ultra-violence sickens on both sides of the screen

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2006)

This film is a very heavy-handed dissection of morality and the many forms hypocrisy can take. It's very, very shocking even now, and even more so for its time (when it was nominated for a Best Picture many Hollywood heavyweights refused to even show for the ceremony), and Stanley Kubrick's stale, disgusting vision of the future still strikes a specific, hidden nerve. It tells the story of Alex, a juvenile delinquent who adores violence and rape of all kinds. When he is imprisoned for murder, he becomes a test subject for a new form of torture that is supposed to "reform" criminals of violent behaviours by associating images of violence, blood and rape with severe physical sickness. After two weeks, Alex emerges spineless and brainwashed, and considerably less menacing - a clockwork 'orange'; that is, orangutan - symbolic of his weak facade to try and fit into society once more. After this point, it's very hard to watch, because once Alex is released back in his tiny world, he learns there really is no forgiveness of any kind. What's funny throughout is that the violence of Alex and his companions pales in comparison to the violence exerted on them by the government and their world in general - for example, a regular bar is filled with horrifying pornographic images, wholly unnecessary measures and cruelty are used during the treatment...and perhaps most troubling of all is that Alex's former companions, upon his 'reform', have since become part of the police force. There really is no right or wrong. By the end we realize that what we thought was terrible at the beginning doesn't really mean anything. And what's scary is that the lonely world of A Clockwork Orange really isn't too different from our own. From a debate about whether the treatment is 'right' because it doesn't really change desires to harm, it progresses to a point where the actual reform of a human being seems impossible - there's no way how or why somebody would want to change. Even when the possibility of something other than 'an eye for an eye' is introduced, it turns out to be functionally impossible. Both the film-making and the acting are heavily stylized, cloying, and somewhat difficult to watch - all this works well with the intended effect of the film. Malcolm McDowell pulled off a difficult role reasonably well, but he's not too great. The rest of the characters stick in your head in a distinctly Fellini-esquire manner, which makes for a memorable storyline. The themes of regression vs. progression are toyed with in a way that really makes you think about the 'progress' we've supposedly gone through in the past century or so. One faintly amusing thing - I noticed the violence depicted here actually made me sick - exactly like Alex's treatment. Not accidental.