A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
dir: Stanley Kubrick
"It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen." - Alex
Brief Synopsis
Alex and his "droogs" are teenagers who have fun by listening to classical music, drinking milk, and committing acts of ultraviolence. After raping and killing a woman, Alex is arrested and a new brand of treatment is used on him to fix his wicked ways. The results are mixed.
Why It's Here
An art-house film that was so shocking at it's time of release that it was nearly impossible to find a copy in Britain for 27 years. Kubrick's bizarre tale of social degeneration and the government's desperate attempts to fix the problem is hard to forget. The fictional slang, the outfits and milk bars are all elements of a detailed future full of ultra-violence. The movie makes numerous comments on societies attempts to clean up the streets and how they fail, as we see Alex and his "droogs" constantly causing havoc for fun. As Alex is forcibly undergoing therapy to become a productive member of society, the audience asks the question of whether or not obedience is the way to go. While the film details the decaying of society, it also puts us into the mind of the psycho anti-hero. The audience finds that they are disgusted in themselves for having sympathy for Alex, a killer who isn't just a maniac with a bloodlust, he's a maniac with a bloodlust who has an interest in Classical music and a group of loyal friends. These elements of elegance and normality are something the audience doesn't usually get from the violent hoodlums.
Alex embodies societies views on youth. The wild, out-of-control kids who obey no rules and dare to be more bold than the generation before them. As we watch, there is a constant questions of whether it is right and just for Alex to choose to fit in with his peers, to participate in violence within an already vicious society, or to be forced to be a good citizen. Raising questions of free will, morality, and questioning the government, no wonder this film had nations in panic upon it's release and even still to this very day.
Alex embodies societies views on youth. The wild, out-of-control kids who obey no rules and dare to be more bold than the generation before them. As we watch, there is a constant questions of whether it is right and just for Alex to choose to fit in with his peers, to participate in violence within an already vicious society, or to be forced to be a good citizen. Raising questions of free will, morality, and questioning the government, no wonder this film had nations in panic upon it's release and even still to this very day.