We love our metal here at Metal Injection… but we dig movies too! Welcome to Cinema Fix, a movie guide tailored for the metal faithful. Sit back and relax after a long week of work and/or blast beats and enjoy one of our prestigious film selections. This week's pick is:
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Quick Pitch:
Desensitized, immoral teenagers wreak havoc while drinking milk and listening to Ludwig Van.
Synopsis:
A teenage sociopath with a flair for musicals and a bit of the ol’ ultra-violence, runs amuck in a bleak and dreary futurescape. Violent street gangs roam the city while a corrupt and authoritarian government allows society to steep even further into decay. Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ book, is a fascinating psychological thriller/dark satire, which shook the world upon its 1971 release. With its stark depiction of rape, violence and torture and its blatant jab at government meddling and deceit right in the middle of the Cold War, the film was like nothing anyone had ever seen.
Malcom McDowell’s now iconic portrayal of the charmingly psychotic Alex DeLarge, managed to outrage and inspire the masses. After a long night of rape and vandalism, Alex gets busted by the cops and sent to prison where he is forced to undergo a radical new brainwashing treatment meant to suppress his evil urges once and for all. When the treatment proves too effective, it leaves Alex as an empty shell of a man, incapable of exercising free will. In a bizarre stroke of genius, Kubrick transforms the once despicable Alex into the film’s true victim.
Why it’s metal:
Alex DeLarge is a smooth talking psychopath. He’s witty, intelligent, loves Beethoven [science proves classical music = METAL], collects snakes, likes getting hammered at the Moloko bar, and even wears modified corpse paint [tell me that eyelash isn’t kvlt?]. He’s basically the fictionalized embodiment of our readership.
The film’s anti-government, anti-authority, just about anti-fucking everything, stance really hits home with the brooding, “5 Minutes Alone” type subset of the metal community. Of course you wouldn’t actually want to spend five minutes alone with Alex, unless you like getting bludgeoned with phallic statues. A Clockwork Orange is really a film about freedom and personal choice, themes that long hairs have been gravitating towards since forever. Alex may be a walking contradiction, an eloquent savage if you will, but it’s how he chooses to live. When the feds rob him of freewill, they’ve committed an even worse crime and earn the ire of Twisted Sister and anyone else who refuses to take it….anymore.
Lastly Kubrick’s uncanny eye blankets A Clockwork Orange with gorgeous visuals that metal heads have been drawn to for decades. From Megadeth’s Alex inspired version of Vic Rattlehead, to the masks in Slipknot to Mr. Rob Zombie’s own music video tribute, the love for A Clockwork Orange amongst metal kids, is very real.
Suggested listening:
Rob Zombie – "Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red, Kroovy)"
For obvious reasons.
