Good versus Evil

Rating: 2/10 (4 February 2010)

I did a review on the movie A Clockwork Orange. The movie was made in 1971 by Stanley Kubrick. The plot of this movie is about the main character Alex who robs, rapes and pillages innocent people in Britain. After another night of debauchery he gets caught killing a woman after another violent encounter. Alex then goes to prison where he hears of an experimental program that would mean an early release from prison. Once he completes this treatment he is released only to be faced with his past transgressions.
The basic theme of this movie is good versus evil. Alex loves to inflict harm upon others at great personal satisfaction to him and his pals. After treatment which artificially changes his personality towards violence he becomes someone outside of himself. This program denied Alex of being human with his own nature and instead replaced by the Government's will for him to be non violent. This dehumanizing of Alex basically gives him a taste of how he did this to others and distances him from family and friends.
There is one film I could draw some similar comparisons to for theme. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Jack Nicholson could be used for that same type of theme. Mac who was Nicholson's character was an outgoing troublemaker who was in the institution trying to get out of hard time on the work farm for committing a crime. Mac sets up several uprisings against Nurse Ratched. One scene, Mac is taken and shock treatment was performed on him trying to change his attitude. This is consistent with the therapy Alex endured which would make him ill every time he saw violence.
One motif in this film was the music which played when he was committing his heinous crimes. Alex loved classical music mostly Beethoven and when that music would play was usually during his crime sprees. This music seemed to enhance his criminal acts bringing out his inner evil that flowed through his body. After the dehumanization of Alex the same music that fueled his crime frenzies now has a very negative effect on Alex making him want to kill himself when he heard some of the same music. The music was Beethoven symphony 9, part 4 which set him off.
The film is set to take place in futuristic Britain but the lighting and backgrounds make it seem far ago and not futuristic at all. The film uses various angles capturing thoughts and ideas of Alex when he fantasizes about violence and sex. Then when Alex takes his therapy these images of those very things he loves so dearly now make him ill. This is effective since you can listen to Alex narrate what is going on in his head and you can visually see what is taking place as he describes it. Through these images and Alex's actions as things play out demonstrate the how his demeanor changed. The different symbols such as the 4 Christ statue and the phallus symbolism ties in with the good versus evil theme this film portrayed.