Clockwork Orange: between the organic and the mechanic.

Rating: 10/10 (19 January 2014)

Clockwork Orange: between the organic and the mechanic.
This movie is based on the eponymous book written by Anthony Burgess. It was released in 1971, in UK. The story is set in an imaginary future and tells the story of Alexander, the leader of a gang of young offenders that commits robberies and rapes at night only for fun. Alex has a thirst for power and due to this he had once fought his gang friends (called droogies) to maintain the power and control in his hands. After this episode, his friends decided to avenge him and arranged a trap to get him arrested.
In jail, Alex discovers a way to reduce his time there: participating in a new government program that studies a way to restrain the violent and social unacceptance impulses of human being. It is called Ludovico Technique and consists basically in an aversion therapy. There is a high dose of philosophy and psychology in this movie.
It includes behaviorism, the set of psychological theories that deal with the behavior. One of the pioneers in this field of study was Ivan Pavlov, who conducted a test with dogs and developed a model of conditioning behavior called "conditioned reflex", which states that behavior is a response to a specific stimulus. Pavlov believed that there were unconditioned reflexes (innate) and conditioned reflexes (learned) and proved with his test that it is possible to create or remove physiological and psychological responses in human beings and animals. It happened with the protagonist of the movie. During the Ludovico Technique, Alex was subjected to associate malaise – caused by medicine – to bad things that he used to do – like rape, stole etc. .
It worked. Then it comes the philosophy: can a technique make the human completely powerless regarding his choices? Because even Ludovico Technique has worked, Alex kept thinking in bad things; the treatment curbed his attitudes but not his thoughts. According to self- determination, people have liberty to make choices and it cannot be changed. For the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, the human is convicted to the liberty. Or mean, doesn't matter what is done, nothing can control the human mind (the closer to this is brain washing).
When Alex comes back to the society, the negative point of a social control is visible: he has to endure people doing bad things to him and he can't do anything back. Here the point is: whither a government intervention is legitimate? Can the government decide how people can act? Is it negative or positive? In Alex's case it was negative. People didn't change their vision about Alex when he returned back to the society, but only when he was victimized. Then comes to the fore all the government demagoguery, corruption and opportunism, because it takes advantage of Alex's case to do a self-promotion.
In the end, the lesson remaining is that people have their instincts and their own essence and nothing can change this. Society only tries to control the instincts considered bad or predatory, but it will always exist and sometimes it will surfacing.
With regard to acting, Malcolm McDowell did his role brilliantly. It is possible to see in his eyes the indifference or sociopathy during scenes of heavy violence. Alex did not care about other's feelings; he was completely hedonist and egocentric. Beyond the great interpretation of Dowell, there is a big dose of perfectionism from Stanley Kubrick, the director. Kubrick's style is apparent: narration, symmetrical composition, extensive zoom sequences and an observation of the dark side of human.
It is almost unbelievable and unacceptable that Clockwork Orange did not receive any Oscar. But it is still a good movie to watch and think about life and human relationship. If you ask for a rating to this movie, "10' cannot be fair. Just watch and understand what is being said here.