A Clockwork Orange

[bernardc]

I'm off to see a fringe theatre show based on this novel/film at the Edinburgh festival next weekend.

Has anyone any thoughts on the (in)appropriateness of using Beethoven's 9th Symphony in the context of this particular story?

I haven't read the novel by Anthony Burgess though I know he was passionate about Beethoven. Did he ever have second thoughts about his inclusion of B's music and did he co-operate fully with Kubrick on the film version of his work?

Also, is there something particular about the 9th Symphony that leads to it being used in this way or could another major work have taken its place without lessening the dramatic effect?

I think I'll be relieved to go to a conventional concert afterwards to hear the Eroica Symphony played by the Moscow Radio Orchestra!

[sjwenger]

Whatever Kubrick's reasons, it worked very well in the film. The relentless, driving rhythm was perfect for the scene.

[waldstein]

the 9th wasn't the only work used in this film there was also the overture Guillaume Tell of Rossini and i think that kubrick had some respect for the 9th symphony , he didn't use it for scenes showing orgies or viols.there was also a scene in a bar where a soprano was singing the ode of joy and the hero of the story hits hardly one of his compagnons when he insults the soprano.i think that the last scene in the movie when the heros recovered is innapropriate with the 9th.

[bernardc]

Yes, I'd forgotten about the Rossini though a more contrasting style of music would be hard to think of!

It seems to me that there is a "superhuman" element to the 9th (esp the outer movts) which might appeal to Alex, the psychotic utterly self-centred character in the story. Listening to such music perhaps he feels "above" other humans and therefore can treat them however he wants.

That said the actual text of the choral finale urges "ALL MEN SHALL BE BROTHERS" so how that fits with Alex's actions is anyone's guess.

In the 9th Beethoven is pushing furiously at the boundaries of the classical style (as he does in the finale of the Op 106, Op 130 and the Gloria of Op 123) and the struggle has an overwhelming emotional impact. However there is never a sense of chaos and he reigns himself in just at the last moment!!

[Ateach Asc]

Kubrick also did a job on Strauss' Zarathustra in that megabore of a film *2001*.

After that exposure the first few crashing thuds of that work were garanteed almost immortal stature.

Fortunately, B's 9th had already sufficient status not to be bothered by its incomprehensible running in the Orange.



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