Theological message

Rating: 8/10 (3 September 2006)

There are several interesting thematic structures in the movie-one could be called "violence begets violence." There are several subcategories here-victimizers who prey on other people are themselves, in all instances, treated more severely by events and other characters than what the law would allow if they were forced to stand trial in a normal way. In one of the many scenes involving gang activity, the would-be perpetrators of a gang rape are interrupted in the midst of their vile actions by Alex de Large and his gang who promptly beat the rivals to an millimeter of their lives while the victim escapes relatively unharmed (physically). This theme is repeated again and again; where justice in society chronically fails to address the criminal and his situation, (what would the suitable punishment be for Alex?), events and other characters lash out in anger (justifiably? We're never certain), at the perpetrator.
The script then links up these many subplots with the larger, and indeed really the only theme of the movie-how is our humanity defined? What is the essence of that inner core of our being that results from us being able to see, to feel, to know that we are human? Again and again (and most of the choices that all of the characters in the movie make, are the wrong ones), the message is "Take away the choice to perform good or evil (leaving only good) and one's humanness will be trivialized, with tragic results." This message is delivered explicitly in two dramatic scenes by the Prison Chaplin, who while himself not the most genteel of messengers, serves Kubrick's purpose of counter weighing the cruelty presented by those around him.
Finally the other nagging repetitive theme, repeated to the point of nausea: as criminals become victims (of either revengeful former victims or of a conniving politician) we are left to wonder-can we ever really face senseless cruelty with a suitable, logical, rational response or answer? What sense and meaning is there to a criminal justice system, run by a cruel political entity, whose sole purpose is to unravel a human's inner essence by remaking a criminal into a robotic, 'good' person? Is a person truly morally good (and therefor more valuable to us) if they have no choices left? Kubrick's answer is a resounding 'No!' 'No!' and 'No!' There are some scenes in the movie that are straight out of the situations described so graphically in George Orwell's 1984. Like Orwell, Burgess (and Kubrick) are very interested in and place great value on describing a benign state government that seems to have the best interest of humanity as its core value, only to be revealed, by a complicated set of events that do great harm to a great many people, as a monstrous organism that is interested only in perpetrating itself in the seat of control over events and people.
Finally, a fun activity for watching the movie again (after one is numbed by repetition): replace the nonsensical, unmeaning title with another one. I would suggest "Resurrection". Watch the movie again to see why.