The greatest compliment to a writer is if years later we're still discussing their work? 'Babylon 5' 25 years after its release, 'A Clockwork Orange' 50 years after its release, 'The Fast and The Furious', I forgot 30 seconds after I saw it. 'Deliverance', a movie you'll never forget 'The Mist' emotionally you avoid watching it a 2nd time.
I'm glad you finally got to see this one. I discovered A Clockwork Orange during my university years in the '80s. Yes, disturbing, yes, social commentary, yes, dystopia on display.
This is one of my all time favorites. Malcolm McDowell is a favorite actors. Read the book. There is a dictionary in the back that translates the slang.
Oh my god I was just thinking about the book! What is the sub language called-Nadsat or something? (I don’t have my copy of the paperback anymore because I’m pretty sure I used most of the pages to roll joints 30 years ago in college).?
The book, oddly, makes me think of the novel Trainspotting, which SHOULD have had a glossary-it’s written phonetically so it takes a few chapters to understand it all. Very worth reading though
The slang is basically a mix of English and Russian. Luckily I was studying Russian at school when I read this so it came easily. It's a teenage argot named "nadsat"... which itself roughly means "teen" (all the of the Russian numbers between 11 and 19 end with -nadsat). So, droog=friend, moloko=milk, "vek" is short for "chelovek" which means chap or old man, "horror show" sounds like khorosho=good. Etc.
@@RKnightsThe slang is even crazier to Russian speakers like me, since they are mostly Russian words with absolutely no connection to it's actual translation.
I forgot to mention last night...Malcolm McDowell stars in a 1978 Sci-Fi Thriller called "Time After Time". He plays author H.G. Wells. Wells builds his time machine that he writes about. Jack the Ripper (David Warner) is revealed and he makes his escape using the time machine. He arrives in modern day San Francisco, where the time machine is a museum piece. H.G. Wells follows him. Jack the Ripper continues his murdering spree. Wells meets up with a local woman (Mary Steenburgen) who helps him through a lot of "fish out of water" situations as he attempts to use all the modern conveniences. It's very well done and an underrated film, IMO, from that era.
"I was cured, all right!" Fun Fact: Played for over a year at London's Warner West End cinema. That's Hot Fact: Katya Wyeth's first nude scene. According to Malcolm McDowell (on the commentary track from the 2007 DVD release), the sped-up sex scene was originally filmed as an unbroken take lasting 28 minutes. Casting Notes Fact: The fact that Malcolm McDowell could burp on cue was one of the reasons why he landed the part of Alex DeLarge. That big bodybuilder guy towards the end is David Prowse, Mr. Darth Vader himself. This was made long before Star Wars and his appearance here wasn't really noticed until much later. Medical Supervision Fact: The doctor standing over Alex as he is being forced to watch violent films was a real doctor, ensuring that Malcolm McDowell's eyes didn't dry up. Malcolm McDowell's eyes were anesthetized for the torture scenes so that he would film for periods of time without too much discomfort. Nevertheless his corneas got repeatedly scratched by the metal lid locks. Music Enthusiast Fact: Alex performing Singing In The Rain (1952) as he attacks the writer and his wife was not scripted. Stanley Kubrick spent four days experimenting with this scene, finding it too conventional. Eventually he approached Malcolm McDowell and asked him if he could dance. They tried the scene again, this time with McDowell dancing and singing the only song he could remember. Kubrick was so amused that he swiftly bought the rights to Singing In The Rain (1952) for $10,000.
The actor (David Prowse) who's the ''bodyguard'' of ''Mr Alexander'' (the great Patrick Magee) would later on played the physical role of ''Darth Vader''.
of note: they're wearing "bowler" hats, not top hats. Top hats tend to be taller and have a flat top. Bowler hats were more of a commoner fashion than the aristocracy.
The Bowler hat was the most common style during the "WId West" period in American history, it was the true Cowboy hat (see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid photos for the period, for example).
I read the novel years ago. I remember the author added an additional chapter in the end after he leaves the hospital in later editions. He finds his other gang friend in a bar, he has a wife and the three happily chat about their current whereabouts, in the end they both promises to meet again. That's when the protagonist realizes he no longer enjoys the violence and the excess of their youth and he's also happy about how his friend turn up to be and wishes a similar life to himself. So in the end he grows up to become an adult and starts seeing life in a more mature emphatically way
To me, the message of this story is that free will is more important than artificially curtailing violent behavior. The ideal is for people to choose non-violence, not be "conditioned" or drugged into it.
fantastic movie + reaction! Stanley Kubrick was a legit genius! side note: Kubrick withdrew the film from being shown in the UK after some copycat violence was reported. It was re-released in the UK after his death in 1999.
This is definitely one of Kubrick's best films to me...I am with you, Ray...I I have always enjoyed this one a lot. And trust me, the more times you watch it, the more you enjoy it...the more of the jokes you get. LOL
@@jonnyringo3 Nevermind a 1-2...going back to 1964, Stanley had perhaps the best 1-2-3 of all time. Dr. Strangelove followed by 2001 and finished up with Clockwork Orange...for sure Stanley was on a SERIOUS roll. LOL 😁
Another interesting film is 1966's "Fahrenheit 451" with Oskar Werner. It's about the control of people with a ban on all printed material and a "fireman" (confiscated book burner) discovering a secret society to keep the print classics alive
Did some research for you, December release for Clockwork so in December we had; Dirty Harry, Diamonds Are Forever & Straw Dogs were the big movies of that month (IMO) but that year we also had; The French Connection, Summer of '42, Carnal Knowledge, The Last Picture Show in the top 10 earners along with Dirty Harry, Diamonds Are Forever & A Clockwork Orange. Didn't like this movie at first but it does grow on me when I started thinking about it just like 'THX 1138' which also came out the same year & based on a dystopian world, well worth a watch as well.
I remember back in the late 80s in high school our high school teacher showed this to the class, my friend and I were the only ones who had seen it so we watched the class instead lol. Sorta like a live reaction performance for us. No teacher today would be allowed to screen this now lol.
awesome guys glad to see you guys watch a masterpiece. The man guy in this movie Malcolm McDowell also played the antagonist in the movie Star Trek Generations
GOD! This was a BRUTAL one to watch. I first watched this when I was 17 years old many times with friends on VHS from the local Video Store in 1987. There is a lot to think and talk about with movie.
A Clockwork Orange was initially Rated "X" but Kubrick took out 30 seconds of sexually explicit scenes to get an "R" rating. It was banned in a few countries due to its content. Mick Jagger from The Rolling Stones was the first choice to play Alex and his band mates were to be his "droogs" but it did not work out. If you read the book, there is a glossary with the different language that is used in the back. The author was inspired by time he spent in Leningrad in 1961 and he saw gangs called the stilyagi which he translated to the droogs in "Orange".
I dressed up as Alex, eyeballs and all, on Halloween in 1984 to watch the freak parade in Greenwich Village. I was not the only Droog in attendance. Trivia: The muscle guy in the speedo is David Prowse, better known as Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. He performed the scenes and James Earl Jones’ voice was added later in editing. This is a fucked up movie, no doubt but there were a lot of them back then. Cinema was testing all the boundaries in the early 70’s. The Exorcist comes to mind. Another dystopian sci-fi film called A Boy and his Dog. Deliverence. Taxi Driver. Last Tango in Paris. Pink Flamingos. Straw Dogs. I Spit on Your Grave. And finally, Caligula, a multimillion dollar mainstream porn epic with real actors like Peter O’Toole and Brother Alex himself, Malcolm McDowell, starring in the title role as the most depraved Emperor of Rome.
@@RKnights Haven’t seen it in a while but it’s indicative of Kubrick’s cold and heartless directorial style. The others on the list are equally notorious. I haven’t seen them all. I knew enough to avoid some of them and would recommend others do the same.
Malcolm McDowell was an excellent actor (not to be confused with Roddy McDowall. He also played in another distopian type movie in 1968, called "If ..." - his movie debut, disturbing but not as disturbing as this one. Kubrick pulled this film from Cinemas in the UK due to people being afraid of copycat gangs (supposedly) and him being frightened for his family (they say). Odd though because I did see this in the Cinema when I was late teens. I must have been one of the lucky ones, though I found it VERY disturbing. He played HG Wells and also played Caligula and even appeared in Star Trek where he dropped a bridge on Captain Kirk.
The original novella written by Anthony Burgess was one of 5 novels he wrote in a year after he was wrongly diagnosed with a tumour and inspired by an incident in which his wife was attacked by off duty US soldiers and she miscarried. I think his central idea was that if we take away a humans choice to commit acts both good and bad we end up as clockwork oranges, that if we allow the state to inflict violence on us as punishment we lose our humanity, despite the harm we may do and no matter that we abhor that....
The language used in the film was a creation by the author of the novel, Anthony Burgess. From Wikipedia: Nadsat is English with some borrowed words from Russian. It also contains influences from Cockney rhyming slang, the King James Bible, German, some words of unclear origin and some that Burgess invented. The word nadsat is the suffix of Russian numerals from 11 to 19 (-надцать). The suffix is an almost exact linguistic parallel to the English -teen and is derived from на, meaning 'on' and a shortened form of десять, the number ten. Droog is derived from the Welsh word drwg, meaning 'bad', 'naughty' or 'evil' and the Russian word друг, meaning a 'close friend'.[2] Some of the words are almost childish plays on English words, such as eggiweg ('egg') and appy polly loggy ('apology'), as well as regular English slang sod and snuff it. The word like and the expression the old are often used as fillers or discourse markers.
If you ever watched the comedy Top Secret, you may recognize Dim as the German officer on the train. I didn't realize this for many years as they seem to be two different people.
1:20 Mark! Howdy! 🤠 Hmm. I thought his "masterpiece" was "2001: A Space Odyssey" despite the lack of sexh girls that this movie has?! 😮 The star of this movie plays more bad guys than good guys, from what I've noticed. He's a university professor in a "CBS" sitcom that I never saw, and I also missed the second version of "Fantasy Island" with him as "Mister Roarke"! However, I did see him as "Herbert George Wells" in "Time After Time"! If you ever resume your "Star Trek" viewing, you'll see him and Whoopi Goldberg together again in "Star Trek: Generations"! 🖖
Maybe also interesting: In the book, Alex and his friends are between 14 and 16 years old. Anthony Burgess later also wrote the dialogue for the film "Quest for Fire".
Oh and Julian, the writer's bodybuilder/in-house assistant was none other than David Prowse, the actor was in the Darth Vader suit in the original Star Wars.
I think this movie is asking three important questions. 1. How far are we willing to go to rid society of crime and violence? Are we willing to sacrifice a person's free will to choose their own actions? 2. If we do remove a persons free will choice to choose their actions, are their actions sincere? 3. Will removing free will of criminals actually reduce crime or just create more crime? After all once Alex had his free will ability to fight back removed it left him open to being violently attacked. I think it's just a commentary on "what are we willing to sacrifice in order to have a peaceful society?" And "is it healthy or wise to do so?"
A lot of modern politics is centred around the perceived trade-off between safety and freedom. In an era where public thinkers are continually pushing the idea that free will is an illusion, it would seem that most people prefer safety to freedom. And so, the slow death of freedom continues.
20:43 Mark! Both the 1970s and 1980s had people who couldn't imagine futuristic hairstyles anymore, so then whatever the then current ones were at the time. In "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" at least it helped to show the "cultural diversity aspects" and somehow, the aliens looked more normal to me than the Earthlings in the background that didn't have a "military cut" like Kirk's for example. In the lounge scene with the crew meeting, it looked like a cast member from a Western movie featuring First Americans was taken from that set, and with the headwear still in place was dropped into a "Starfleet" uniform and then told to stand amongst the crew and look like "The Village People" with even more members! 😮😅
20:32 no way did the guy on the right say he has a horrible haircut, because of his "mullet... thing", bet under that cap of his is the premature balding taking a toll on his conscience
Stanley Kubrick banned his own film because the BBFC (British Board of Film Censors) wanted many cuts before they would certificate it, Kubrick refused to cut it and withdrew the film from circulation, until his death.
Mick Jagger and the Stones supposedly took an early interest in making a film of this novel. But they didn't move getting the rights or making any serious effort. Thankfully, Kubrick got it and McDowell got the roll. It might have been a fun movie, but not the classic it is.
39:48 Mark! But you guys stunned people by disliking "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"! It's one of the best of two Steven Spielberg UFO subculture movies! 😮
36:33 Mark! Because daytime television dramas were heavily sponsored by soap makers such as "Proctor & Gamble" they became known as "soap operas" especially when the shows were live broadcasts and product placement was part of the story! Westerns were then called "horse operas" and movies such as the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" ones became known as "space operas" to some! Space Operas are what you're used too!
16:53 Mark! They used an actual medical doctor to do that since they weren't faking it! Similarly, in the "NBC" series "EMERGENCY!" genuine fire fighters were used as actors too, for the legal required needed to use the fire trucks and equipment. (Insurance counts as a legal requirement, by the way!)
When Alex comes home "cured" and find he's been replaced by Joe. Alex is in blue against a red background. Joe is in red against a blue background... Other movies: Brazil. Definitely Brazil. By Terry Gilliam. 1985. Fantastic movie. Same WTF? vibes as Clockwork. Another 70's movie: The Andromeda Strain (1971). Based on Michael Crichton's book. He also wrote Jurassic Park. Great movie that quickly grabs hold of your suspense and never lets go. Largely forgotten/undiscovered. Those who know it love it. Great cinematography. And it's made in a very realistic way. If the movies scenario were to happen in real life it sounds like a completely reasonable chain of events.
43:54 Mark! Thumb Up #180! 👍 You're welcome, and thanks! 😊 Notes: When the movie "MASH" was shown on regular broadcast television, my classmates were pleasantly surprised by what we got to see of "Hot Lips"! However, when I saw the "edited for content" "CBS" version of this movie, I was only aware of what I missed out on thanks to the "Sex in Cinema" of "Playboy Magazine"! When VHS became a thing, my copy was worn out because the guys kept watching the nude girls over and over! My DVD copy didn't have that problem. "Penthouse Magazine" made a movie about "Caligula" as did a European studio. Malcolm is in one of them as the titular character. In the former one "Penthouse Pets" were put to good use! Malcom told maybe Johnny Carson, that his father was impressed that Malcom could urinate on command! 😅 So that movie is about yet another character having negative reactions to chemicals! This time, lead poisoning! 😮 Now you're ready for "1984", "Brave New World", "Logan's Run", and "Blake's Seven"! Also the movie version of the "DC" graphic novel "V for Vendetta"! But before you see Natalie Portman in that movie, you should see her in "The Professional" so that you can compare and contrast her similar characters! Also, this movie plus Natalie's movie, make a good double feature! 👌
35:16 Mark! Aha! There's "Hard Science Fiction" based on hardware and technology. But there's also "Soft Science Fiction" based on the "soft sciences" such as medicine, biology, psychological, et cetera. This movie is inspired by the softer option that is less concrete than, say, how futuristic that car is! 😊
12:45 Mark! Hmm. I don't recall the exact moment of transition, mind you. But I do recall going to the medical clinics of the late 1960s and early 1970s when people put on gowns just to be examined! As for gloves? Those came much later. Medical people did even more scrubbing back then! 😮
5:40 Mark! That scene with her? It inspired actual fetish clothing to look like it, with no cutting involved and the holes properly stitch-lined. The guys? Their gang outfits became Hallowell costumes and convention costumes. That car? It was a kit car whose sales got a boost! 😮
I saw it when it first came out. It was originally X rated which limited its release (I saw it at a midnight show at an indie theater). Very faithful to the book- 📕 f anything toned down. Virtually written in the slang The glossary really came in handy.
The 70s were a golden age. The movie studios felt threatened by television so they made movies with content that audiences couldn't get on TV i.e. epic productions, graphic violence and sexual content. The studio executives basically gave filmmakers - particularly directors - free reign. Most of the top directors got final cut. This movie, unfortunately, was pulled from theaters because copycat gangs were springing up in real life attacking people so the movie that got the most notoriety that year was THE FRENCH CONNECTION. Other great movies of the 70s: PATTON THE EXORCIST ROCKY ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST CHINATOWN NETWORK MASH THE STING THE CONVERSATION THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE, TWO, THREE THE GOODBYE GIRL SUPERMAN YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN DOG DAY AFTERNOON ROLLERBALL THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR SLAPSHOT
21:13 If you notice the two police officers that were once apart of the gang, their numbers are 665 and 667, and when they hold Alex between them it's meant that Alex would be the number 666. Suggesting they're just as evil and twisted as he is. It's a really great subtle part in the film and most people don't even notice it.
Our Droog Alex here (Malcolm McDowell), a while after this movie, in STar Trek actually got to kill an important character. As in "actually made the original stone dead forever - without them returning like Spock - for real.". The bastard. ;D As for the slang they use - it's from the original book. It's a weird mixture between kind of blown up Shakespearean English and a bunch of words that, if I recall right, are Russian or at least based on Russian. Moloko - milk, Chellovek (spelling?) means "human" and in the book is used as "Dude/bro"... And since the book is written from Alex' point of view, he retells his story in it, the complete thing is 100% written in this "Nadsat" slang (based on a russian word for "teen"). Good thing there is an appendix at the end of the book that translates all the lingo. (which, for understandable reasons, has been tuned down IMMENSELY for the movie.) If you're interested - you can find it online, and then you have a look at this LOOOOOOOOONG list of words and imagine a complete book written using these words... If you actually would LEARN that list you'd be probably able to lead simple discussions in Russian. :) Back when I read it I tried guessing what a word meant from the context at first - but there was no chance. I basically had to look up every time a new word came along and often also previous words which I forgot again. :D en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:A_Clockwork_Orange - It's pretty wild. :)
Ooooooooooh - I just remembered something... There's a certain episode in one of the series you're watching that has a niiiiiiiice homage to this movie in it. :)
'Orange' is a word play on Orang-Utan, the primate. You could translate the title into 'Human Clockwork' another word for a robot, as you mentioned. Great observation.
QUESTIONS ABOUT A CLOCKWORK ORANGE: 1. How is it that Alex's parents don't look anything like him? 2. How is it if the authorities know that Alex was in the gang battle-as the guy tells Alex in his bedroom-how is it the cops can't arrest Alex? Or at least question him? 3. How can milk blind someone? 4. How is it if Alex's family well know about Alex being a dangerous criminal (the scene where the lodger says that the parents have told him all about past crimes of Alex) how is it that they wonder where Alex spends his nights??? Do these people take stupid lessons? 5. Why does the minister at first call Alex a wretched hoodlum and is repulsed by him when he first meets Alex and is all for Alex being put in the Ludivico 'cure', and even puts on scientific demonstrations of Ludivico cases on stage, then why later in the film does the minister befriend Alex and offers him employment and talk about how horrible the Ludivico programme was!??? 6. How is it that the writer has read the newspaper headlines about Alex being turned into a zombie, yet he doesnt jnow about Alex committing the murder, when all the headlines said about Alex being a murderer? 7. Why are the parents still sympathetic to Alex at the end when theyve learned his final crime was murder? 8. Why does Alex write his name as Alex Delarge in a scene then later a newspaper headline lists him as Alex Burgess?
I'm French and I saw this movie in the late 80s. I'm trying to explain my feelings about this movie. For me, it's a fable about violence. The main characters are violent, but politics, doctors, society, friends, parents (they changed their son) are violent. I am happy with the ending, I have a part of violence in me, that's what the film says but I am civilized but I do not accept the loss of freedom, the lack of humanity of the treatment Ludovico I tried to read the book but it's way behind the movie. The slang is too complex. I love that the new generation appreciates masterpiece films like Clock Work Orange
So, a big reason why the films of the late 1960's and the 1970's were so good was because the Hays Code was done away with. A new ratings system, the one we know today with G, PG, R, and X was put into action in the mid-1960's. Because of that, film makers could finally say things which were not permitted before. The new freedom was exhilarating, since there was suddenly a LOT more artistic freedom. Great films followed. The Hays Code was imposed on the movie studios to curb what was seen as immoral influences like movie star Mae West. Because of the code, people could not mention many subjects on film, could not let a bad guy win ever, had to keep one foot on the floor if two people were kissing on a bed, and so on and so forth. The Hays Code was around from 1934 until about 1964. There's a fascinating movie era before the code which lasted for four years, right after "talkies" were introduced, and before the code where movies will surprise you with their openness about controversial subjects.
It was also due to the fact that the studio system had collapsed so directors were actually free to make what they wanted to make. This lasted maybe 10 years before the Studios (now under the control of lawyers and accountants) reasserted control, largely due to the Summer blockbuster phenomenon created by the massive success of films like "Jaws," "Rocky," and "Star Wars."
43:12 Mark! The way that you're talking about it sounds familiar, as if I had seen this video before. 🤔 But anyway, either "Family Guy" or "The Simpsons" or both have spoofed it! 😂😅
There was a scene in the book where Alex murders a guy in prison, then the minister of interior shows up and says that prisoners simply enjoy their punishment. Unfortunately-because the prison murder scene wasnt included in the film-the minister making that same speech in the film is utterly meaningless! Then in the book the writer tells Alex all about how he wants to help Alex be rid of the Ludivico treatment at the dinner table, BEFORE hes figured out that Alex is the hoodlum who terrorized his home awhile ago. In the film, the writer finds out right away who Alex is, THEN tells Alex about how he wants to help him. But the trouble is that if the writer knows who Alex is, then his kindly statements to Alex make no sense! When Kubrick rewrote the book for a script version, he failed to realize that a book's plot can be a house if cards. Pull out one card and the whole house collapses which is what happened here.
To the gentleman in the middle, you are definitely onto something regarding 70s movies being so good. Just do a google search about the subject and all kinds of info will come up. It was a perfect storm of many things . like the collapse of the big and powerful studios that refused to keep up with the changing times. They wanted to keep churning out tested and true movies like Beach Blanket Bingo, when the late 60s and 70s audience wanted grit and reality, substance and some times darkness, in their films. This gave the many new up and coming directors a window of opportunity to create lower budget out of the box films. Some of my favorites of that time, are Soylent Green, a syfy drama starring Charlton Heston who starred in the first Planet of the Apes. next The Andromada Strain, a syfy thriller about an alien germ. Logans Run, a film about a dystopian world where no one can live past 30. next there is Westworld from 1973, not the more recent series, its about malfunctioning robots.........also even if you dont do the other 70s ape films on the channel, I would still watch them on your own., they are all fun.
This movie is bonkers but relevant today. A good sci-fi flick starring Malcom McDowell is “Time After Time.” He’s also in “Star Trek: Generations.” Julian is played by the actor that originally played Darth Vader, David Prowse. The dialect is a mixture of English and Russian. It has a name but I can’t remember it. Droog is Russian for friend and they use words like devotchnik and horosho. I love the offbeat cadence and emphasis on unusual syllables. I still use the phrase, “Many appypolylogies” for I’m sorry sometimes. Wendy Carlos’ score is the perfect mixture of classical and discordant music that pleases the ear and causes discomfort and unease. I think that the sci-fi part is that it’s speculative fiction with the mad sciencey thing going; to say nothing as the Corova Milk Bar and Milk-Plus. If you haven’t seen it, “Logan’s Run” came out in 1976. It’s worth a watch. Another is “Duel,” “Gargoyles,” “The Car,” and “Trilogy of Terror.”
I'd say there's not much sci fi or fantasy. As you noted, the treatment is the only actual science fiction - although psychological conditioning certainly existed already. I'd say futurism may be a better word. The Manchurian Candidate is another film that has psychological conditioning at its heart. The language, btw, is futuristic slang written for the book. It actually had a dictionary in the appendix.
This is a classic psychopath story. He's a violent r*pist and murderer who stabs random people in the street, then he is arrested. Then he blames everyone else for his psychopathic behaviour and tries to get sympathy for him being the "victim". In the film, he is released and goes right back to being a psychopath. This film has become very popular on the Internet of Clinical Psychopaths because he is vindicated and just goes back to the violence. The novel does not end like that. He grows up after his experience and gives up the ultraviolence.
"Re-up" Yep, this movie is navigating the RU-vid algorithm on hard more alrighty lol Also their slang is called "nadsat" and it's a combination of UK cockney rhyming slang and cold war era Russian slang. The "moloko" is milk laced with drugs.
malcolm mcdowell!!! his alex proved to everyone that even the devil can read the bible and enjoy it! amazing actor! another shocking character of his is emperor caligula, in the movie of the same name. no matter which version of the movie you watch, you stay shaken to the core!(by the way, while you were watching, did you notice David Prowse - the future Darth Vader?😊)
The second part of the movie sure is the more interesting one, but the first half is important too, because it shows in detail what an utter bastard Alex is. He's the definition of a juvenile delinquent, so violent he even scares his parents. And he's not a "victim of society" or anything like that... Granted - society treats him like shit too, but you get the feeling that he started it.
Most of the "slang," are just russian words, spoken with an english accent. So to someone who understands russian, these are not that difficult to decipher.
