A Clockwork Orange – Warner Brothers (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: UK/USA, 1971
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writer: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke, Michael Tarn, John Clive, Adrienne Corri, Carl Duering, Miriam Karlin, Philip Stone, David Prowse

Release Date: September 21st, 2021
Approximate Running Time: 136 Minutes 35 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / HDR10
Rating: R
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 English, Dolby Digital Mono English, DTS-HD 5.1 French, DTS-HD 5.1 German, DTS-HD 5.1 Italian, DTS-HD 5.1 Spanish (Castilian), DTS-HD 5.1 Spanish (Latin), Dolby Digital Mono Polish
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Cantonese, Mandarin, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $33.99

"Set in a futuristic welfare state, a vicious young hoodlum is captured by the police and undergoes rehabilitation in the form of aversion therapy as brutal and horrifying as any of his offenses." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.75/5 (4K UHD), 3.75/5 (Blu-ray)

A Clockwork Orange comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 58.8 GB

Feature: 58.2 GB

Warners Brothers has done an amazing job with all their Stanley Kubrick 4K UHD releases. As good as Warner Brothers' 2011 Blu-ray looked, this new 4K transfer is a noticeable improvement in every area. The most notable areas of improvement include stronger contrast and black levels; image clarity and fine details have never looked better; and film grain is better managed.

A Clockwork Orange comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 34.4 GB

Feature: 26.1 GB

It should be noted that the Blu-ray is the same disc that Warner Brothers released in 2011, minus a second disc that contained O Lucky Malcolm! and Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures.

Audio: 3.5/5 (DTS-HD 5.1 English), 4.25/5 (Dolby Digital Mono English)

The 4K UHD disc comes with these audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English; a Dolby Digital mono mix in English; a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in French; a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in German; a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in Italian; a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in Spanish (Castilian), a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in Spanish (Latin), and a Dolby Digital mono mix in Polish. For this review, I listened to the two English language tracks. The DTS-HD 5.1 English language track is one of the weaker remix tracks of a film that was originally released in mono that I have heard. Though the mix spreads things out more, the distribution of sound leaves a lot to be desired, especially when compared to the original mono track. That said, despite only being available in Dolby Digital, the original mono mix provides a much more satisfying sound experience. Included with this release are these removable subtitle options: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Cantonese, Mandarin, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include an archival audio commentary with actor Malcolm McDowell and film historian Nick Redman.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include original theatrical trailer (1 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English and English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese (Brazil), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish subtitles), an archival interview with actor Malcolm McDowell titled Malcolm McDowell Looks Back (10 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese (Brazil), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish subtitles), an archival featurette titled Turning Like Clockwork (26 minutes 19 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese (Brazil), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish subtitles), an archival featurette titled Great Bolshy Yarblockos! Making A Clockwork Orange (28 minutes 19 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese (Brazil), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish subtitles), an archival featurette titled Still Tickin': The Return of A Clockwork Orange (43 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese (Brazil), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish subtitles) and an archival audio commentary with Malcolm McDowell and Nick Redman.

Other extras include a slipcover.

Summary:

I have lost track of how many times I have seen A Clockwork Orange (at least over fifty times). My journey with A Clockwork Orange began when I first saw it on cable. From there, I have watched it on just about every home video format: VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD. And though most films become familiar the more you revisit them, I am continually amazed by the many new things I see each time I watch A Clockwork Orange.

Censorship has always played a role in what eventually ends up on the screen. When A Clockwork Orange was first unleashed on unsuspecting audiences, there was already a movement for cinema to expand upon its previous imposed restrictions. That said, in the fifty-one years since A Clockwork Orange shocked audiences, there seems to be a movement to censor content, and this is often done in the name of doing so for the better good of society. The irony of such a scenario ties in with the central theme of A Clockwork Orange, the danger of imposing morality.

Though many of the elements and themes explored in A Clockwork Orange were radical for their time, it is astounding just how much has become commonplace in today's world where violence is everywhere you look and the totalitarian movement to control every aspect of one's life for the better has gained considerably. Looking back, it is a stroke of genius on Stanley Kubrick’s part to set the film in a near enough future that in such a short time we now live in it.

With A Clockwork Orange, it creates a cinematic experience that forms a perfect fusion of sights and sounds. And though music has long played a role in cinema, the way in which Stanley Kubrick uses music in A Clockwork Orange goes beyond using said music to evoke an emotional response. Also, the way in which he frames compositions takes you out of the role of a spectator by creating a claustrophobic atmosphere that forces you to confront the carnage on screen.

For a film with so many striking visual moments. Some of the most memorable are the opening sequence, which introduces Alex and his droogs; the home invasion scene, where Alex and his droogs assault a writer and rape his wife; and Alex’s treatment sequences at Ludovico, especially the scene where his eyes are forced to remain open while watching disturbing images.

All areas of film production can make or break a film. When it comes to casting a film, there is arguably no area more important. In the case of A Clockwork Orange, it is hard to imagine an actor besides Malcolm McDowell (If....) in the role of Alex DeLarge, a nasty character who is the pure essence of evil. He delivers such an astonishingly convincing performance that it is the best of his career. That said, the rest of the cast are all great in their roles, even if they are overshadowed by Malcolm McDowell’s performance.

It is not surprising that A Clockwork Orange is a film where everything perfectly falls into place, since it is well known that Stanley Kubrick was a meticulous filmmaker who would continue to work on something until he was satisfied with it. And though A Clockwork Orange was one of his more scaled-down films from a production standpoint, the result is an extraordinary film that does a superb job of capturing the essence of Anthony Burgess’s source novel. That said, it is arguably cinema’s best example of a novel to film adaptation.

A Clockwork Orange makes its way to 4K UHD via a solid transfer from Warner Brothers and an assortment of insightful extras, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer