It's wrong because it's, like, against society.

Rating: 10/10 (19 March 2018)

A Clockwork Orange is a disturbing but yet a very beautiful masterpiece of film-making, directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, when Britain experienced a heavy wave of violence and brutality. It creates the ultimate study of manipulation of mind, which tries to eliminate the deviance, according to the standards of appropriate behavior. The movie starts from the picture of bloody red screen, which illustrates the spirit of that time, when the world was undergone by severe youth riots, Red brigades, who kidnapped famous political leaders, different sabotages and robberies, followed by American war in Vietnam. Besides real life, violence started to be represented in cinematography. Movies used to imply that if violence is the one solution of critical situation, thus, it has to be justified. They used to convince people that brutality is something that people are protected from. A Clockwork Orange, in contrast, proves that everything that occurs around is a result of mutual common action. The movie provides a speculation on the essence of human aggression, freedom of will and adequacy of the punishment.
The happening takes place in a near-futuristic London society. "Our humble narrator", Alex DeLarge seems to be an attractive guy who lives a peaceful life. He shares his room with a snake, is fond of art and listens to Ludvig Van Beethoven all day long. However, in a nighttime, our young protagonist becomes a leader of the sadistic gang of "droogs" who regularly commits the acts of "ultra-violence", followed by brutal sexual rapes and severe robberies. The band enjoys breaking into strangers' houses and scoffing over their victims. The droogs have no regards or compassion for their victims because all the crimes they practice, strike their collective fantasies. Moreover, they intensify their pleasures by classical pieces of arts, which inspire and encourage them to commit much more terrible crimes. However, according to the accepted belief, the evil has to be punished. All to the luck, he is convicted of murder and rape and is arrested for 15 years. After two years of imprisonment, he decides to take part in a new rehabilitation therapy developed by the government, which is targeted on criminals to cure them from violence. Alex starts to be injected by a newly developed drug that with connection of pictures or movies with violence causes a feeling of fear, disgust and aversion. The government thought it could "fix" his deviance.
According to Stanley Kubrick's intentions, the audience has to hate Alex and to be afraid of him: he represents not only the social vices, such as crime, brutality or cynicism, but also all the darkest traits of human social minds. But in fact, the feeling of compassion arises when Alex becomes mechanical on the inside. A Clockwork Orange is a movie about human instincts, about the personal choice between the good and the evil. This is under our personal decision to define what is morally good and what is not. However, there are norms within the society, and the government, the main protector and claimer for mutual security stands for regulation of the immoral behavior of certain individuals who go beyond the standards of appropriate behavior. The slogan of the movie claims that "violence causes violence" and the main evil here is the government itself, which manipulates people for the pure political needs, abusing their personal, social and civil liberties. Alex became a brainwashed; now he is able to choose only good. Through the therapy, the government wanted to create an ideal individual, who has no implications on evil and violence. But was Alex really cured? Cured from what? It is very difficult to say. Cured from striving to commit a sin or from the disgust to these sins itself? Nevertheless, the question is: "Can government demand from its citizens not to commit the actions which the government itself operates with?" Thus, an overall idea of this film is an illustration of the reality: despite the fact that violence is against the norm, it exists and can never be eliminated.