Various Artists, Ludwig van Beethoven, Edward Elgar, Terry Tucker, Erika Eigen, Nacio Herb Brown, Gene Kelly - Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange (1971 Film)

Stanley Kubrick's demanding perfectionism in all aspects of the filmmaking process has led to some of the most memorable soundtracks of the modern era. Kubrick's taste for the classics led to his scrapping Alex North's original score for 2001: A Space Odyssey in lieu of the "temporary" tracks he had used for editing, turning Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra into an unlikely 20th-century pop icon. For his 1971 adaptation of Anthony Burgess's cautionary future-shocker, Kubrick once again turned to the classics. Malcolm McDowell's protagonist Droog Alex's taste for Beethoven is given a nice tweaking by Moog pioneer Walter (now Wendy) Carlos's synthesized take on the glorious Ninth Symphony. Some have complained that the now-primitive electronics involved give it a dated feel. Disturbingly--and effectively--other-worldly is more like it. Kubrick also imbues repertory standards by Rossini and Elgar with dark, frequently hilarious irony, and makes Gene Kelly's sunny reading of "Singin' In The Rain" the underscore to an all-too-accurate prediction of societal nightmares to come. --Jerry McCulley Amazon.com

Prisoner 6 double-five 3-2-1

The soundtrack album of CLOCKWORK ORANGE, even with it's simple (and supposedly) outdated Wendy Carlos recordings, holds up far better than the actual film has over these 36 years. This story takes place in the 1990s, and we all know that today's world is nothing like Anthony Burgess' dismal and nightmarish vision . . . don't we?

Most of the CLOCKWORK ORANGE soundtrack's classical selections are by Herbert Von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. These spirited Beethoven and Rossini interpretations remain some of the very best ever recorded.

The excerpt of Wendy's "Timesteps" is the most compelling piece here. In the film, this stark aural collage is background to Alex's behavior modification. In order to shorten his prison sentence, the violent sociopath is made chemically ill while forced to view scenes of rapine and bloodshed. His sickness can only be arrested by replacing his natural criminal urges with passive thoughts.

It's hard to listen to "Overture To The Sun" without recalling the spotlighted naked girl who tempts an on-exhibit Alex into a state of unwellness that he likens to "wanting to snuff it." His freedom to choose brutality has been taken from him forcefully, through violent reprogramming. The subsequent events that precipitate Alex's restoration into a fully non-functional member of society beset him in a fashion ironically similar to the chaos he once left in his violent wake.

The stark images and perversities of this movie tend to stay with a person. Perhaps watching Kubrick's CLOCKWORK ORANGE has in some way "programmed" the viewer, too, by desensitizing us to the madness that is all around. Maybe this film holds up better than I thought. I must have a glass of choko moloko and reconsider . . .
March 16, 2007

Kubrick At His Best

This is a fantastic Kubrick movie. Based on a novel of equal respect, this movie details troubled youth, violence, and sex in a modern-yet-more-so world. The slang of the young men in the movie is a mixture of British and Russian slang terminology created by the book's author. A must-see for the Kubrick fan out there. January 11, 2007

Good soundtrack

I own this on vinyl and yes an exellent soundtrack from an exellent movie February 20, 2006

Easier to experience than the movie!

Having purchased this soundtrack along with its respective CD score (by Wendy Carlos), it is a wonderful installment to any soundtrack fan/buff. The awesome sound of classical music, contained in the CDs, in which director Stanley Kubrick chose for the picture, is so juxtaposing it is brilliant. Even if one does not know a lick of classical music, one can easily suggest this soundtrack as a useful introduction into the genre. Though the film may not be as easy to experience as the music contained inside, the soundtrack stands as a milestone for music in film perhaps only beaten by the director's previous work in '2001 A Space Odyssey'. August 17, 2005

Horrorshow Lomticks of Music to do the old Ultra-Violence By.

Bolshi Yarblockos, my droggies. Viddy thou this incredible soundtrack from the film A Clockwork Orange. Cued from the novel by Anthony Burgess, the musical selections mainly focus on the Beethoven obsession of the main character Alex, however Carlos's deep knowledge of the classical repetoire and Kubrick's neurotic perfectionism combine to fill out this album. I love most of the tracks here, and have listened to them since 1972.

My personal favorite is the title music of the film, Henry Purcell's "Funeral Music for Queen Mary," a piece so appropriate to the film that Purcell must have been channelling the future when he wrote it in the late 17th century. Carlos's interpretation of this Purcell piece is astounding in its forboding textures and alientating timbres. Electronic tympani have never sounded better - and were never used like this before. Ring modualtions, filter sweeps, phased sawtooth angel trumpets and resonate devil trombones - oh bliss!

I also liked the strange music Kubrick chose - "I want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper," and "Anthem to the Sun," both obscure and perfect.

Carlos's avant-garde composition "Timesteps" appears in abbreviated form here, and for most listeners this abridgement is enough.

The concluding ironic use of "Singing in the Rain," is wonderful, and after an album (and film) full of electronics, classical music, and weirdness, a standard is shocking enough.

There is a new version of the soundtrack put out by Carlos herself, which includes only her work. Some tracks composed but not used in the film appear here, as do some track used, but not appearing on the OST as well. Timesteps in its 13:37 form is also on this album.

For those fans of Prog rock: Viddy the film when Alex visits a record store: Notice the Vertigo swirl above the main desk, also in the wrecked foyer of Alex's highrise, one of the figures on the vandalised mural has "Suck it and see" written on it, also the name of a Vertigo music sampler of the same era.
July 28, 2005

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