Interpretive Leap

I chose Gene Kelly’s song ‘Singing in the Rain’ to analyze. The song is originally in the movie of the same title. This happy love song is also very famous for being in the movie ‘A Clockwork Orange’, a movie that is very far from being happy. In the movie ‘Singing in the Rain’, Gene Kelly sings the song after he meets ‘Kathy Shelden’, a woman who he loves. Since it is a love song sung by a man in love, the song is really straightforward. The lyrics repeatedly say how happy he is. It says ‘I’m singing in the rain’, ‘I’m happy again’, ‘I’m ready for love’, etc. In the movie ‘Singing in the Rain’, the song and the scene beautifully matches and makes perfect harmony. So, just like the movie which is filmed right after the World War 2, the song tries to make people happy. In the movie ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the main character ‘Alex’ sings ‘Singing in the Rain’ when he beats up Mr. Alexander and rapes Mrs. Alexander. So, the song is not really fit for the scene. By putting a happy song in a terribly violent scene, the song emphasizes the violence of the scene and the insanity of the main character, Alex.