Kubrick's best, but not nearly as good as the book.

Rating: 9/10 (6 April 2001)

This film is quite enjoyable, but Stanley Kubrick did not use the ending of the book, missing author Anthony Burgess' moral entirely. Whether Kubrick's decision was intentional or not, I don't know.
The origin of the problem springs from Anthony Burgess' New York publisher, who, when the novel was first published in America, decided to edit out the entire remaining chapter of the book. It is the 21st chapter of the novel, and Burgess has stated numerous times that he intended to have 21 chapters because that is the age of maturity, the birthday when a person is given more privileges for the first time (at least in the 60's, when it was written) than at any other age.
The 21st chapter begins with Alex sitting in the Korova milkbar again, in the height of fashion (which had no changed from that seen in the beginning of the book and film to a style much more closely resembling that of a skinhead), with a new gang to lead. He is now the oldest of the gang members, but finds himself growing quite weary of the "ultraviolent" lifestyle. He doesn't participate in the gang's activity, merely gives orders. He leaves early one night, and starts on his way home. In the movie, Pete and Dim have become corrupt police officers, but in the novel, Dim is the only one who has. We don't know what has happened to Pete for most of the book, until the last chapter. I won't reveal it here (read it!!!), but I will say it is enough to get Alex to begin desiring a family, with a nice wife to come home to, and an infant son. As the novel's true climax ends, Alex realizes he has matured.
The novel's moral is that the psychological intervention by the government was greatly unnecessary and wrong. Violent behavior is a thing of youth, Burgess says, and will eventually be overcome by conscience and the transformation from childhood to adulthood. The incomplete novel and Kubrick's film are both left kind of purposeless, with a moral and an ending much more abrupt and FAR less satisfying than the novel.