Best film: 'A Clockwork Orange' or 'Backdraft'?

[Johnnytheboy]

I'll keep this simple: I've just had a heated - albeit lighthearted - drunken argument with Mrstheboy about which film is best, occasioned by 'Backdraft' (the seminal 1991 movie about firemen, starring Kurt Russell) being on TV this PM, and the fact one of us has always avoided watching 'A Clockwork Orange' (a 70s film about violence, starring Malcolm MacDowell) that we own on DVD.

So, a simple poll of the PH community.

Which will obviously trump any further debate.

I've done my level best to avoid my own bias creeping into this post, I really have.

[davepoth]

A Clockwork Orange has an Adams Probe 16:



But Backdraft has fire trucks, so wins.

[ChiChoAndy]

backdraft is a crappy film about flatulance, whereas a clockwork orange has Ludwig, droogs, and the moloko-plus... No contest.

[poing]

Voted Backdraft because A Clockwork Orange wasn't as good as I expected from all the hype and Backdraft was exactly as crap as I expected it to be and is the only one of the 2 I can have on as a background film while browsing the net.

[Pesty]

Backdraft is a steaming turd of a film. how anybody could like that film is beyond me.

[Sheets Tabuer]

The over use of bizarre music and camera effects ruins many 70s filums for me.

[Johnnytheboy]

...to fill in the story, my OH wanted to record Backdraft and make me watch it with her later, and I (being an inveterate bargainer) made her commit to watching Clockwork Orange on DVD, thus an argument on the relevant merits of the two films developed.

She has an aversion to violence in films if it appears to have any pretension to being art.

Hence - bafflingly - Clockwork Orange and American Psycho are "too violent", but the likes of the Saw series and numerous teen slashers get the thumbs up.

[snowy slopes]

I should have preferred Backdraft, due to having Scott Glenn in it, who i like as an actor, however, for me A clockwork Orange beats it, because it's the one film i can guarantee will clear the room, thereby giving me some peace and quiet

[Mars]

snowy slopes said:

I should have preferred Backdraft, due to having Scott Glenn in it, who i like as an actor, however, for me A clockwork Orange beats it, because it's the one film i can guarantee will clear the room, thereby giving me some peace and quiet

Scott Glenn's one of those actors that makes me take a second look at a film. Have you seen The Keep (not a great interpretation of the book but great music and "atmosphere"), and (one of my favs as I love Westerns) Silverado?

I don't "get" A Clockwork Orange. It might have been shocking in its day but not these days.

Backdraft is a relatively OK story - bit over-dramatised but OK. I'll go with that.

[ChiChoAndy]

Clockwork Orange isn't about 'shocking'... It's about authoritarian controls.

[Mars]

ChiChoAndy said:

Clockwork Orange isn't about 'shocking'... It's about authoritarian controls.

If you say so... but all the reviews are fixated on it having been banned originally etc. I just can't understand why it was banned.

[ChiChoAndy]

Mars said:

If you say so... but all the reviews are fixated on it having been banned originally etc. I just can't understand why it was banned.

It wasn't banned. Kubrick withdrew it after some copycat crimes put down to scenes in the film.

[kiteless]

Mars said:

Have you seen The Keep

I have (and read the book also many, many years ago). As you say, not the greatest interpretation of a book but the photography was incredibly atmospheric and was aligned beautifully by the score.

[Pommygranite]

Clockwork Orange is like Apocolypse Now - massively overrated and consistently used as a means to completely work the shaft and cup the balls of the director, garnish praise and make films buffs feel superior by expressing dismay at 'the great unwashed's' lack of understanding.

[Halb]

Not voted both are

poing said:

Voted Backdraft because A Clockwork Orange wasn't as good as I expected from all the hype and Backdraft was exactly as crap as I expected it to be and is the only one of the 2 I can have on as a background film while browsing the net.

Same here, save I haven't seen Backdraft, not something I can bother with, and ACO I started to watch for the first time when it was o this week, that got flicked off because it was just very bad.

Mars said:

Scott Glenn's one of those actors that makes me take a second look at a film. Have you seen The Keep (not a great interpretation of the book but great music and "atmosphere"), and (one of my favs as I love Westerns) Silverado?

Yip Scoot Glenn is very watchable, maybe it's that face...he and Lance Henrikson should have a show aboot intense faced detectives, maybe brothers like Simon and Simon

Sheets Tabuer said:

The over use of bizarre music and camera effects ruins many 70s filums for me.

That's true enough. funny how you can date some films by the camera work.

[marcosgt]

Mmmm - toughy, I'd have to throw "Marley and Me" and anything with Matthew McConaughy (or whatever his name is) in into the ring...

Odd choice... Neither figures on anything approaching a 'best film' list for me.

M

[Johnnytheboy]

marcosgt said:

Odd choice... Neither figures on anything approaching a 'best film' list for me.

M

...purely occasioned by one being an unwatched DVD and one coming on the TV.

I wouldn't saw CO was the best film I'd ever seen but it might be descibed as 'important'. Backdraft managed to be noticeably rubbish while I was tipsy, about 20, and round a friends house, circumstances in which most films should at least manage to be inoffensive.