This article is a comparison/contrast essay between the (amazing!) movie Clockwork Orange directed by Stanley Kubrick and the also stellar movie No Country for Old Men by Joel Coen, written by Cormack McCarthy, as most of you know. The article makes an argument that both films have a common theme, namely that society has no control over the violence of youth. For those of you who have read or seen either one of these books/films, it's definitely worth a read, although if you aren't familiar with either it might be difficult to really get. The volume of interesting analysis this author draws out of the films certainly gives more insight into why Kubrick and the Coen brothers are so frequently lauded as masters of the art.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
OverthinkingIt Article
I'm not sure what the standard is here for linking to other blog-style articles, but I'm going to do it anyway. OverthinkingIt, in the blog's own words, "subjects popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve." It's a brilliant site and can speak for itself, so I won't try to plug it here too much. Anyway, here's a particularly relevant article: http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/01/21/clockwork-orange-no-country-for-old-men/
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I liked this article a lot-- I haven't seen No Country for Old Men, but I have watched and read A Clockwork Orange.
ReplyDeleteThe article's take on Alex from A Clockwork Orange reminded me of the ultraviolent Kid in Blood Meridian. "Adolescence is when we start forming our opinions of how the world Should Be. Alex may look like a shiftless thug, but he actually has a clear and rigid code of ethics: might makes right. The strong should subjugate the weak." Both Alex and the Kid are anti-heros who are very young and have a natural disposition for violence.
It might be worth mentioning that both books (Blood and Clockwork) are very difficult texts to get through-- they're very dense, with unique vocabulary. While McCarthy uses archaic, almost biblical terminology, Anthony Burgess creates futuristic teenage slang. Perhaps this has something to do with the different nature of teenage violence in the two books?