431. VINYL (1965)

Running Time: 70 minutes
Directed By: Andy Warhol
Written By: Ronald Tavel, from the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Main Cast: Gerard Malanga, Edie Sedgwick, Ondine, Tosh Carillo

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE - TAKE TWO

Following the watching of Stanley Kubrick's 1971 vision of Anthony Burgess' novel "A Clockwork Orange", I figured, why not follow that with Andy Warhol's 1965 adaptation of the same material. I found "Vinyl" on YouTube months ago and never got a chance to check it out. For the curious, "Vinyl" is still listed on YouTube, broken up into seven parts for a total running time of just under seventy minutes.

For those of you who don't know the plot of "A Clockwork Orange" scroll down a little further and read the plot synopsis in my "A Clockwork Orange" review. I'm not even going to bother recounting it again here, because, to tell you the truth, "Vinyl" is barely noticeable as an adaptation of "A Clockwork Orange". The film opens with Gerard Malanga (who plays Victor - this film's version of Alex De Large), who is quickly established as a "bad guy" or JD (juvenile delinquent) as he's referred to in the film. He beats up some guy and is quickly picked up by the police and finds himself, for the rest of the duration of the film, tied to a chair and beaten, forced to watch films of other JD's committing assaults and murders. Victor, for some strange reason, also finds himself with electrical tape stuck across his chest in a criss-cross pattern and an S&M leather mask forced over his head. Certain songs from the 60s blare in the background, most noticeably "Nowhere to Run" by Martha and the Vandellas.

The film is absolute tripe to tell you the truth and had they really wanted to turn Alex De Large into a straight laced citizen, all they needed to do was apply the lid locks and force him to watch this incredibly amateur, Warhol "must see" movie. The BOOK really makes me scratch my head sometimes, as you know. I just cannot fathom who in their right mind would feel the need to include this in a text containing 1001 of the supposed most "must see" films. I guess to each their own and I really hope there was a valid reason and not just the fact that it was an Andy Warhol film. The film is shot using one set, cramping about six actors into one frame, some of which say absolutely nothing and are just there for the sake of being there. Edie Sedgwick (who I'd never heard of until tonight) is one of these silent extras, sitting on the side of the screen almost like a spectator, watching the travesty unfold. At one point, right in the middle of the film, the action continues on as normal while someone offstage (presumably Warhol) reads the names of the cast and who's playing each role. It's just so odd. I'm really not sure if this was legitimately supposed to be a serious film or if it was just Warhol and his buddies goofing around with their new camera. If it was just a goof off session, then hey, no harm no foul, as long as everyone had a good time doing what they were doing, then who am I to criticize their fun. Oh yeah, because fun little home movies where an eccentric artist has fun with his buddies has no place in THE BOOK!

In all honesty though, there were actually moments in the film where the cast seemed to be having a lot of fun shooting the film, despite the fact that they really didn't care too much for the source material, the story or making it look the slightest bit of a genuine effort. Actors read from cue cards throughout the film and Malanga actually sounded like a bit of an illiterate, reading certain lines like kids in my third grade class read from their text book - one.....word....every....few....seconds....trying....hard....to....com....pre....hend....each....syll...able. However, there were times where I actually found myself marveling at this amateur production, much like a father who is dragged to his son's high school production of "Robin Hood". I wondered about the good times that were had before and after the shooting, what the famous Warhol party could have been like that night. I wondered about the cars that you could hear buzzing by on the street outside the Factory window and where they were going. Yes, it's a shame when the movie is so bad that my attention is drawn to the cars buzzing by in the distance, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

RATING: 2/10  I'm being an extremely generous gentlemen today in giving this tripe a '2', but I can't, in good conscience, give it a '1', because there were moments when I actually cared (just slightly) about what was going on onscreen.

MOVIES WATCHED: 510
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 491

August 26, 2012  12:55am