The Thieving Magpie

shoots Mr. Blonde to end the scene. The movie “A Clockwork Orange” has a large number of scenes with the use of counterpoint. It could even be argued that the movie itself is a contrapuntal work in its entirety and should be analyzed as a whole. But for the purpose of this paper, we will dive into the infamous “penis murder” scene where a woman is murdered by the protagonist with the use of a big statue resembling the male sexual organ. In this scene the “Overture” from “La Gazza Ladra” by the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini is the music utilized for counterpoint. It started earlier than the scene we are about to dive in, but the way it interacts with the following scene is what will be analyzed. “La Gazza Ladra” translates to “The Thieving Magpie” and the overture does a beautiful job on portraying the delicate, beautiful, playful, devilish and elegant animal. This is incongruent in relation to the movie’s main character, as Alex is not the delicate nor the elegant kind of fellow and neither are his actions. There is a constant crescendo and accelerando in the music, which contributes to build up tension along with the images of bizarre the ornaments in the women’s main room, the handheld shaking camera and a dark atmosphere outside of the room. The climax of the overture is timed perfectly to go in sync with the woman hitting the perpetrator with a small statue. The impact happens exactly at the same time as the entrance of the trombones and cymbals. After some…