THE ICK FACTOR: confirmed
There were always two problems with my First Iron Law of Cinema, that “No Good Film Has Ever Been Made by Someone Whose Name Ends in the Letters I C K”:
i: You had to do some fancy (not to say fraudulent) spelling footwork for the theory not to be a slightly undeserved cheek to the memory of Alexander MacKendrick, and
ii: I had – out of a mixture of perversity and indolence – never actually watched A Clockwork Orange.
Well now I have. It doesn’t help with (i) much, but OH DEARY DEAR what a terrible movie to have finally stopped putting off!! I guess you can’t entirely blame El Kubo for the dozens of indie layabout-LaYMoRXor who raided the picture to wrap themselves in names replete with borrowed authority. And – I hear you gearing yrself up to sputter – it is hardly SK’s fault that it was (of all name directors ever) KEN RUSSELL that made the subsequent career out of all the former’s very extremely bad ideas. But you are wrong, because it is. Ken may be no good whatsoever, whenever and however – why he even makes Rick Wakeman look a clown! – but boy is he better than this…
(When I have more time I will do a point by point, not with Lair of the White Worm – that would be too easy – but I think with Lisztomania…)