gravity release me

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Milk Drugs and Honey

Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” is bizarre. Is this movie merely an augmentation or dramatization of true society? Perhaps this movie acts as both a mirror, a warning for the future and a product of the past. Is it possible that a film could combine all of these elements? I believe in this case, “A Clockwork Orange” takes history, the present and leaves room for a warning to future generations. The film weaves all of these aspects together very creatively.

“Singin’ In The Rain” presents a time with no worries, pleasant speaking people and the emphasis of the overall goodness of mankind. However, twenty years later this overall goodness in mankind maybe doesn’t compel the audience. Yet the irony of “A Clockwork Orange” is that the audience understands that this ultra violence is a by-product of once happy, wholesome times. The brutal raping and killings have evolved out of the cheery sounds of the song Singin’ In The Rain.

Film builds upon itself, it can transform into dark and evil messages too. As technology evolves, the plot of film changes as well. “Singin’ in the Rain” explores the problems and wild success of using audio to enhance motion picture. The audience feels the complete happiness when the famous song is sung. This feeling of joy is what we have conditioned our response to be whenever we here this song. That is why it is so odd for the viewers of “A Clockwork Orange,” the simple cheerful feelings soon become distorted.

The irony of watching brutal killings while hearing such a bubbly song is rather odd. It is as if the visual and audio are out of synch. As mentioned before in class this type of irony is only made possible due to the advancements in technology; using two different levels of information of audio and visual. As Santiago mentioned these different levels don’t always need to be emotionally connected. This dissonance between picture and sound is remarkable because it provides the feeling of innocence in parallel with atrocity. It is clear to see the changes in society which have tainted our happiness, and twisted its meaning. However, the ability to layer audio and visual separately really allow us to use this layering of information to either magnify the emotional reactions of a film or in this case to cause dissonance and irony.

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