Product: A Clockwork Orange [VHS] (1972)
Rating: 5.0
Unforgettable story of ethics
A Clockwork Orange in both its book and movie form is not aimed at glamorising violence. The message from Anthony Burgess' novel is all there in Stanley Kubrick's movie. Burgess once said that misery and suffering are the price of freedom. What he meant was, goodness is a virtue that is chosen.What if everyone in the world was good? Can people really appreciate goodness if they have no knowledge of evil? If there was no darkness, could people understand what light is? If everyone was good it wouldn't be something chosen by their own free will. If people can't choose then they're not really free. Gandhi wasn't born good, Hitler wasn't born evil. These men chose the way they led their lives and acted accordingly.The same applies with Alex. Alex doesn't commit crime because he needs money. He doesn't live in poverty. He is violent because he enjoys it. When he is arrested he is forced to be good. This treatment works, at the cost of Alex's freedom. Alex's acts of "goodness" are not done out of kindness or nobility, they are desparate reactions to nausea at the thought of violence.None of Burgess' message is lost in Kubrick's film, except for the ending. The film is full of irony and black humour, but the violence is only a superficial part of the story. The all- important message is freedom of choice. This movie won't be for every taste, but the morality of our lives and how we live them is something that concerns all of us.