Stanley Kubrick went from a well regarded director to a man considered a visionary genius with the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey. His planned follow-up film would have been about Napoleon Bonaparte, but long years of research and the failure of Waterloo at the box office forced MGM to pull the plug, prompting Kubrick's exit from the studio. He settled in at Warner Bros, who were more than delighted to have the maverick filmmaker releasing movies under their banner. Kubrick's first film for the studio, A Clockwork Orange, would be one of his most successful, and certainly his most controversial.

A Clockwork Orange is the story of Alex (Malcolm McDowell) a ne'er-do-well and leader of a band of "droogs" (friends, although in this case his friends are fellow gang members). The group spend their time drinking enhanced milk in bars, going on joyrides, and beating the living shit out of bums and raping unsuspecting women. Alex is a real terror, refusing to listen to anyone in authority. However, his bad acts catch up to him when he's betrayed by his droogs and left to face the harsh and unsympathetic jail system all by himself. Desperately seeking a way out, Alex is lured into an experimental programs that makes him physically ill when he thinks of doing violence or hears his favorite classical music. The implications of this are not clear until Alex runs into an old victim, hell bent on revenge.

A Clockwork Orange is a dark and biting satire. Kubrick, working off of the inspired novel by Anthony Burgess, creates a future that isn't dystopian so much as it is broken. There are no Orwellian secret policemen walking the streets, but there has clearly been a breakdown of society in this future world (the relationship between violence and youth is explored in a similarly extreme fashion in the more recent Battle Royale). Alex and company are free to roam as they wish, leaving chaos and destruction in their wake. The police are too slow and inept to stop them until Alex is laid out like a gift for the police to find.

A Clockwork Orange has some of the most brutal violence, especially sexual violence, ever put on the screen. While films like Irreversible have graphic depictions of rape, not even that can touch the sense of giddiness that Alex brings to his ultraviolence. Subversively, the film invites the audience to be an active participant in Alex's escapades, making him so charismatic that you can't help but identify with him, even as he 's raping and murdering. This tone, meant by Kubrick to lampoon the minor street gangs that had infested London, was taken incorrectly as an incitement to violence in Britain, forcing Kubrick to pull the film from distribution for decades. It's a testament to the man's influence that Warner made no objection to the request.

Malcolm McDowell is a revelation as Alex. Addressing the audience directly as the film's narrator, McDowell gives Alex an anarchistic energy that drives the film. He has a cheekiness that defies description, making even his most sincere lines feel like a slap in the face of authority. McDowell was a relative unknown at the time, and A Clockwork Orange made him a star. Even today, after having decades of work under his belt, he's still best remembered as Alex de Large.

Kubrick had a lot of fun breaking down the achievements he accomplished with 2001. Many credit that 1968 film as being a turning point in the use of music in cinema, and Kubrick turns that technique on its head, getting Walter (now Wendy) Carlos to re-imagine several different classical pieces as otherworldly electronic compositions. The signature sequence is when Alex has sex with two girls, all sped up, to a hyper speed version of "The William Tell Overture." Kubrick uses other touches from 2001 in new ways, such as fish eye lenses and other camera tricks. We can even scope out a copy of that film's soundtrack as Alex peruses an underground record store. Clearly Kubrick was giving a knowing wink to an audience that he knew would be paying attention.

A Clockwork Orange is, in its own way, as important as 2001. The ultraviolence paves the way for serious ethical and moral considerations that each audience member has to resolve on their own. Kubrick is beyond providing easy answers, but he does provide a fiendishly good ride. Never before has an existential crisis been this much fun. A true classic of form and content, A Clockwork Orange remains vital and shocking all these years later.

The HD DVD:

The Image:
Warner Bros. presents A Clockwork Orange in a 1.66:1 VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer. Considering many of the strong transfers we've seen from this set of Kubrick releases, A Clockwork Orange is decidedly disappointing. Many of the shots are overly soft and lacking detail. Even the opening, an extreme close-up of Alex's face that tracks back to show off the Milk Bar, looks poor for high definition. A few of the shots, mostly close-ups, look better, but the transfer quality is average at best.

The Audio:
Warner offers a lossless Dolby True HD 5.1 mix on A Clockwork Orange. Even a high resolution soundtrack can't hide the dated nature of the recordings. The first electronic blarings of Carlos' score betrays the age of the film, and Malcolm McDowell's narration sounds thin and warbly. As with the other Kubrick discs, surrounds are used sparingly and subtly. Not the best surround mix, but there's not much more that you can expect, given the source material.

The Supplements:
Warner packages in all of the special features from the concurrently released DVD version. Unlike the Blu-ray, this HD DVD is spread across two discs. The film and commentary are on disc one, while the rest of the extras are on disc two.

• Commentary by Actor Malcolm McDowell and Film Historian Nick Redman: Malcolm McDowell has great affection for A Clockwork Orange, and has talked about it fondly over the years. Warner puts this affinity to good use with this commentary track, which pairs McDowell with film historian Nick Redman. McDowell is full of anecdotes and production stories, recalling shooting with Kubrick and the relationship they developed. Essential listening.
• Still Tickin' - The Return of A Clockwork Orange: This documentary, originally produced for BBC's Channel 4, is incredibly comprehensive. Interviews with all kinds of critics, writers, historians, and other filmmakers. Being a British show, there's a lot of discussion of the way the film was rated, and the controversy surrounding its release and eventual retraction in the UK. An excellent retrospective.
• Great Bolshy Yarblockos! - Making A Clockwork Orange: This piece comes from the same line as the other new Kubrick featurettes, with the same round of interviewees. As always, Kubrick's perfectionism is discussed, and his creative process. A little more personal than "Still Tickin'", this one is a few minutes shorter.
• O Lucky Malcolm!: A feature length career overview, "O Lucky Malcolm!" is far too long for its own good. McDowell discusses his fruitful relationship with writer/director Lindsay Anderson as well as his work on A Clockwork Orange. Friends and family talk about McDowell in mostly glowing terms, and McDowell himself is quick to talk about how great he is. A little off the topic of the movie in question, "O Lucky Malcolm!" is nonetheless interesting, even if the signal to noise ratio is a little low. This extra is in high definition.
• Trailer.

The Conclusion:
A Clockwork Orange is Kubrick's second masterpiece in a row, and the polar opposite of 2001: A Space Odyssey. A shockingly sharp satire of British culture, the film still retains all of its power and wit. The HD DVD has less than impressive picture and sound, but a strong set of extras and the essential nature of the film makes this a must have. Highly Recommended

Daniel Hirshleifer is the High Definition Editor for DVD Talk.