Brits4eveR

Malcolm

“Malcolm McDowell is an actor of genius. His mastery seems to lie beyond the limits of human capability—I am not even sure his talent can be called mere craftsmanship; it is more akin to a kind of diabolical charisma. McDowell’s extraordinary appearance—huge, angelic blue eyes set in a working-class face that is at once pretty and repulsive. This film is more than anything I could possibly put into words; it is astonishing for its visuals alone and for McDowell’s grotesquely childlike gaze.” [Original in Russian]

“There is something mystically unsettling that surfaces in all the vivid cinematic villains portrayed by this actor—a man who is, without question, gifted (to an outrageous degree). His piercing, searing gaze; his shocking style of ‘cheerful paranoia’; and an infernal delight in his own malevolent nature—all these elements held a seductive, stirring allure for my Soviet-era teenage imagination. I am not convinced that even Nicholson—who complacently regards himself as the unrivaled master of such roles—would be capable of handling a temperament quite so unhinged.” [Original in Russian]

“Yikes... I’m actually terrified of him… I can barely look at his photos, and then only peeking through my fingers with one eye... He is genuinely frightening... He just radiates something diabolical... I can't imagine how the people close to him interact with him... I acknowledge McDowell's acting talent, but God forbid I ever look into his eyes again!” [Original in Russian]

“I cannot BELIEVE Malcolm improvised ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, oh my God, his MIND…”

“If you didn’t have a Malcolm McDowell phase in your teen years, like, did you even live?”

“Save me, weird boy with ocean-blue eyes…”

“watching A Clockwork Orange /as/ a trans girl, having funny gender feelings about Malcolm McDowell”

“as a trans guy, i too have funny gender feelings about malcolm mcdowell”

“Malcolm McDowell makes me feel things (homosexual urges).”

“The actor who plays Alex is 100% pure sex.” [Original in Russian]

“I've never been more sexually attracted to an actor than to young Malcolm McDowell.”

“1971 Malcolm McDowell can raw me whenever he likes.”

“As for Alex—Malcolm McDowell, an actor with a striking, odd, almost ugly appearance—there is absolutely nothing ‘cute’ about him. There are people who are attracted to this type of look; those who aren’t consider him hideous.” [Original in Russian]

“He's disgusting to me, both in appearance and facial expression, but I get a huge hard-on for him.”

Alex

“Imma rape that dickhead myself so fucking sick of his shit the skanky cocksucking juvie scumbag, fuck!!! 10/10.” [Original in Russian]

“I would argue Alex DeLarge is slightly immoral.”

“Stud.”

“Realest northern representation we will ever get.”

“I'd like to become a parole officer so I can grab strange British men by the balls.”

“Alex represents lunatic and sadistic demeanor in every single ounce of his body. He walks like a psycho, drinks like one, smirks and dresses like one. Hell, he even sings and dances like the most evil person on the planet.”

“He rapes, he murders, yet he coos and chimes at us in the narration, and glares out at us with his seductively lifted eye, and our heart goes out to him as a world and a director attempt to destroy Alex.”

“When I say Alex's world is trash I really do mean trash; there's litter everywhere, signs of damage and vandalism, a collection of places that have long since been abandoned and left in disrepair. And yet there's also art everywhere. Art and trash and trash art, and also a whole lot of people who can't tell the difference. But our musically inclined, deeply charismatic, violent angel of light Alex unmistakably has a gift for refashioning all the refuse of his existence, the scattered debris of the past, into something stylish and artful, and in doing so becomes transcendent.”

“I have never shed tears over someone so disagreeable and hateful. I have always had trouble with forgiveness, I hold onto things, but I feel a part of the big, ‘unforgivable’ thing come unglued and wash away when I remember Alex and the fact that I found the cruelty served against him undeserved to the point of tears.”

“What strikes me about the film is Alex's poetic voice, even when describing horrific violence. I feel that he was a thwarted artist/poet, and his artistic impulses were warped into ultraviolence - that became his art form.”

“Unreal, stilted-aggressive, and graceful kicking, and fluent dance of vulgarized ‘Singing in The Rain’. The cultured psychopath and civilized personality is riddling in his own zero appy-polly-loggies language.”

“I've never rooted for someone to kill everyone he sees before.”

“British Anakin Skywalker suffers greatly for his sins of penis fencing.”

“I’m so glad British people aren’t real.”

“Alex smiling like sin wrapped in charm.”

“The stunningly cold voice of Alex.”

“Stop making sociopaths hot, it clouds my judgment.”

“I have the absolute worst taste in men 😐.”

“Alex was Farrah Fawcett good-looking.”

“Alex puts the word "HOT" in "psycHOTic"! 😍😍”

“I would pay the guy to give me a bit of the old in-out.”

“He can do what he wants with me, I don’t care…” 

“As a feminist, I would let him ultraviolence me.”

“I'm madly in love with Alex, and I want him to do all the dirty things he has in mind to me. I would let him rape me and even ask for more.”

“Imagine if Alex got to rape Beethoven!”

“Now my brother thinks he’s Alex DeLarge and listens to Ninth Symphony, Second Movement on repeat in his locked bedroom. Should I worry?”

Film / Performance

“O my brothers, on realising that my partner in the old in-out-in-out had never viddied this glorious work of cine by the lovely Mr. Kubrick, I sat his yarbles on the sofa and we took in a bit of the old ultraviolence - and he was cured, all right!”

“This film manages to make you see the worst act of evil as if it were the most beautiful artwork your eyes have seen.”

“My favorite part was DeLarge leaving home and running into the old beggar, giving him something from his pocket as charity. Aversion therapy wouldn't have conditioned him to any random acts of kindness like this. It's the sliver of hope in A Clockwork Orange, a small act of disinterested compassion - didn't even look who it was when gifting - and it's gone before you know it.”

“I don't think you NEED Kubrick for this adaptation to be perfect. Everything I like about it is directly adapted from the book and performed PERFECTLY by Malcolm McDowell. His grasp on Nadsat slang is inspiring, and his presence on screen is to die for. Switching from horrific drugged-up gang leader to innocent pretty boy Alex is so good. The way he gives that fuck-ass grin as he's being fed a steak dinner. There is no world where he doesn't play this character.”

“He is Alex DeLarge: the giggling, boyish and snarky teen is brought to life with staggering presence and terrifying precision.”

“He has complete control over every facial muscle, twisting his lips and brow into unique configurations. Alex's narration often talks about him feeling one way, but that description and the expression on his face could not be further apart. He's a convincing leader of his droogs, a convincing model prisoner, a convincing psychological torture subject, and a convincing pitiable creature. There's nothing Kubrick can throw at McDowell that he can't execute.”

“He portrays Alex as a psychotic, sex-crazed animal that consumes the opening half of the film, only to effortlessly transform into the innocent, helpless young man who emerges during the behaviour-modification treatment. On reflection, it's hard to believe it is the same man.”

“Our dear Alex, o my, McDowell’s performance is like a slooshy to Ludwig Van himself. Every tick of the tocky-wock, he carries with the kind of fire and fury only he could bring. The yarbles on this malchick, it’s enough to hold the whole raskazz together.”

“My goodness, McDowell has to give the most unnaturally eccentric performance of all time. Any time I watch this I forget how much it freaks me out when, while recovering there at the end, he *pops* his mouth open to be fed, and I'm like, you quit that RIGHT NOW!”

“Stanley said ‘cut’ but Malcolm heard ‘cunt’ and went with it”

“You can feel his hope, his despair, his excitement, his happiness, everything.”

“He does more with a smile than most actors can do with a two-page monologue.” 

“He makes drinking milk menacing.”

“Incomprehensibly, McDowell wasn't nominated for an Oscar. He IS A Clockwork Orange, and while the rest of the cast is spectacular, everything Alex does is etched in our minds forever.”

“I wish I could personally thank Malcolm McDowell for delivering the best performance in cinematic history.”

“Malcolm McDowell could have gone on to be a hotdog vendor from here on out and still be an all-timer.”

“Without Malcolm McDowell, this film would be nothing.”

“Everyone else eats complete shit compared to his performance.”

“You know the moment when Mick Travis unfurls his scarf, revealing the mustache he's grown over summer break? That's when a star named Malcolm McDowell was born.”

“One of those ‘how the hell is this your first film’ performances.”

“Malcolm McDowell smirking his way into cinematic legend. He doesn’t just star; he detonates. One smirk here is louder than all the rifles. Rebellion has rarely looked so cheeky, so stylish, or so inevitable.”

“Malcolm McDowell is lightning onscreen.”

“As soon as Malcolm McDowell revealed his face, I realized Kubrick saw this film and thought, ‘That kid looks scary as hell!’ He does!”

“This was Malcolm McDowell stepping into the spotlight and prognosticating to the world with vigor and relish exactly how he was to be typecast for the rest of his life.”

“Malcolm McDowell exuding raw sexuality like Marlon Brando in The Wild One.”

“The camera loves him.”

“He takes up the whole room in every scene.”

“Both his performance as Mick Travis and the film that first encapsulated it remain among the finest achievements in British cinema.”

“When Travis has heard, pacing back and forth, what is about to happen to him in the gym, he throws open the doors with 'Singin' in the Rain'-like acceptance, come on with the rain... then he THANKS the prefect after, teary-eyed but standing proud??? Waaaaaaaah...”

“McDowell is a graceful beast. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen.”

“His charisma and smooth movements lure the viewer in and hypnotize them, leaving them at his whim until he is done.”

“Malcolm McDowell exudes sex appeal, and this film is another fine example of that.”

“Why is Malcolm McDowell always naked and evil?”

“Malcolm McDowell truly revolutionized the concept of the ‘dickhead’. In a cool way, I mean.”

“I really want to know what casting director in England saw Malcolm McDowell’s borderline angelic features and was like, ‘Psychopath… for life’.”

“Malcolm McDowell’s acting is something so mesmerizing, and so unfathomable to my little brain, that the moment I put on a movie with him, I forget about everything else. I could be in tears, close to hysteria at one in the morning because my life is going to hell, but as soon as he's on my screen I automatically calm down. He acts as an instant sedative for me, a cure for any pain. I will never get tired of watching how he manages to embody so many different qualities—ranging from his absolutely unique, incredibly eloquent facial expressions (which he clearly knows how to use) to... well, I don't even know what else, because literally every tiny detail in the way he presents himself breaks my heart and makes the strings of my soul snap with a crack. He has the face of a pig. He is an angel descended from heaven. He grimaces like a drooling monkey. There is something so convincing and alive in his every movement that I almost believe that if I were to start flipping through his photos from the ‘70s at exactly 3:00 a.m., he would appear in my apartment and I would die from the beauty of his blue eyes. It's just unbearable that such a gorgeous twink once walked the earth. It's fucking unbelievable.” [Original in Russian]

“Lord have mercy, there be powder kegs behind those steel-blue eyes.”

“Malcolm McDowell can calm down with his blue eyes.”

“McDowell has fantastic eyes. Can see why Kubrick wanted to destroy them.”

“Watched it mainly for the caning scene because I’m a fucking pervert.”

“Liked when McDowell got spanked.”

“Malcolm McDowell getting whipped…”

“*Opens Google* Malcolm McDowell whipped  Malcolm McDowell crying Malcolm McDowell sexy”

“I would love to be caned by Malcolm McDowell.”

“Malcolm McDowell stupid pretty.”

“McDowell is just inhumanly beautiful.” [Original in Russian]

“Malcolm McDowell got me thinking I'm straight after all.”

“I have this strange attraction to young Malcolm McDowell that can only be described as primal and unforgiving. That scene in the diner is actually directed by Satan himself, dear lawdy lawd.”

“Was distracted by how fine Malcolm McDowell is. Lord have mercy, he is so hot.”

“The feelings I have towards Malcolm McDowell are personal and private, and I will not elaborate any further.”

“Malcolm, you won't die before I fuck you, you dark piece of shit.” [Original in French]