Give it a chance.

Rating: 10/10 (12 January 2005)

***Spoilers***
I thought this was an awesome movie the first time I saw it, but I can see why people wouldn't. I still remember it vividly. There is, as the rating says, a lot of violence, nudity, and suggested rape, and it is partly this that makes the movie such a big hit.
My personal feeling on the movie? It was awkward, but extremely thought provoking. The "ultra-violence" didn't bug me as much as the boys' indifference did to it. The way they made beating people, no matter how old, the way they used sympathy to gain entrance into a house, just to beat the old man and rape his wife. I have not been able to hear "Singing in the rain...I'm just singing in the rain." since without thinking of this movie. It made me think differently of things I had always thought perfectly innocent.
Ten minutes into the film, I was on the edge of my seat-though not quite literally-waiting to see what happened. It was flexible, and could have gone either way. Throughout the film, I wasn't able to guess what came next, the way a person can for a cheesier movie, and I loved it.
The setting is futuristic, but not like the others I've seen. It doesn't focus as much as the way of life or government, and it may be possible to think the story is happening in the present. The setting is also a bit queer; in the milk bar, there are naked statues, where milk is squeezed from the woman's breasts. The main character's apartment is fairly run down on the external, and on pictures of nude individuals on the outside, there is a fair amount of graffiti, the kind that could be found scrawled in school textbooks.
I found the main character, Alex, endearing in an odd sort of way. While he could do cruel acts in cold blood, he always answered promptly when spoken to, usually with an added "Yes ma'am" or "Yes sir" so crisp that it would make your shirts jealous. This is one of the principal things I remember about the film.
The brainwashing that Alex undergoes is just awesome. When it is over, he is unable to beat anyone, unable to touch a naked woman, is even forced to lick an officials shoe. He can no longer hurt anyone.
But when he gets out of prison, it's only to beat nearly drowned to death by his old thug friends. When he tries to return home, it's only to find that his room has been rented out. It's only when he's in the rain, trying to find a warm place to stay, that he's taken in by an old man that doesn't recognize him for who he was; the Alex that beat him and raped his wife.
The end is also interesting. It's fair for the old man to want the Alex dead, is it not, after Alex raped his wife and confined him to a wheelchair? Yet there is also the political undertone, wanting him dead to prove that the brainwashing the new government had done to him was cruel and unjust.
But Alex doesn't manage to die, and it is the new government themselves who pay for his hospitalization. (Correct me if I'm wrong in any of this, it's been a fair few months since I saw it.) They also repeal their brainwashing, and manage to cure Alex of his. It is this part that makes one wonder, is it a favor or a curse? Once Alex is free of his brainwashing, he is free to pursuit any hobby he wishes; including those that got him in trouble to begin with. His smile at the end of the movie is both ecstatic and sinister.