“I see the Kubrick film as a black comedy, as wonderful as it is hilarious. It is a risky film with an understandable message, nothing more, there is no need to think about it any more. When it was released, it surprised me and touched my nose that very little people will catch satire and black humor. Fortunately, with the passage of time the public is able to laugh when they see the film. We did something revolutionary that has been copied ad infinitum. ” Malcom McDowell, protagonist of ‘A Clockwork Orange’.
I have to admit that over the years I have become much less mythomaniac than I was, leaving aside the freak soul that for several decades pushed me to attend conventions, festivals, previews and anniversaries of more or less mythical films. Let’s say that now I see cinema from a very different perspective, neither better nor worse, but different. I remember Harrison Ford in Madrid in 2002 trying to take the iron out of ‘Blade Runner’… the Chicago actor was neither the first nor the last to throw away most of the wet dreams of many fans. Being able to work in the industry and direct for almost 15 years a cultural magazine on Onda Rambla-Onda Cero (later on Punto Radio), allowed me to attend many shootings and interview many professionals from the world of cinema, music, literature and theater, discovering really interesting characters, with a more than interesting story behind them and a trunk full of anecdotes. British actor Malcom McDowell was one of them, without a doubt.
50 years after the premiere of ‘A Clockwork Orange’, I fondly remember the afternoon I spent with Jon Harlan (Stanley Kubrick’s producer) and Malcom McDowell at the Sitges Festival at the beginning of October 2009. With Harlan we had already had coincided on several occasions, talking about Kubrick and his films, but that was the first time I could talk with Malcom McDowell, observing how he looks at you while you ask and how he expresses himself while answering. He is a character actor for whom I have always had a lot of respect due in part to his courage when it comes to playing complex characters, from Alex in the film that involves us to ‘Caligula’, in the porn-light version by Tinto Brass. McDowell stoically endured the rain of questions, such was the level, that someone even asked him to sing ‘Singin in the rain’, to which he kindly agreed, showing that at this point in his life, he is back from everything, or almost everything.
The British actor made an effort (once again) to demystify ‘A Clockwork Orange’, although he still thinks that Alex’s is the best role of his career. McDowell almost always pulls on sarcasm, peppered with a few drops of dark sense of humor.
According to McDowell, “A Clockwork Orange is a great movie full of brilliant moments and a message that, unfortunately, is still very relevant today. It is a satire loaded with black humor.” The actor was very honored to be able to work under Stanley Kubrick, stating that he was a very demanding director during filming except when it came to food (he noted that the film’s catering was horrible, as were most catering in British cinema). Kubrick was very perfectionist, obsessive at times. From the outset, McDowell acknowledged that he jumped into a pool without knowing if there was enough water, contributing everything he could to make the film come to fruition, and boy did he succeed!
A Clockwork Orange is a great movie full of brilliant moments and a message that, unfortunately, is still very relevant today. It’s a satire loaded with black humor
McDowell remembers Kubrick as a close person with whom one could talk, but without going into excessive detail about the form or method of interpretation. Stanley Kubrick could not bear the conversations between the actors and the director beyond the scene they were preparing. In ‘A Clockwork Orange’, Kubrick left his protagonist quite a field when improvising scenes, something that McDowell appreciated, acknowledging that he would not have been able to play this role at another time in his life. McDowell was in the right place at the right time and he knew how to give Kubrick the character he was looking for, offering an interpretation that would not leave critics and audiences indifferent. Producer Jan Harlan has always claimed that Kubrick was a very meticulous director, but he never went overboard with explaining before shooting a scene. Something similar happens to Clint Eastwood with his actors, although Eastwood shoots much less footage than Kubrick. According to Harlan and McDowell, if you asked Kubrick something, he would reply: “I’m not a drama school, let me shoot whatever takes I think necessary and have your line ready.”
I agree with McDowell and Harlan when they affirm that ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is a film that is very attractive on a visual level. The film is full of springs that jump at the right moment in order to surprise the viewer. McDowell comments that they are cinematographic resources, artisan tricks that are supported by music, photography and a very risky montage that seeks to surprise. When I asked him if there was anything else in the film, if he believed that Kubrick had concealed some cryptic message that forced the viewer to have to watch the film multiple times, McDowell commented that he does not believe that Kubrick included any kind of hidden message, nor does he believe in the need to find the three feet of the cat. Once again, McDowell struggled to demystify a film that was mythologized to excess. Everything is much simpler than it seems.
Watching ‘A Clockwork Orange’ in mid-2021, I still think it is a radical film, which brings a strong critical message. A message that at the beginning of the 70s could be excessively realistic, especially for the middle classes. The film marked a before and after when it came to showing violence in large cities, an urban violence where anger, racism, xenophobia and hatred are rampant.
Kubrick’s message is much more radical and forceful than the one we could see in ‘Dr Strangelove’, which I would say is the film where the viewer can feel most uncomfortable. It is true that there is also violence (and a lot of bad milk) in ‘The Metallic Jacket’, (another marvel) but in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ the type of message is very different. In a visceral, raw but visually artistic way, Stanley Kubrick created a devastating portrait of a society that somehow lived in an alarming moral decline. The effects of the cold war, the economic crisis, the problems with the IRA and the Vietnam War were felt in an English youth who lived trapped in a whirlwind of pessimism and fear.
Stanley Kubrick created a devastating portrait of a society that somehow lived in an alarming moral decline
And to portray the time and the moment, nothing better than the novel by Anthony Burgess, published in 1962, a fascinating book that at that time surprised intellectuals, musicians and film directors. Curiously, Kubrick’s film maintains the ending that we can read in the American version of the novel, which deletes several passages from the original version published in the United Kingdom. Literary controversies aside, the film contains iconic scenes that have gone down in film history, scenes that are supported by the gaze and gestures of a Malcom McDowell in a state of grace that fills the screen in a unique way. If we talk about iconic scenes, we cannot ignore the influence that the film has had over time, managing to penetrate deep into the collective imagination. From David Bowie to Madonna, through The Stalkers, Christina Aguilera or even Bart Simpson, there has been and will not be missing those who put on the bowler hat and the iconic cushion and emulate their images, loaded with a type of lyricism and poetry difficult to describe with words. .
‘A Clockwork Orange’ has become an enduring classic on its own merits, being a clear example of a forceful film that does not beat around the bush, that advances without half measures giving a good punch on the table (and in the stomach of many viewers). I agree with the leading actor when he affirms that it is an exercise in criticism and brutal black humor, a cruel diversion from a unique director, whose personality transcended beyond the filming set. McDowell highlighted his personal contribution when creating the main character. Like Jack Nicholson, McDowell is one of those actors who just by looking at the camera already transmit something to you, creating unique moments with just raising an eyebrow. I remember McDowell in ‘Blue Thunder’ with Roy Scheider, where from the first second he appears on the screen, you know that he has little as a colleague.
Stanley Kubrick was an expert in putting his finger on the wound and although he never believed himself to be a great scholar, he knew how to capture a hidden reality, showing the world a type of violence that, unfortunately, is still common in our society. On a personal level, I still think that ‘Senderos de Gloria’, ‘2001’ and ‘Espartaco’ (commissioned film), are his best works, followed by ‘A Clockwork Orange’, ‘Lolita’ and ‘El Resplandor’, another film mythologized to satiety.
At this point, I can only recall several questions that were left in the air during John Harlan and Malcom McDowell’s visit to the Sitges Festival. These are questions that will be subject to the opinion of the readers, some being the cause of gathering at cinephile encounters and various film festivals.
When does a relatively successful film become a cult work? And who is responsible for it happening? To what extent is the fan phenomenon responsible for raising or lowering works, sometimes destroying the fundamental pillars of film criticism? Do actors and directors know the real opinion of the public ? In the world of cinema, everything is much simpler than it seems? … Like everything in life, I don’t think there are blacks or whites, because the gray scale is huge. In the case of ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the film leaves no one indifferent, being controversial for its interpretations, for its script and for the message it throws. The film received four Oscar nominations, (Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Editing), being defeated at the 44th award ceremony for another great film, ‘The French Connection’. The Academy did not want to risk and awarded an anti-drug thriller before a film that exposed some of the shame of our current exemplary and idyllic society.
Leaving aside that Kubrick only won an Oscar for the special effects of ‘2001’ in 1969, it is important to mention that it does not have a single boring or empty title of content. Kubrick always surprised and his films continue to do so today. He is a director who is always present when it comes to remembering the best directors in the history of cinema. And Malcom McDowell will always be remembered for being the protagonist of a film that only pretended to be a black comedy full of irony and bad temper … No matter how many films he has interpreted, Kubrick’s is and will be his greatest success, leaving aside that he was the assassin of Captain Kirk in 1994, something I will never forgive him for.
– .
