Brilliant Movie, Better Book

Rating: 10/10 (3 March 2004)

A Clockwork Orange is a story about the conflict between the individual and society. Alex represents the individual, our own individuality, completely self-centered, completely free, unfettered by socially constructed morality.
But society wants us to work together, respect each other, live for each other's benefit. How much better society would run without the chaos of individuality, if humans were obedient worker ants. How much better if overweight people would stop eating, if smokers would quit smoking, if everyone would adopt healthy lifestyles so we could all have cheaper health insurance, for example.

***SPOILERS***
In the end of the story, human individuality and human free will triumph over the strictures of society, so Alex's triumph is our triumph. Yet we are also, each of us a part of a society, and so Alex's triumph is also our defeat. Therefore our own triumph is also our own defeat, and that is why the end of the story seems conflicted.
Of course, to make an effective story, Alex's behavior has to be extreme, to maximize the conflict we feel, to force us to think more deeply about the issues at hand, or maybe to force the idea of the importance of free will more deeply into our psyche.