The Best Movie Ever

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 2011)

I realize that this is my own personal opinion, but I consider this to be the best movie I have ever seen.
I saw it first when I was 16, about the age of the main character, Alex, in the movie.
I first saw the movie, then I read the book. This is one of the few times that I ever thought a movie was better than the book. Not to take away anything from the book at all. It itself is a masterpiece, but this movie somehow made a remarkable book even more remarkable.
Everyone who has said that it is too disturbing or violent has completely missed the point. First of all, I have seen many more violent movies in my life, this is tame compared to some of them. Second of all, the sex and violence in this movie is an integral part. That is what it is about. It is about how sex and violence have been desensitized so much that it is the norm for young people.
Alex doesn't know that there is any other option. He is a product of his society. When he rapes and kills that woman, it is not because he is sick, but because society is sick, partly discerned by the fact that the woman is killed by him with a phallic statue that she has in her own home.
He is shown making love to some girls that he met in a record store, illustrating again that sex is a meaningless activity, only to be used for pleasure and not as an important part of life.
When he is arrested it seems to be more to set an example than to right a wrong. Society and the law seem to be more interested in making themselves look good, rather than justice.
He is arrested by his former cohorts, which only goes to show that the government is more interested in appearances than it is about what is right and wrong.
When society comes up with a solution to "fix" Alex, through mind control, which is one of the most memorable scenes in movie history, the scene with Alex's eyes pried open, it does fix him, at least temporarily, but it does not fix the society he lives in. He does not change at all, not because he can't or won't, but because society has not changed.
Maybe it never will.
This movie is a fable for our time, even though it was made 40 years ago. If we don't learn the lessons put forth in this film, we are destined to live it and suffer the consequences.