A CLOCKWORK ORANGE film analysis - pyramids and pecking orders
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- Опубликовано: 22 апр 2019
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Kubrick's spacial awareness and arrangement, the way he composed scenes visually was second to none.
Dave Dogge and first to all else
Brian DePalma:) & Roman Polanski:)
I love how this film makes everyone a victim and villian.
More duality....the best route is to be neither.
Kubrick has ridiculous details in his films. This is why I like the guy. Best director.
This is the sort of approach you see in the finer arts. The pyramid is a motif upon which everything else is built. This is how the best classical music is composed. This is how Frank Lloyd Wright designed his buildings --- begin with a motif shape, and fractally manifest it in the design, from the micro level, like the shapes of tiles and furniture, to the individual room level, to the meta floor plan level.
The poster is suggestive of countless generations of wombs giving birth to wombs until Alex like Cesar cuts himself free
Great point. There is an alternate poster that shows a woman giving birth to a bust of Beethoven.
Collative Learning the female can reproduce itself the male cannot
This was the film I chose to watch after my first and only acid trip. It's amazing what you notice in the background while on hallucinogens
Mr. Ekshun that must have been absolutely horrifying. I would tear myself to pieces.
You should have watched the yellwow sub.
Are you kidding me? I also watched a clockwork orange after my first trip! Yes, it was an enlightening experience indeed sir.
As a seasoned psychonaut and firm proponent of psychedelic drugs, (as well as lover of Kubrick and Burgess and disturbing cinema) this is is not what I would have recommended as a first experience. Cheers!
@@dustinmikesell7908brilliant recommendation
Nothing was accidental.. Great video.. Thanks for sharing .
How much symbolism in movies do you suppose came from the writer's/director's subconscious and wasn't consciously intended?
Some of these shots seems to be to purposeful and intentional to believe it's just unconscious in my opinion.
Depends on which film maker. With Kubrick I'd say his conscious awareness of what he was doing was much stronger and methodical than most.
Kubrick is 100% conscious. And he knew what the symbols he was using actually meant. Subconscious doesn't look like a Kubrick film. It's accidental detail and very generic. Kubrick is very specific. The Kabbalists, Hermeticist and other orders within Hollywood would guarantee that most symbology in movies is intentional although it is less blatant and more subversive nowadays, especially in the bigger movies. Which strangely makes it more effective. Go figure
I think Kubrick also allowed things to come out of his sub conscious mind. He would read widely on the topics he covered in his movies and knows ruminating on all he has read will lead to things coming out in ways he would not think of at first. In that case, he is consciously allowing his sub conscious to do it's thing, if that makes sense. I think he had total trust and faith in his intellect and assumed he would find answers to the one or two puzzles he had left to solve while directing a movie simply because he did so much research.
When actually shooting though I’ve heard numerous stories of him making actors to take after take until he would see something interesting. I’ve understood that of him allowing His unconscious to take over like the camera being another actor on the stage
I've always felt that Kubrick's style very intentionally draws our attention to subliminal visual elements and symbolism. The way he stages and frames his shot in a methodically symmetrical and almost artificial way seems to draw our attention to the practical film-making as opposed to the mere emotion of the scene and thus we notice the metaphors more easily. That's not to say that he likes to make his symbolism obvious, but that he makes it easier to notice.
Kubrick exhibition will be running at the design museum in London until September..incase anyones interested.
I saw it when it was in San Francisco. It was incredible
The aerial prison shot also echoes Jeremy Bentham and his wealthy industrialist brother's early etchings for the panopticon concept they both masterminded.
Edit: autocorrect adjustment aerial from serial
Love your videos, Rob. Over the years you've helped me to see the subliminals in film, and this has helped me to look at storytelling in a different way, and has inspired me to pack subtextual elements into my own cartooning work. Thanks!
Some symbolism i noticed, the black and white checkered floor and the woman wearing red
Dig the detail of the red billiard ball being shot from the right, to be sunk on the left.
Yep
is this specifically symbolic of something?
@@MD....21 Rob Ager points out in the video how it's significant that violence is often directed from right to left. Now to me it looks strange to have a bunch of red balls on the right getting sunk on the left. Like... Alex is not the first person they've sunk.
Worth a look into anyways.
The black and white doormen are the pillars in the Kabbalah. The pillars in front of the Temple of Solomon. Boaz and Jachin
True
yes. Duality. The masters carpet.
Justin Falzon good eye. Black and white are the universal dycotomy of good and evil, the Masonic checkerboard is another.
They are not specifically Kabbalah, not any more at least. The pillars are part of Masonry also. One pillar symbolizes emotion, instinct...all things right brain, shall we say and the other pillar symbolizes intellect, reason etc. The ideal state of mind should be one where you stand between the poles, which is why door ways are often located between the poles.
At 11:35 the old man's shadow forms a face that emerges from its own triangular shape towards the left.
Brilliant analysis. You've got yourself a new subscriber.
If you're new to Collative Learning - welcome, you've got sooooo many great videos to catch up on, happy viewing!! : )
wow , its never too late but I follow Rob 10 years already
@Michael Felix You must be popular with the ladies
@@RighteousBrother / I was excited a year ago, when I found this channel. But it's all just common sense stuff, or it's him guessing at the meaning.
@@TheLadyDelirium / 😄😆🤣😂😆
I’m nearly 50 years old and never seen this film, I need to buck my ideas up and find the time to see it
dude
If you have it, it's on Netflix at the moment cheers
EXY ahh right ok cheers.. I have Netflix 👍😃
I borrowed this vhs from a friend who bought it on our college video trip to Amsterdam around 1996.
Watched it on a 14” with the curtains closed one after with a joint and loved it. Surprises me how many film fans don’t care for it.
Spot on Rob, just a bit of extra trivia for you, it's also a "Golden Triangle" used in the films artwork, which according to wiki "is also uniquely identified as the only triangle to have its three angles in 2:2:1 proportions. The Golden Triangle is used to form a logarithmic spiral. By bisecting the base angles, a new point is created that in turn, makes another golden triangle. The bisection process can be continued infinitely, creating an infinite number of golden triangles. A logarithmic spiral can be drawn through the vertices. This spiral is also known as an equiangular spiral, a term coined by René Descartes. "If a straight line is drawn from the pole to any point on the curve, it cuts the curve at precisely the same angle," hence equiangular. - I've also seen it re-emerge in contemporary culture, most notably the video for the White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" and "The Neon Demon" by Nicolas Winding Refn.
The movie mask for Alex looks like a Pinnichio mask which seems appropriate as the film thematically is like Pinocchio in reverse, 'a real boy turning into a mechanical man',, or programmed man.
The pyramid in the prison block outside had me overly questioning things while drunk lol
I wonder why Alex and the creepy winking dude are walking together in the circle the first time
Great analysis - I'll rewatch the film with these notes in mind. Kudos to you Rob.
I wonder what Kubrick is trying to saying using a snooker table in pivotal scenes in Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut? I only just noticed this as I watched your video. Is it significant that the character (Zeigler in EWS and the unknown associate of the writer in CO) is not actually playing a proper game on the table, but rather just rolling balls around in an idle fashion, I wonder?! If it was anyone else, I would dismiss it as insignificant, but not when it comes to Kubrick!
visually the message is manipulation, in a snooker game if you move the balls with your hand you are being unfairm braking the rules, manipulating the game, both characters are doing that in the movies, in a way
That's a good comparison. I hadn't thought of that before.
good observation and makes hella sense
Unknown conspirator is named Dolin,played by John Savident.hard to play a proper game of snooker with those huge speakers in the way.
I was wondering if there was a connection between Jack Torrence writing at his type writer and the writer in this movie doing the same as well.
Another incredible video. Thanks for your time and efforts, Rob! They are appreciated.
Actions from the hand on the right perceived as violence from the eye on the left. This movie is all about perception and the obsessive never ending search for truth. It is the essence of being human.
I thought there was a reason Burgess broke up the novel into three parts! This reminds of how the number three plays in the works of Plato, especially when considering the structure of his moral psychology in Phaedrus, his caste system in The Republic, the triangle in Timaeus, his theory of love in Symposium, the trilogy that is the Trial of Socrates in Phaedo, Crito and Apology, and even his whole catalog is composed of 36 works which are a composition of the number three. This of course plays a part on how Plato wants to shape society in his and Socrates' image. Even Aristotle resorts to the number three in his Rhetoric and Ethics, both of which play a part in his politics and reshaping the world in his image as well.
I JUST noticed this is how The White Stripes came up with the idea for their video of Seven Nation Army
So, this may not be related, but the video for "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes has some very interesting imagery that closely resembles the poster artwork for A Clockwork Orange. I wonder if they were taking inspiration from this.
The writer's muscular helper is David Prowse who was Darth Vader
great work as always, Rob.
Very interesting, as always. Since this is one of Kubrick's most intentionally stylized/artistic films, you might also have mentioned the crucial importance of the pyramid format in Neo-Classical painting, sculpture and architecture. This is also clearly an intentional reference.
His hands also form a pyramid with his head as the apex, in the scene where he attempts suicide.
Haha, could be, yes
Watch Filmworker guys, (I don’t know if rob has mentioned it before). It’s about Leon Vitali, the actor turned Kubrick assistant. It gives you a great insight into how much Kubrick pushed everyone around him for the perfection he wanted, year after year and film after film. Nothing is accidental in a Kubrick film, as Rob has said multiple times.
Very well done. Amazing you found the pyramid in the jail yard. 👍🏻
Incredible. Your work and insights are appreciated, sir.
6:00 opening shot shows alex is at the head of a milk bar pyramid. 8:15 neo nazis to the right of alex in the milk bar, hippies to his left.
9:11 central milk theme. i'd anticipate kabbalah/luciferian analysis on that alone.
On the other hand, Kubrick used prominent symmetrical shots in all his movies. Great commentary.
My new favourite channel, great insight
Really interesting analysis. Reminds me of Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon prism: designed, apparently, to symbolize the vaunting ambition of the pyramids, and the band's famous light show in concerts.
Incidentally, when watching Train Spotting there appeared to be many visual similarities in the night club scene and Kubrick's depiction of the Korova milk bar.
Amazing as always! Love your videos!
Brilliant rob.
Subliminal control is one of those ideas I struggle to take seriously. How is it possible to sneak details past the the brain, when those details have to be interpreted by the brain first? This does tie in to power pyramids actually, people who thrive most in those situations are usually the people who most readily submit to them, and are also the types of people most reliably "controlled" by these techniques, and the type of people that the Stanford prison experiment inadvertently selected for to generate its bizarre results (in the same year that this movie came out, appropriately enough; and the similar Milgram experiment occurred slightly before the novel came out). So I think it's significant that Alex was obviously this kind of person as well.
7:21 strange sculpture (pyramid apex) suggests Alex, especially the nose on his mask.
In other words, always respect the ''high ground''.
It's over, Anakin!
NOOOOOO!
I HATE YOUUUUU
Notice the prisoners are walking counter-clockwise, the same is seen in the Eyes Wide Shut ritual, where Red Cloack walks counterclock.......the same was seen in Conan The Barbarian when young Conan is tied to the wheel of pain, they are forced to push the wheel counter-clockwise, and a wheel showing a pyramidal structure with an "all seeing" creature on top. (Conan The Barbarian being full of analogies and visual metaphores, that is not a coincidence).
I did wonder why the writer, after becoming wheelchair bound, did not have the wooden steps replaced by ramps.
I love your videos. I need to watch this film again with this theory in mind
Great stuff Rob 👍
Not to be overly critical, just trying to inform- Maslow never proposed a "Pyramid of Needs." What he described was a "hierarchy of relative prepotency," and the pyramid as shown in this video (And most psych textbooks) is not just something that was created after Maslow's work was finished, but it actually suggests some deeply misleading things about what he proposed. While those categories all correspond to his theory, he never would have proposed hard boundaries between them, and even in his first paper A Theory of Human Motivation (1943) he says that people might be experiencing 5% Survival needs, 15% safety needs, 60% esteem needs, and 5% respect needs, or something of the sort.
The "Maslow Pyramid" is a misinterpretation and in many ways bastardization of his work, and because of this nearly everyone assumes that he was saying exactly the opposite of what he actually said.
"Motivation and Personality" is the book where he lays his ideas out most clearly, and I highly recommend this to anyone who may be interested in the subject. Unfortunately very few people actually read it, including psychology professors, so misinformation about his work has spread like wildfire. It's unfortunate, because the book itself is so wonderful, especially Chapter 13: Love in Self-Actualizing People.
The writer is a Ludwig van - lookalike in the snooker table scene.
Interesting to note, that the occultist Burroughs was good friends with Burgess at about the time that Burgess wrote a Clockwork Orange. It would not be a stretch to conclude that there was an occultist influence on what he wrote.
I had also noticed those pyramids, and definitely not by coincidence (since it's Kubrick).
Interesting subject. I think Kubrick always worked to a template structure within his films that he stuck to during filming. The Shining's sense of movement and disorientation for example, and A Clockwork Orange used the pyramid structure. Interesting subjects that only become apparent after several viewings.
The writer forms his own fractal pyramid 7:24
As you note in another video, a pyramid is half a diamond. Is this perhaps an indication that Kubrick's diamond theme in so many movies was always a symbol for the dominance hierarchy of man?
can you do a clockwork orange video like you did for space odyssey, just explaining what you think main message of movie is? would love it!
Prisoners are forced to live outside the normal pyramid structure, shuffling around a pointless, endless circle.
Clicks on new Rob Ager video. Clicks "like" button before video starts.
love this analysis ... think the prison yard setting pyramid in background is from where a slanted roof used to be... as in it used to be a building with a roof on it and was made into a yard. Doesn't change the analysis, but don't think it's an etching.
The basic thesis of the Kubrick Canon is this: I am an intellect of the highest order within film. I am dismayed to understand the world such as it is and that other greater intellects have either not been as effective at describing it or have been stymied as I have been. Therefore I am Plato of the postmodern and will encode my message throughout my work. I do not make any prediction but perhaps if I am such a genius, another will arise to decode my lifelong labour.
We now know that genius to be Rob Ager
Finally a reading of the film with a historical and political understanding
Very good..spot on..
I was just at the Kerova Milk Bar last night, 2/1 drencrum special
at 9'17" the numbers on the doors closest to the camera spell out 18 on the left and 23 on the right with the bottom of a large B visible on the wall above - 1823 was the year that Beethoven was still writing the 9th Symphony (which was started in 1822 and finished/premiered in 1824)
There's a little jab at apollo 11 in the beggar scene that I found kinda funny. I'm sure you have mentioned it when you did all the shining stuff. But I just figured to mention it anyways.
1:39 in he says man on the moon and go around the earth or whatever while they laugh at him right before they beat him.
ruclips.net/video/oWLByMshYIU/видео.html
yes, the characters shadows in that scene are quite the same the astronauts had in some parts of apollo 11. Also the scene they're fighting the other gang looks alike Apollo 11 on the wide shots, Bob haves more details about that in his website.
@@Keleu oh ok awesome and thanks. I'll have to check it out. I figured he wouldn't miss some of those little details.
What a strange and wonderful film, i watched it for the first time last night. I noticed a lot of stuff right off the bat.
I just bought the Stanley Kubrick Archives because of this video
Most of this imagery went over my head watching this film but I still loved it. How many people also find they don’t get this imagery? Or do must get it but don’t necessarily know they’re taking it in. What happened if this film didn’t have the sort of hidden imagery? I always noticed his symmetry in his films but not the pyramid look. I don’t think it would noticed by many…..
Some symbolism in this movie: Pyramid. All seeing eye. Orange being 33 in numerology/gematria
Did you notice the sign on the wall, Drenchrome - Adrenochrome! Omg.
Where
one other thing to mention about the capital A as well is that it comes from the Phoenician letter "aleph" which is an abstracted skull with horns!
The prison wall pyramid is just the outline of the old buildings roof. You can see how they have added height to the old building with different coloured bricks.
I like to think that this observation is pivotal to your more recent analysis of the Kubrick diamonds, more accurately, octahedrons.
Noticed in tunnel scene before beating begins: The shadow of the homeless man makes the profile of a face facing left, facing away from the 4 thugs.
Wouldn't Kubrick’s use of one point perspective in his films make these symbolic pyramids you speak of more likely to just happen? BTW, your brilliant at what you do and this video as well as your channel is top notch. Can't wait to go thru your website content. More than worth it for the money asked.
As always...Mindblown! Thanks for this...Question, have you ever seen Zardoz? would be interesting for you to give that one a look.
Spoiler, it's the Wizard of Oz. There, saved everyone from watching it :D
In my opinion, a lot of the shots from Kubrick's movies, from what I've seen, look almost as if they could be paintings. It's not like with a lot of movies where the shots are just there because they needed a shot there. It's like everything is a carefully planned out work of art.
the story of the pyramid and sphinx has changed drasticly over the last 10-15 years. Like many other cultures they were used as astronomic tools with a so called soul tunnel leading towards a specific star formation, similar to the Henges we find all around the world. Would you like to know more? check out Robert Bloch, Graham Hancock, John Anthony West, Randall Carlson!
Would you ever do a video on Carpenter’s Halloween? There’s interesting stuff in that movie surrounding the ideas of fate and Myers as some kind of force meeting with man. Incredible movie but I’m not sure if there’s anything you’d have to say or could point out that hasn’t been said hundreds of times before.
When police guard rips bandaid from Alex’s nose, he is on left abusing Alex on the right. So this might be an exception or a way to say the tables have turned before switching abusers to left later on.
cheers bobby :)
6:39 Looks like a lunar landscape
I noticed that. The mattress in the background looks like the American flag with the Apollo LEM next to it.
and it's filmed in a theatre.
Oh shit I see it too
I think the 'A' is an inverted 'V', actually. A reference to 'V.' by Thomas Pynchon, a novel about the descent of the feminine into the inanimate (hence the milk mannequins [there's a "happy hour" scene, either in V. or Gravity's Rainbow (V2) where they drink beer directly from breast-shaped pumps])
The White Stripes Seven Nation Army video totally steals the pyramid motif from the Clockwork Orange poster.
I clicked so fast... lol
got the masonic checkerboard floor in there
6:21 hey check out the shadow of the victim. Looks like a man's face in profile. Kubrick seriously loved making visual art in his movies. And from what I have heard about him, I don't think much of anything in his movies were coincidental.
That's so creepy...
APOCALYPTO !!!
What a movie
Never noticed thanks
im replying to this comment
Something in your handle seeded me with the overwhelming (yet subtle) urge to reply to comment. (This is so wierd.)
At 7·12 after you mention "Symmetry" we see 2 Pyramids , one Inverted , as if things are about to be turned upside down.
Rob since you've accessed some of Kubrick's documents in the archive, do you have any sense of whether he thought of these kinds of subliminal techniques as effective? I know he was loathe to talk about his work in public, but I'd be interested to know which of his films he found to be most effective, or whether he was ever surprised by the audience's reaction to them
Difficult to say. I think these messages were meant to be decoded in study by anyone who took an interest. At the same time I think some of his movies, especially Eyes Wide Shut and Dr Strangelove were as much direct psychological attacks on powerful people he considered dangerous to society. He definitely studied subliminal stuff as he was seriously into studying TV commercials, which are typically short blasts intended to psychologically get at the viewer and make them buy something.
Effective to what end?
@@collativelearning It'd be great if you could do an analysis of some advert of past and present!
Love your work by the way!!
yes indeed, Kubrick spoke very well about Advertising because of the power that has to manipulate in a small time. There's a book called Subliminal Seduction that explores very well these ideas. After Lolita Kubricks starts to introduce a lot of subliminal details, back in time we weren't so saturated with audiovisual as now, and Kubrick as a perfectionist, did care about people getting plenty of interpretations, making his work richer.
I think the 2 by two Nature of the prisoners refers to Nature. See Stonehenge and Pyramid Measurements. Done in Pairs, Inner & Outer Measurements. And therefore Seasons.
Alex Loved Music More than Anything. The Classics.
Can you please breakdown The Animatrix? Especially the ending part of it!
Its been a while since Ive seen A Clockwork Orange but I realized that the scene at 7:29 where Alex is walking in a circle with other prisoners exercising reminded me a lot of a Van Gogh painting of the same subject. Here's a video on the painting and its background: ruclips.net/video/68B0p_yPMeI/видео.html
is this coincidence ? last night I watched the Clockwork orange on cable TV (for the tenth time ) and later discovered on you tube some great old synth dark vawe band from my country called Korowa bar and now this
There is obviously a lot of symbolism in kubricks work but i think you're seeing things that are just coincidence and they just happen to go along with the theme of the movie, it's not many but there's a few in here that seem to be a stretch, then you say that pretty much at the end as I'm typing this 😂 oh well I'll send it anyway, cool video, it's that a bit of a scouse accent I'm hearing?
Nice.
Is the right to left action of Alex diving from the window, and the unnamed perpetrator of his demise rolling red billiard balls, in the same direction. Also part of your theory?
It wasn't but it's an interesting idea.
Also, the knife has a ballbag. 4:48
Just a thing. The Mayan pyramids are not South America. They are in North America (Mexico) and Central America in any case.