I've seen this film three times over the years. The first time I saw it, I was completely blown away by how awful it was. Surely I was missing something, right? I mean, after all, it's considered to be not only one of the best films of the 1970's (no slouching decade) but of all time! I asked a friend of mine who was studying film in California what I was missing, and his answer was, "Well, it's a Kubrick film, so you may have to watch it more than once." And so, that following year, I sat down and watched this film two more times waiting for the reveal to finally wash over me. Today, I can tell you that was easily the worst piece of advice I've taken so far in my life. This film makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and any "underlying themes" people speak of is a load of hogwash. It's just bad. Period.
So, why did this film become so popular over the years? Probably because people LOVE to bow down to Kubrick as being the greatest filmmaker of all time, and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the only movie I've seen from him that's actually good is Full Metal Jacket.
Although I've never read the book, I'm sure it's much better than this film. People were a lot less likely to bandwagon books pre-Harry Potter. If a book got a lot of attention back then, it probably deserved it. My recommendation would be to read the book and not waste your time on this pretentious, illogical, downright frustrating film.
So, why did this film become so popular over the years? Probably because people LOVE to bow down to Kubrick as being the greatest filmmaker of all time, and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the only movie I've seen from him that's actually good is Full Metal Jacket.
Although I've never read the book, I'm sure it's much better than this film. People were a lot less likely to bandwagon books pre-Harry Potter. If a book got a lot of attention back then, it probably deserved it. My recommendation would be to read the book and not waste your time on this pretentious, illogical, downright frustrating film.