A Clockwork Orange | Trainspotting
How Stanley Kubrick’s “ultra-violent” dystopian crime film influenced Danny Boyle’s breakout dark comedy
Modern Throwback
One film released before 1980.
One film released after 1980.
A deep dive into both films to discover the thematic similarities and cinematic influences between the two.
Director Stanley Kubrick is a legendary filmmaker. He only directed thirteen feature films during his career, a relatively small number considering his legacy. However, each of his films have had a profound impact on the way future films were made. Each cinematic triumph was deemed “ahead of its time” by many film critics, and the same can be said for his 1971 dystopian crime film A Clockwork Orange (watch the trailer here). The film can be described as many things at once. An examination of disaffected youth. A dissection of society’s numbness to violence. A glimpse at a terrifying future full of crime and lawlessness.
The story follows the protagonist Alex (Malcolm McDowell) in what is essentially two halves of the film. The first half portrays Alex’s horrific criminal life with his gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie, Dim) as they commit what they delightfully refer to as “ultra-violence.” They lay ruin to the squalid streets of Britain, beating a helpless homeless man in the process, and ultimately invade the home of a wealthy married couple. As he recites Gene Kelly’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” Alex proceeds to rape the woman who unwittingly allows their entry, graphically depicted as her husband watches bound and gagged from the floor. This shocking sequence really shows why Malcolm McDowell’s performance of Alex is so iconic. Simultaneously detestable and charismatic, it’s hard not to wonder what makes the character tick (his Beethoven obsession for one) while also wishing for sweet revenge for his despicable acts. McDowell’s eyes portray a madness not often seen on screen.
The second half of the film follows the fallout from Alex’s accidental murder of another home invasion victim and the subsequent imprisonment and rehabilitation of his violent nature. The rehab in question is referred to as “the Ludovico technique” and is revealed to be an experimental psychological conditioning technique that involves the forced viewing of violent images combined with sickness-inducing drugs. The film’s scenes of the “treatment” are some of cinema’s most visually iconic, with Alex’s eyes forcefully pried open as he screams in agony at the screen (see the full sequence here). This is a subtle meta representation of the viewer of A Clockwork Orange, a film many deem unbearable to watch.
Whatever message you take from the film, you can’t deny the polarizing depiction of “ultra-violence” it forces on the viewer. Despite numerous moments that are nearly unbearable to watch, the brutal and disturbing images are oddly captivating. It’s a strange sensation to simultaneously want to close your eyes yet not take them off the screen before you. Kubrick’s vision of a near-future Britain is stylish and aesthetically compelling, making each scene worth surveying for purposeful detail. The near-constant musical presence of Ludwig van Beethoven also lends a sophisticated aura to the film, leading the viewer to sometimes dissociate from the disturbing images in front of them.
The film was predictably very controversial at the time of its release, and it remains so today. However, the cultural impact of the film cannot be denied and its reputation was recently solidified by the Library of Congress when it selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Director Danny Boyle is a renowned director of Oscar-winning films (Slumdog Millionaire) whose filmography varies across genres from zombie horror (28 Days Later) to science fiction (Sunshine). However, his second feature film remains the one that many film fans point to as his very best. Trainspotting (watch the trailer here), released in 1996, is a gritty dark comedy about heroin-addicted youths living in Edinburgh, Scotland. The film was a breakout role for Ewan McGregor as the protagonist Mark Renton and made Boyle a director to keep an eye on due to his stylish and surrealistic depiction of the squalor of drug-addicted life.
The film is oddly entertaining considering its dark subject matter, and somehow makes the viewer chuckle at the most disturbing images. Perhaps the most memorable sequence involves Renton’s psychedelic dive into the depths of the “Worst Toilet in Scotland” to retrieve a pill he intends to use as his last hit before going clean. Another memorable scene involves the character of Spud (Ewen Bremner) shitting the bed of his girlfriend, who graciously let him sleep there after a bender the night before, and then accidentally throwing it all over her family as he walks to the laundry. Both sequences are vile yet hilariously cringe-worthy. But they also display the depths and depravities that a drug-addicted life brings. How far would you go to retrieve your “last hit” before going sober? Is becoming incontinent not the red flag you need to know you have a drinking problem? These questions linger underneath the surface of admittedly humorous sequences in an entertaining film that runs a-mile-a-minute.
The story follows Renton as he tries to escape both the depraved life he inhabits in Edinburgh and his friends who he can’t help to love yet recognizes their bad influence on him. He goes to various lengths to get clean, including a forced cold-turkey rehabilitation by his parents that results in a terrifying hallucinatory sequence involving a head-twisting baby crawling on the ceiling (more on that later). Renton appears to succeed in escaping to a new, clean life in London, only to be tracked down by the crime-inclined Begbie (Robert Carlyle). It’s then that the film takes a shift into a somewhat doofus crime caper, as Sick Boy (Johnny Lee Miller), who later joins the two in London, proposes a scheme to buy two kilograms of heroin in order to sell it to a major dealer for a much higher price. That would result in £16,000 for the group, or £4,000 for each. While the film shifts into a fairly exciting get-rich-quick scenario, it’s clear to the viewer that the group is ultimately going to waste away the cash on more drugs & destruction. Thus, it’s hard to know for sure whether you want them to succeed or fail in their quest.
While it was a hit upon its release, Trainspotting has become arguably one of the most beloved modern British films ever made. The British Film Institute ranked it #10 in its list of Top 100 British Films of the 20th Century, and the film ultimately spawned a sequel in 2017 with the original actors returning to their roles.
Thematic Similarities
The perceived invincibility of disaffected youth
The most prominent similarity between the two films is the portrayal of disaffected youth and the consequences they face from their reckless actions. Both films feature a group of young people that consistently partakes in actions that negatively affect their society and ultimately their own lives. Each group carries out these actions with the assumption that there will be no consequences. However, the protagonist of each film is awakened to the dire consequences of their wicked actions and commit to changing their ways, even if it’s against their will.
In A Clockwork Orange, Alex and his “droogs” waltz around the streets of Britain with seeming authority and cockiness, carrying their beating sticks like policemen displaying their holstered weapons. They terrorize the innocent citizens of their community as if they’re playing a game, even partaking in a pre-game ritual of drinking drug-laden milk to get them intoxicated and pumped up for their “ultra-violent” escapades. The viewer is subjected to one successful night of their “ultra-violence” when Alex breaks into the home a local writer and rapes his wife in front of him, all while gleefully singing “Singin’ in the Rain.” The sequence shifts to him awakening at home the next morning, lazily leaving his room in his underwear for what seems to be a relaxing day at home from school. No consequences…until his “droogs” leave him to the police at a home evasion the next night that inadvertently led to deadly consequences.
The protagonist of Trainspotting, Renton, is much more inclined than Alex to voluntarily change his ways for the better. While unemployed and addicted to heroin, Renton (also through a running narration) expresses to the viewer that he understands the toxicity of his terrible addiction. He seems to experience the depravities of drug-addicted squalor that surrounds him from a distance, commenting on the eccentricities of the people in his inner drug circle. Time after time, he tries to force himself to get clean only to succumb to his dark desires. Yet he becomes bored with his life of sobriety, which lacks the excitement and unpredictability of his heroin-filled past with friends.
The group of friends in Trainspotting get into all sort of trouble as they attempt to finance their drug habit. Begbie lays destruction to seemingly every pub he enters. Spud keeps his girlfriend despite his shitty (pun-intended) treatment of her as a partner in life. Renton and Spud run from the cops after a robbery, and the chase seems to spark joy on Renton’s face even as he’s tackled from behind. Despite their brush with authority, the Scottish friends seem to be getting along just fine with their drug-addicted way of life. They go on alcohol-filled hikes through the beautiful countryside, dance the night away in Edinburgh’s club scene, and shoot the shit at the local pubs. They even have a secured flat where they can comfortably get high together, preferably on the floor where they share space with an infant. It’s a bliss-filled life with no consequences until…reality hits.
Goodness must come from within
In both A Clockwork Orange and Trainspotting, the protagonist is caught by the police and forced (one more voluntarily than the other) into rehabilitation. Both films feature a portrayal of reentry into society as good-natured citizens and their ultimate temptations to return to their former life of lawlessness and destruction. While the story structure plays out in a similar way, the two protagonists are vastly different from one another, which leads to a drastically different commentary on free will.
Alex’s genuine commitment to changing his violent ways is immediately questionable once he requests, two years into his prison sentence, to participate in the “Ludovico” technique aversion therapy. There’s no reason to believe that Alex has ceased being the selfish, self-absorbed person the viewer has witnessed for half the film. That said, the technique appears to work in effect. Upon release from prison, Alex is unable to fight back against attackers or make sexually overt gestures toward women without become gravely sick. The greatest consequence for him personally proves to be the sickness-inducing feeling associate with his favorite music, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which was by chance played during the violent images displayed during the aversion therapy. Alex returns home to find all his possessions sold off by the police, a new tenant occupying his childhood room, and the stark realization that Dim and Georgie have become police officers in the preceding two years. After a violent encounter with his two former “droogs,” he stumbles across the home of one of his former victims, who proceeds to enact swift revenge against his former attacker.
The moral concept that A Clockwork Orange seems to revolve around is the relationship between free will and psychological conditioning. As the prison chaplain hints at in the film after Alex’s treatment, does it matter if goodness truly comes from within oneself? Or does it just matter that good behavior is displayed in society, whether that behavior is genuine or not? After the “Ludovico” technique treatment, Alex appears to be a good-willed citizen. However, his goodness is not voluntary. He may not physically be able to be violent or act on his deep carnal desires, but he clearly still desires to do those things. The viewer knows this through the running narration by Alex, and his transformation into the titular clockwork orange soon becomes clear. On the outside, his good-willed nature appears natural and organic. However, on the inside he’s actually manipulated — mechanical, like clockwork meant to be wound up by those in power.
There is a moment about midway through Trainspotting when reality hits (seen in full here — watch with caution). On the floor of their shared drug den flat, the group of friends awaken to a terrible scream that could only come from a grieving mother. The scream belongs to the resident of the flat (and apparent provider of heroin), who is reacting to the sight of her black and blue infant still in her crib. An explanation is never given for the baby’s death, but it’s clear that the crew’s heroin-induced unconsciousness resulted in deadly neglect. While much of the film up to this point is a fast-paced romp, the movie almost smacks the viewer with the realization of real world consequences for all the reckless behavior that came before. While the moment is shocking, perhaps the follow-up is even more disturbing. Instead of calling an ambulance or trying to check for a pulse, the group just stares tearfully at the lifeless form and head back to their den to inject more heroin into their veins in order to forget the horror they just witnessed. Only Sick Boy, the assumed father of the child, stays behind to grieve the lost life.
While Renton is the one to initiate this turn away from reality an back to heroin-induced content, he is clearly scarred from the incident. Later on in the film, his parents force him to go cold turkey after he is released from a rehabilitation program and almost overdoses. While he waits for the sickness-filled withdrawal symptoms to overtake him, his childhood bedroom becomes full of terrifying hallucinations. The baby has left his nightmares and entered his warped reality, slowly crawling to him atop the ceiling. The entire withdrawal cold turkey sequence (seen in full here) is one of the most memorable a film full of memorable scenes, and it’s most because of the terrifying sight of the baby on the ceiling turning its head to face Renton as he shrieks in terror.
The dark experience seems to do the trick for Renton, who moves to London after his cold turkey rehabilitation to start a new, clean life as a real estate professional. Unlike Alex in A Clockwork Orange, Renton seems to have a moral core and wants to live a genuine life of goodness. While the moral question of A Clockwork Orange revolves around free will v. psychologically conditioning, Trainspotting is much more about how one’s environment and social circle can prevent you from becoming the best person you know you’re capable of being. Renton goes to great length to remove destructive temptations from his life, including cutting off contacts with his friends, but he’s ultimately drawn back into their circle time after time. He knows that he’ll never truly escape this life unless he takes drastic action. At the film’s conclusion, after the crew successfully earns the £16,000 from their drug sale, Renton witnesses Begbie get into yet another violent pub brawl over a petty disagreement. This moment serves a catalyst for Renton to decide to steal the money and flee, leaving behind his friends and his former life for good. In the end, Renton “chose life” just like all the those anti-drug campaigns advised.
Cinematic Influences
Visual references
Danny Boyle was clearly influenced by Stanley Kubrick with many of his filmmaking techniques, just like many other directors of this century have been influenced by the legendary filmmaker. Boyle films a life of crime in a stylish manner, complete with an invigorating soundtrack and a pace that runs from scene to scene with abandoned tempo. The technical influence is subtle, though there are some elements of Trainspotting that can directly point back to A Clockwork Orange.
There’s a scene in Trainspotting where Spud is laying his heart out to Tommy about his strained love life at one of Edinburgh’s bustling night clubs. The camera zooms into the two friends, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to A Clockwork Orange’s iconic milk bar that Alex and his “droogs” frequented before/after their ultra-violent escapades. The writing on the wall of the night club features the same words and style as the The Clockwork Orange bar. Is this just a director giving a shout out to one of his heroes or does the reference represent a piece of foreshadowing for what’s to come of the Scottish friends’ fates?
In A Clockwork Orange, the milk bar represents a life of freeliving with no consequences for Alex and his “droogs.” The setting is a place to celebrate their seeming invincibility and bask in their successful escapades of ultra-violence. For Alex, it’s a place he will never return to after his brush with law enforcement the next night, a fact he’s distinctly unaware. In Trainspotting, the night club setting also represents a life of freeliving with no consequences. The friends, despite their relationship issues, are having a great night on the town. In the moment, Spud and Tommy seem to only worry about the superficial things that occupy the minds of twentysomething males. If only they could take a peek at their near future. Spud will be in prison soon for being busted after shoplifting with Renton, and Tommy will soon be addicted to heroin and ultimately die from AIDS contracted from the drug. The fact that Tommy’s girlfriend dumping him acts as the catalyst for his drug habit is the extra dose of tragedy in a scene that only hits you upon rewatch. The milk bar/night club scenes in both A Clockwork Orange and Trainspotting represent a final fleeting moment of freedom for our protagonists, who have no idea what fate awaits them.
Character parallels
While the style of Trainspotting is similar to that of A Clockwork Orange, there are also many similarities on the page, including between the characters. Both films feature a protagonist with friends that have very memorable and (perhaps) self-describing names. In A Clockwork Orange, Alex’s “droogs” include (dim-witted) Dim and Georgie. In Trainspotting, Mark Renton’s friends include (doofy) Spud, Sick Boy, and Tommy. The conversational dialect among the friends in both films are also both unique and hard to follow.
In A Clockwork Orange, the psuedo-Russian slang is an invented argot called Nadstat, which was created by the author of the novel, former linguist Anthony Burgess. In Trainspotting, much of the dialogue is spoken in Scottish slang. While the slang is true-to-life, unlike A Clockwork Orange, the film practically requires subtitles for the unaccustomed viewer to fully follow the dialogue throughout the film. In both films, the unique form of speaking amongst the friends only separates them more from the functioning society around them. It’s a society they increasingly do not belong to, and their actions through the respective films show their willingness to break all rules to separate themselves completely.
A Clockwork Orange has rightfully gone down in history as one of the most polarizing movies ever made. Some say it’s one of the best ever filmed, while other argue against its controversial depiction of violence. Trainspotting, while only in existence for 25 years at this writing, is steadily gaining a reputation as one of the best films of the 1990s, and time will only tell how its reputation will grow in the coming years. Regardless the level of love or appreciation one has for either film, it’s hard to deny each film’s impact on cinema and the ultimate influence on countless filmmakers that started their careers after each film’s respective release.
I hope this entry of Modern Throwback has shown how cinema influences itself throughout time. If we are willing to reflect on the filmmaking process, it becomes clear that filmmaking is a revolving door of ideas and techniques that makes film an overall stronger art form.
