"When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man."

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2007)

In this case, Kubrick's haunting directing and McDowell's disturbing portrayal paint Alex de Large as man for the sake of his monster.
Large is a violent, drug using, rapist, turned accidental murderer with a sickeningly easy going attitude. Through a series of seemingly random crimes he and a crew of three others rampage across what seems to be a futuristic London landscape and cityscape reeking general havoc on the population. Explicit scenes depicting sinister nudity rattle the viewer into a sickness that rivals the one later induced on Large through a series of "therapeutic" sessions in which he is forced to watch scenes of sex and violence while drugged.
The impression of these scenes sticks to Large and is virtually incapacitated whenever he attempts an act that is violent or sexual in nature. Allegedly coincidently (though the cell-search scene in which Large's interest in Beethoven is discovered by his tormentor suggests otherwise) he is also conditioned to react the same way whenever the ninth symphony falls on his ears.
Large is subjected to the rejection of his family and the revenge of the souls he wronged in the beginning portions of the movie and eventually attempts to kill himself. His attempt fails, but his extended unconsciousness erases his conditioning and the final scene hints at his future return to his disturbing crimes.
Large is frightening human. His narration borders on quaint as he feels himself to be a sort of hero. Instead he depicts the anti-hero; a protagonist too human to understand that his drives and lack of ingrained moral senses are abnormal. Whether driven by the search for a new high or a disorder native to the most frightening of psychopaths, the "humble narrator" of this film will not be easily forgotten.