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Volume CXXXII, Number 1 |
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Kubrick keeps your eyes wide
AUDREY AMIDON
STAFF WRITER
Once again, the Bowdoin Film Society is kicking off a semester of film fun. This year we're working in conjunction with BCN to bring you more opportunities to see quality films. This weekend, BFS will attempt to appeal to your dark side with a couple of films from the great Stanley Kubrick. Despite the fact that Kubrick may not be with us any longer, his films continue to delight and disturb film audiences. So, all you Kubrick fans be sure to come out in force!
The Kubrick fun is kicked off on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. with A Clockwork Orange (1971), the futuristic societal satire and cult classic. This is a film so twisted that it had to be re-edited to fit an R rating. The plot revolves around the story of a young juvenile delinquent who is treated to aversion therapy to cure him of violent urges. Unfortunately, the cure turns out to be worse than the disease. I was too much of a wimp to see this movie when BFS showed it three years ago, but I assure you that A Clockwork Orange must be seen on the big screen for the full experience, although you may be tempted to cover your eyes at times.
On Saturday night we will jump back a few years to Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). This film will also show at 7:00 p.m. Besides having a really long title, Dr. Strangelove stars George C. Scott, Slim Pickens, Peter Sellers (of Pink Panther fame), and James Earl Jones (in his first film role).
The film is about an American general named Jack D. Ripper, who goes insane and attempts to attack the U.S.S.R. with a nuclear bomb. "The Bomb" seems to be a bizarre choice for the subject of a comedy, especially considering the time in which it was made. It is Kubrick's ability to turn "the bomb" into a laughing matter that makes this film a universal classic.