Existentialism+in+Contemporary+Film

= **Existentialism in Contemporary Film** =

**-** **A Clockwork Orange- Stanley Kubrick**
Stanley Kubrick is the director of many films that are considered cinema masterpieces, one being //__A Clockwork__// //__Orange__// (1971). A Clockwork Orange is Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962). Kubrick tells his rendition through lighting, shots, composition, score, and symbolisms just like every director. Also, his main character is portrayed by Michal McDowell as Little Alex; a boy infatuated with casually and carelessly performing “a bit of the old, Ultra Violence” with his four posse members, or “ droogs .” All of this mischief, exposure, and rehabilitation takes place in a futuristic England. This composition makes for a sort of surreal, almost sci-fi like feeling, and could be considered by some just that. It is a fast paced and explosive film with very satirical and existential themes. Little Alex (McDowell) could be considered our raw form of existentialism in the film, due to his “Ultra Violent” ways. Or, his belief in “Ultra Violence” is the could be part of the “treaties that dooms man to destruction” (Marjorie Greene, Intro to Existentialism, Page 1). With that said, Little Alex could be fall into the category of actors “whose characters are mad or bad” (Marjorie Greene, Intro to Existentialism, Page 1). Kubrick portrays this madness, and badness through extreme close ups on Little Alex’s expressions. These shots reveal his passion, and need to commit the Ultra Violent that consists of raping, looting, mugging, and fighting on a whim. The looks captured by Kubrick are that of insanity, and unstoppable urge driven by the bliss Alex gets from this Ultra Violence. In existentialism, it is said that there is no meaning in life so we must make or search for our own personal meaning; in short the “man makes himself” (Marjorie Greene, Intro to Existentialism, Page 1) In nihilism, it is said that there is no meaning. So, one could say A Clockwork Orange could have more nihilistic themes. In the sense that this absence of meaning and value for life drives Little Alex and his droogies to commit these crimes, and in doing so exhibit there belief.

Type in the content of your page here.