Not just entertaining...

Rating: Null/10 (20 April 2003)

The film based on the book is an intriguing view of choice, personality and the morality of society and the media. It centres around the main character, Alex de Large, and his gang of young adventurers who terrorise people for the sheer pleasure of it. But this is not the point of the story. The story is concerned ultimately with the right to choose how to live: to be an individual. Should a criminal be kept essentially human by being allowed to live criminally, as is his nature or nurture, and be punished for their crimes, or be transformed into a "good person" through deliberate conditioning for the safety of other citizens?
The film takes great effort to reveal points on both sides in the backdrop of a strange nihilistic, almost cyber-punk world with fine acting, direction, and atmospheric music by Walter (now Wendy) Carlos. The film was banned in Britain by the director, Stanley Kubrick, until recently which added to the mystic of the film, at least here in Britain.
This is a film to watch and in my view, the first film of this genre recognisable today as a "modern film" in its execution and, in some cases, a truer representation of today than one may, at first, realise.