#john clive

Lloyd Owen as John Clive in Thugs of Hindustan

The Italian Job (1969)

Director - Peter Collinson, Cinematography - Douglas Slocombe

Clockwork Orange - a bit of the old ultra violence

Definitely in my top three of the Kubrick canon. Malcolm McDowall turns in a creepy and hilarious performance as unrepentant psychopathic thug 'Alex DeLarge' in this adaptation of the sci fi book by Anthony Burgess. The movie likes to play around with your sympathies and deep seated bloodlust tendencies. The movie starts out with a typical night out for Alex and his 'droogs' as they go in for drug laced milk drinks and a bit of the old 'ultraviolence'. But then Alex is betrayed by his pals and gets arrested and jailed for the murder of a rich socialite art collector and the movie takes a strange twist in the second half. Alex is rehabilitated thanks to a revolutionary new method of conditioning and is released back into the world completely cured of his criminal tendencies, but he's unable to cope in the world with no way of dealing with those who wish to do him harm (and there are a few).

Artfully presented and visually stunning and is only slightly dated several decades later, and gives you plenty of ideas to chew over regarding the nature of crime, punishment and free will.

One of those movies I desperately was interested in seeing when I was a kid, but had to content myself with reading the book from the library until the video boom of the 80s. Oddly enough, the first time I saw it was on the big screen at the old Eastown revival theater in the 80s.

4.5 stars out of 5