A Clockwork Orange

Unless you've been living under a rock since this movie came out in 1971, you've probably heard about A Clockwork Orange. In addition to Irreversible, this film was on the list of the 15 Most Disturbing Films Ever Made, which didn't surprise me as that's the reason it's so talked about. Well folks, I finally got around to watching it sometime last week.

The Gist Of The Movie:
Malcolm McDowell plays the role of deranged teenager Alexander DeLarge, the leader of a group of boys who get their kicks by going to a nightclub where they drink milk laced with different drugs, and proceeding into the night to commit acts of "ultra-violence". This includes beating innocent strangers, getting into fights with other deranged teenagers, and raping women (makes you long for the days when the worst thing kids did was trespass on your lawn, damn hooligans). Well one fine evening while he's out with his boys, one of their victims is smart enough to call the police before they get into her house. Unfortunately, Alex accidentally kills her (with a giant sculpture of a penis, I might add) and is apprehended by the authorities while his friends escape. He is sent to prison and spends two years there before hearing of an experimental program in which you can be a free man in two weeks if you successfully complete the treatment. He is taken to a mental hospital and finds that the process is something like torture. He is given drugs that make him feel ill while he is forced to watch violent films, thus associating violence with something unpleasant. He completes the program and, as promised, is released as a free man where he finds the world is not as kind a place as he remembers, and all his past transgressions come back to haunt him. Eventually he attempts suicide and it is blamed on the terrible treatment he underwent in the mental institution, so the effects are reversed and politicians, friends, and family come running back to him eager to make up for his suffering. It ends with him imagining himself raping his nurse, and declaring that he feels much better.

What I Think:
This movie is weird, and I know that's not news to anyone who knows anyone who's ever seen this film, but that's because it's the simple truth, when it comes right down to it this movie is really freaking bizarre. Oh right, and Malcolm McDowell plays an excellant creep. The whole point of the film is to give you absolutely no basis on which to judge any of the characters. Do you feel bad that Alex undergoes such horrible treatment, or is it what he deserves? After all, we can assume he's been raping and abusing innocent citizens for most of his adult life (you have to think of all the nights that took place before the movie even began) but does that mean he should be victimized in return? And what about the psychologists giving the treatment, shouldn't they be called out on this? Aren't there laws against cruel and unusual punishment? We also see that Alex's former friends become officers of the law, most likely abusing their power to continue their criminal wrongdoings, which strikes a nerve with anyone who's ever gotten pulled over by some jerk in a uniform. Even when his parents cry over his hospital bed, I was silently cursing at them because they're the ones who let him get away with all these shenanigans in the first place, replaced him with some random while he was gone, and wouldn't let him come home when he was back. Maybe a good time-out could have whipped this boy into shape in his younger years, but I guess hindsight is always 20/20. Honestly, by the end of the film you don't like any of the characters except the ones who didn't spend more than thirty seconds on the screen and you have doubts about them too. And the final scene where you realize that he's reverted to being the same wretched human being he was in the beginning makes you especially angry, because now everyone loves him for it. Nothing has changed, nothing is any better than it was, and you almost feel like you just wasted two hours of your life watching this movie.

None of this is to say that I didn't like the movie, because I sort of did, though I went through most of it with a furrowed brow thinking to myself "what am I watching?". The reason I'm okay with this is that I think that it was the intended purpose of the film. You're not supposed to like these people, you're supposed to get a sick satisfaction out of seeing Alex's pain, but feel outraged that he's the only one feeling it when they all so clearly deserve it. Yet in thinking that, you're just like him. To some degree I guess we all are.