hmmm.  (And Arya Stark's scene in GoT where she cooks the Freys into pies... Guess where they lifted that from...)
"Adaptation of Shakespeare's `Titus Andronicus', an epic revenge tragedy of brutal savagery based in Roman times. Titus the general returns to Rome victorious and decides to sacrifice the son of his enemy, the Goths, to appease the Roman dead. After the Queen of Goths pleads for her son's life to no avail, she sets out on a mission of retaliation that leaves few of the participants unscathed."
And now back to campy goodness... My favorite flavor of mental candy.  I’m not even going to describe them.. cuz you have to know these ?!?!?!?!? I mean RIGHT?
Serenity 
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(Firefly not that other thing that came out later with the same name...) Arguably I like the TV series better.  And Jayne! THE HAT!  So many good quotes...
Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008)
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Yes, both of them.  And not that new re-make of it.  Ron Perlman. FIGHT ME.  And Guillermo del Toro.  I didn’t care for Pan’s Labyrinth (reasons) but Hellboy 2.. the creatures.  Loved the creatures.
BONUS ROUND: Tom Hiddleston
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Okay, so not a movie.  But HIDDLES!   And, sorry, babydoll.  Your movies don’t make the cut because I didn’t like any of them I actually saw (but Loki!!! LOKI OMG. I feel asleep 5 minutes into that one... Avenger something or other where he was in it?  And I startled awake right when he first shows up and i was obsessed from then on but when he wasn’t on screen... Zzzzz), But then I haven’t seen all of his movies.  And I’m afraid that the good ones are going to crush me.  So I don’t watch... 
CUZ SOMEBODY TELL ME - DOES THE HORSE DIE IN WAR HORSE?!  I can’t even. NO. I don’t want to know.  Don’t tell me.
And see. What did I tell you. Shallow end of the pool.... :shrug: Heartbreaking.
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introvertguide · 4 years
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The Misunderstood Work of Stanley Kubrick
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Our current AFI movie under review is Spartacus (1960) and it is deservedly honored as one of Hollywood’s greatest endeavors. It marked a career highlight for Kirk Douglas and the comeback of Dalton Trumbo. The film is also one of the very few works of the great director Stanley Kubrick. The man worked in many different genres and had a film career that spanned five decades, but he only put out 13 feature films and 3 shorts. He spent his teens and early twenties as a photographer and had a real artistic eye, but his perfectionism kept him from being prolific. He seemed to throw himself into all of his films completely and would drop a product if it is was not what he wanted. This was especially apparent when he had 5 incomplete projects and only 3 complete feature films in the last 20 years of his life. His contribution to film has become recognized as 4 of his movies are on the AFI list (Spartacus, 2001, Dr. Strangelove, and A Clockwork Orange) in almost consecutive order. What’s more, he was also the writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, and special effects creator for most of his movies. Truly an artist and liked to have full control of his works.
With this, however, was a bit of an issue in that he was not an actor’s director. Since he did most of his screenplay adaptions, he wanted the actors to stick to the script. Famously, the only two people he ever allowed to ad lib were Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove and R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket. He also had a reputation for bullying his actors (especially actresses) to get them into a proper frame of mind. This was most famously exemplified by his terrible treatment of Shelley Duvall during the filming of The Shining to make her feel like she was going crazy. Because Kubrick also edited, he wanted a lot of film to work with and would insist on dozens of takes at the least and over 100 on occasion. He specifically wanted to get as many takes of his most challenging scenes which was very hard on the actors. Many directors have a group of actors that like to work with them but that really was not the case with Stanley Kubrick having only a few actors work with him more than once. 
Since it is such a short list, here is the complete filmography of Kubrick’s completed works along with the year and the genre. Check out how many genre defining movies this one man is responsible for: 
Fear and Desire (1953): anti-war film
Killer’s Kiss (1955): film noir crime drama
The Killing (1956): film noir
Paths of Glory (1957): anti-war film about men turning on a suicidal commander
Spartacus (1960): historical epic drama
Lolita (1962): romantic comedy drama about an underage love affair
Dr. Strangelove (1964): anti-war black comedy
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): epic science fiction in four acts
A Clockwork Orange (1971): dystopian crime film originally rated X
Barry Lyndon (1975): mid 19th century period drama
The Shining (1980): psychological horror
Full Metal Jacket (1987): realistic war film
Eyes Wide Shut (1999): erotic mystery psychological drama
Note that the title of this article has misunderstood in it and you might be thinking that Kubrick’s films have gotten lots of attention and he is well recognized as being a great film maker. Not exactly. He has been nominated for 13 Academy awards in the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Special Effects categories yet he won only once for the effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Although now considered a classic of the genre, Kubrick was nominated for a Razzie as worst director for The Shining and Steven King (whose book the movie is based) has openly said he hates the movie. Shelley Duvall states that she has had long term mental trauma including panic attacks and hair loss stemming back to her work with Kubrick. A Clockwork Orange was pulled from theaters by Kubrick himself in England after a mass media frenzy showed parents protesting the film. In short, sometimes he was a bully and sometimes he was not recognized for his work, but either way he didn’t seem to care that much what others thought of him. 
Stanley Kubrick really slowed down in his later years and that is completely understandable as he put so much into all of his movies. He had also gained a reputation as a harsh taskmaster to the point of harm with The Shining and Full Metal Jacket so actors were not lining up to work with him. The kind of directing that he did was a young man’s game but he loved the medium and continued to put out films until his death. I do not support the idea of ends justifying the means, instead I recognize the actors for what they endured and celebrate that art was created. Kubrick’s filmography is just one continuous highlight and I am happy to count myself as a fan of his work. 
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mloffredacmspl348 · 2 years
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Globalizing the Aesthetics of Violence and Terror
“Torture is globalized” is the sentence which opens sociologist Jonathan Luke Austin’s paper “Torture and Material-Semiotics of Violence Across Borders”. Austin in his work explores the morphologies of torture practices and how they have spread across time, space, and state-type.
The globalization of tortures is provided by fictional representations (film, tv, video games) which represent the ways in which torture travels and becomes available to a broader/global viewership. He provides an example of two descriptions: the first one is from a 2007 Red Cross report of a “prolonged stress standing position” procedure perpetrated by the United States to detainees and the second one is a 2014 United Nations report on the “pigeon torture” perpetrated by North Korea. Even though the names are different, the torture technique is identical, and this aspect informs the idea that there is a transnational convergence in the morphologies of torture. For morphologies Austin means the performance and the physical formats of torture which happen to be adopted in precisely the same way in two different geographical sites, across both US and North Korea’s national borders. Therefore, democratic states sometimes can be situated in the same space of violence as their autocratic counterparts. It is not possible to assume that there are innate differences in the origins of violent practices in correlation with the state-type – there is not a democratic-authoritarian binary which shapes a global space of violence.
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Photo credits: NY Daily News
Austin’s mode of inquiry in his paper is based on the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) which sees social practices through the lens of material-semiotics (physical and representation domains) networks of relations between geographically distinct sites and constitutionally distinct entities, as well as human and nonhuman objects (cultural artifacts, technologies, and/not only human agents of war and torture). If human rights literature, the subdiscipline most concerned with torture, is concerned with norms against torture, material-semiotics mapping seeks to discern how a coexisting norm of torture is assembled across time, space, state-type, and world politics.
Describing the semiotics of torture, Austin provides the example of Jihad and Syria. Jihad was a low-level Syrian agent who used to censor newspapers before their distributions before being defected and fled to Beirut. At Beirut he described the brutality that he witnessed at a detention center. He describes the experiment with electricity, researching on the internet for more painful practices. They were always looking for more ways to make the game more painful. The use of the word game, which plays as a justification for torture, is not restricted to the Syrian context. Austin reports a US’ soldier description of a torture in Iraq, “… when they came in it was like a game. You know, how far could you make this guy go before he passes out or just collapses on you” (6).
The morphologies of torture are dependent on the circulation of norms of knowledge that cannot be restricted to delineable sociocultural space. There is not a unidirectional export of the knowledge of how to torture – there is not a policy transfer from an imperial nucleon to the peripheries, but rather, as Austin highlights, there is a (re) emergence and (re) convergence of violence and torture.
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Digital Mafia Talkies
Representation of violence and torture plays a crucial role in 1971 dystopian film A Clockwork Orange directed by Stanley Kubrick. Alex is a psychopathic delinquent who together with three individuals who followed him, the “droogs”, committed various crimes such as murder, rape and theft. He is sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment; however, in order to reduce his sentence, after two years of prison, he volunteers for an experimental therapy conducted by the government called the “Ludovico technique” which is supposed to rehabilitate criminals. The therapy consists in strapping the subject to a chair, clamping his eyes open and injecting him with drugs. Alex is forced to watch films portraying violence and rape and becomes nauseated to the films. However, as the film progresses, a series of events led Alex, after the allegedly successful rehabilitating therapy, into a hospital with multiple injuries after attempting suicide. At the end the viewer finds out that the experiment did not change Alex’s nature in regards of violence and sex.
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Photo credits: Moviegique
The “Ludovico technique” resembles the “electroshock” therapy especially in the first years of its adoption in mental health treatments. Electroshock was used frequently to treat depression or hysteria usually with high levels of electricity and without anesthesia. They both are highly disruptive treatments attempting to make patients heal from their deviant status. 
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Photo credits: Psychology Today
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