The Departed (2006) --> Can Martin Scorsese do any wrong? Time after time, movie after movie, he blows you away with his talent; even with this movie which he adapted from a Hong Kong flick (
Infernal Affairs). It might surprise you that Scorsese would choose to recreate another director's film as he is considered one of the greats in history. But you forget all that when you see the film, especially if you haven't seen the original (which I highly recommend you do).
The film stars Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, two men on opposite sides of the law. Dicaprio plays Billy Costigan, an undercover cop who infiltrated the Irish crime syndicate in Boston. Damon plays Colin Sullivan who was recruited by crime underboss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) to infiltrate the Boston police department and becomes a detective at a young age.
When both groups realize they have moles the movie grabs hold of you and you are brought on an intense ride that doesn't let up until the violent and wholly unexpected ending. Scorsese has another great film to add to his already stellar career.
Full Spectrum Staff
A Clockwork Orange (1971) --> Stanley Kubrick is one of the great filmmakers in history creating some of the most memorable films ever to grace the big screen. He is also one of the best in adapting novels to film screenplays.
A Clockwork Orange is a great example of these two talents.
Kubrick adapts the Anthony Burgess novel into a test of film patron's ability to withstand repeated viewing of scenes of rape, violence and brutality. Even though this film is over 35 years old it still holds up well with the super-violent movies of today.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex de Large, a teen-punk from a future Britain who leads a gang of violent teens that terrorize the streets and homes of London. Alex is a sex addicted violence junkie whose favourite pastime is to skip school and attend a local milk bar (milk mixed with mescaline), get drugged up and commit acts of rape and assault on street people and upper class home owners.
When he is finally caught, the authorities decide he would be the best case for an experiment in aversion therapy. After repeated sessions of a drug induced nausea while forced to view film clips of ultra violent behaviour, Alex is conditioned to have a negative physical reaction to all forms of violence. He is then released into the streets to fend for himself.
When he meets his former gang-mates who, free of his brutal dominance, have become police officers, they assault him. Unable to defend himself due to the therapy, he is almost drowned and then left for dead. Alex is able to reach a nearby home which turns out to be the home of a writer who Alex had previously beaten savagely. At mercy to the crazed man, Alex eventually falls from the second story window of the house and ends up in the hospital.
After his story is circulated, a lobby is formed to chastise the government and the powers in office realize the public relations headache it has caused and what might happen to their jobs because of it. To mitigate the damage, Alex becomes a pampered celebrity and is eventually cured and released onto an unsuspecting public.
The film is not easy to watch because of its graphic scenes and strange language (Burgess created a new language for his book which mixes British slang and Russian vocabulary which Kubrick keeps faithful to). But once you get accustomed to Kubrick's vision for the adaptation you realize the movie is a morality tale on crime and punishment.
Alex is the subject of much violence at the beginning of the film perpetrated by those in authority (the school truancy officer) who is supposed to show a good example. His mother is scatterbrain and pushover who shows little interest in her son and doesn't discipline him for his antisocial behaviour. All the examples in Alex's life are either perpetrators or victims of violence. The city itself is full of eccentrics in strange garb and Alex sees it aa a playground for his sexual appetite. Is Alex a chooser of his destiny or was it chosen for him by a world full of violent men and sexually submissive women?
When Alex is incarcerated he agrees to undergo aversion therapy to become a free man but when he realizes the unpleasant nature of the therapy (having his eyes forced open and his head held rigidly forward while being injected with a drug that causes extreme nausea) and takes back his consent, the violence is continued against him.
Kubrick further blurs the line between justified violence and revenge when he makes two former gang members police officers. When they commit violence against Alex for past infractions they become thugs in a uniform rather than representatives of the law.
There are many other examples of how violent the world is in Kurick's London but the main issue he treats in this film can be summed up in this question: Does a released convict have the right to defend himself from becoming a victim of violence when he has in the past created victims of violence himself? Kubrick gives you the scenario with this film; you decide what the answer is.
Scott D. Brown
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