A Clockwork Orange(1971) was a revolutionary piece of cinema, and despite its age it is more relevant today than it was 30 years ago. Based on a book of the same name by Anthony Burgess the film follows Alex DeLarge, a British youth and young vandal, in freedom, in jail and after jail.
The film is divided into three distinct parts, before, during and after his incarceration. These parts are dynamically separated using film techniques. For example, in the first segment colours are widely used and the film is generally bright (this is used to ironic effect as the events of that same segment are violent and generally considered "dark" creating a reverse pathetic fallacy (for which there is apparently no term)) while in the second segment (where the protagonist is in prison) the colourful setting is replaced with shades of grey establishing a true pathetic fallacy. This mirrors the book's division into three parts which where originally written as separate books but where published in a single volume.
The film also raises serious questions about Britain's correctional system. While this questioning is not blatant it gives the film a purpose. I think this is in good taste. If the film where to simply follow a single character's life with simply the intent of documenting the said life, then the movie would probably lose pace and become uninteresting, but because the film is a vehicle for a political statement there is a clear reason to be watching it.
While A Clockwork Orange may not be up everyone's alley, it is a deep film. I would propose that it would be at home among other pieces such "Birth of a Nation" and perhaps even "Citizen Kane" not for it's similar content with those two works but for it's significance as a relevant film today as well as for it's foresight and it's being ahead of it's time
