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Kubrick Contra Nihilism: A Clockwork Orange

KUBRICK CONTRA NIHILISM: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

      Much critical ink has been spilled over the question of whether the world-view of archetypal auteur Stanley Kubrick is nihilistic or not, and appropriately so.   To my mind, this is one of the most important questions we can ask about genuine artists and their oeuvres. If auteur criticism is to have any validity, from a philosophical perspective, it must address such issues. True cinematic geniuses (e.g., Bergman, Antonioni, Wertmuller, Hitchcock and Cronenberg, to name only a few) have something to teach us about the meaning of life, and in uncommon instances, their explorations can be genuinely philosophical.   This is the case in several of Kubrick’s films, but most especially in his treatment of Anthony Burgess’ dystopic classic, A Clockwork Orange.    
    Burgess declared his own intentions in a new introduction to the 1988 edition of the novel, which he entitled “A Clockwork Orange Resucked”.   While admitting that “I enjoyed raping and ripping by proxy” the author continued: “But the book does also have a moral lesson and it is the weary traditional one of the fundamental importance of moral choice.”   Indeed, Burgess proceeded to speak deprecatingly about his novel for its didacticism in making that point.
    But then Kubrick, and Malcolm McDowell, created such an indelible portrait of “little Alex” that their film continues to spark controversy to this day.   Copycat crimes were so rife in Britain after its release that Kubrick himself withdrew it from U.K. markets for over two decades.   The director came in for the usual moralistic condemnations for the way the film seemed to valorize Alex’s rapacious taste for ultra-violence.   As is often the case, the howls of execration were based on an incomplete understanding of the director’s intentions.
    Ironically, I find A Clockwork Orange to be one of Stanley Kubrick’s most life-affirming works, second only to 2001: A Space Odyssey.   The final scene,...