We've created a monster...

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2010)

Clockwork Orange stands firmly between two genres. On the top, it is very much a shock movie, a fine example of exploitation cinema.
However, when we consider the film in another way, as a drama that uses shock as it's driving force, we might realise that there is more to this story than what had first disgusted us.
Alex is what you could quite certainly call an anti-hero. His interests are certainly on the wrong side of most people's ethics. He likes to spend his time raping, fighting and gang-banging his way through life. However, we have to wonder, is he truly evil? Even Alex himself has limits, and when he is forced to breach those limits, a change happens in him.
Suddenly he is betrayed by his friends. Finding himself in a whole world of trouble, his character is literally tested. What we witness in the ensuing time raises a very poignant question; is it right to force a person to be "good"?
If we take away free will, what else do we take with it? Surely a person without free will is not a good person, but a good THING, a thing that works to our perception of goodness, a clockwork orange. We can program a machine to suit our needs, but can we program a human being in the same way?
As evil as we perceive Alex to be, who is more evil? Alex, or the system which takes his free will as punishment for his actions? When we take away the very things that make us human, do we create a monster, or a machine?
And is it better that some people live their lives as such? Maybe yes, maybe no, but the ultimate question is; does the punishment fit the crime?
That's for you to decide.