one of greatest films ever

Rating: Null/10 (14 November 2004)

A Clockwork Orange is clearly one of the greatest and at the same time most disturbing and frightening films ever made. Its commentary on free will, morality, the human psyche, good versus evil and crime and punishment in modern society is as penetrating and relevant today as it was 33 years ago, but first about the title. In the words of Anthony Burgess himself in his new introduction to the novel entitled A CWO Resucked "A human being is endowed with free will. He can use this to choose between good and evil. If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange- meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or the Almighty State. It is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil. The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good, in order that moral choice may operate." This is in essence the heart and crux of the film and book: free will and the ability to make moral choices are ultimately removed in Alex and he is left conditioned by the State an empty shell of a human being devoid of everything that makes us human. In the name of eliminating crime and violence the State has in effect created a condition that is arguably equally as inhuman as the violence that Alex and his droogs were perpetrating in the first place: a cold sterile society full of empty wooden waxen clockwork oranges. Kubrick brings this frightening moral landscape into sharp relief- the cold stark futuristic setting, the sadistic sickening violence and the searing image of our poor narrator strapped in and forced to watch films of horrific and unspeakable wanton carnage and carnality with a little of the old Ludwig van playing in the background. The theme of revenge and redemption is also a prevalent one in the story. The image of the mad obsessed writer of subversive literature taking his vengeance upon Alex at the end of the film is one of the most terrifying scenes I have seen on film. In the end, Burgess and Kubrick make it clear that a conditioning treatment such as the one performed on Alex is itself morally wrong and doomed to failure because it destroys free will and the human ability to think and act autonomously. Although it is disturbing and difficult for many people to sit through and watch, A Clockwork Orange is one of the most important films ever made for what it tells us about society and what it tells us about ourselves.