A Clockwork Orange (1971)

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The year is 1971, and Stanley Kubrick's vision of the future  - a world dominated by sex, violence and corrupt bureaucracies - seemed a ridiculous and far-fetched future world. By the year 2002, this vision had become a reality.

We now live in a media-saturated world where children are learning about sex earlier and earlier, violence is a daily occurrence in schools and on our streets, and politicians constantly being exposed in scandal after scandal. This film's message is clearer than ever. Even in the age of excess, the citizen's right to choose right or wrong must never be corrupted - even if the choice is a morally degenerate one.

In a free society, 'A Clockwork Orange' teaches us that we must tolerate monsters like Alex (Malcom McDowell) to ensure that the rest of us retain our freedom. It's quite frightening to see how Burgess' and Kubrick's vision accurately predicts how the future would pan out. Today, we see the 'sexualisation' of young girls such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and the worshipping of supermodels and celebrities by the media. In this film, sex is likewise merchandised and sold - an example being the drug-laced milk that Alex and his droogs enjoy being poured from the statues of naked women in the bar. Nudity serves every consumer, and is no longer reserved for privacy or art.

Men too are sexualised in this film, wearing enlarged codpieces as a sexual affectation. This can be compared to body piercings, tattoos and dying your hair bright pink, to be seen as trendy and sexually desirable.

'A Clockwork Orange' notes that the rampant sexuality is not so much a result of changing  morals, as it is a reflection of an irresponsible media where everyone and everything is seen primarily as a commodity. In one important scene, Alex is in a futuristic mall filled wall-to-wall with magazines, music and teenagers - a futuristic HMV before teenagers simply walked around making mental notes of what they would download next when they get home. This is consumer culture!

'A Clockwork Orange' is most often noted for its themes of violence, rather than sex - appropriate too, given an X-Certificate upon its release in 1971. However, violence in film has progressed so far since this film, that Kubrick's film seems almost quaint today. The costume takes the audience away from that sense of realism often present in modern ultra-violent films, such as 'The Human Centipede', 'A Serbian Film' or 'Irreversible' to name but a notorious few! A film which deals with beatings and rapes, but orchestrated to classical or popular music (Beethoven, 'Singin' in the Rain', etc) takes it away from the gritty realism of the above mentioned films and almost into the territory of satire. A ballet of violence, beautiful and disturbing at the same time, Kubrick distances the audience from the real horror by utilising a familiar melody for purposes of irony. The audience retreats from the horrors of the rape scene by identifying the backing soundtrack it's set to and identifying with the familiarity of Gene Kelly's dance of delight in the rain. In the case of Alex, his delight involves beating others, and his foot delivers kicks, crushes and stomps in time with the music, rather than dance moves. The ironic use of music is entertaining, but it is also a ploy to appeal to the intellectual curiosity of the viewer. The viewer is not so tormented  or disturbed by the break-in and ensuing violence when they make the link with Kubrick's choice of music in their minds, instead referencing a musical classic.


The most disturbing aspect of 'A Clockwork Orange' is not the violence but the endemic cruelty of spirit that passes for the norm in Alex's world. His parents have no warmth or decency. They are cold laughable characters. The priest, who insists Alex must have the right to make his own moral choices, is naive. He believes (wrongly) that Alex has "a genuine desire to reform", unaware that Alex is a complete monster. Police corruption is evident in the former droogs, and even doctors and nurses are depicted in negative terms, more interested in sex than helping their patients. No authority is represented in a positive way in this film - Alex's guidance counsellor is presented as a despicable paedophile. Even the victims of crime within the film, for which the audience would normally feel sympathy for, appear as revenge-obsessed maniacs.

'A Clockwork Orange' is such a cold film not because of the violence, but because it clinically views man as an essentially cruel creature. There are few redeeming features to any character in this film... which brings us to Alex! Many critics were outraged with Kubrick because they feel his film actually engenders sympathy for Alex, a boy with violent and immoral impulses. Compared with the brutal policemen, the droogs and the crappy parents, Alex is the most identifiable human character in the entire film. He's clearly a nasty person but at least we are privy to his thoughts, and even though these thoughts are brutal, that identification humanises him. He may be violent, but he loves Beethoven. He may treat his parents badly, by we see upon his release how deeply they wound him by disowning him. Although Alex is the victimiser, Kubrick goes to great lengths to prove that he is likewise the victim. Alex is a boy who, in the absence of his parents, is raised by the violence and sex obsessed media. SO it should come as no surprise that he has turned out the way he has. Alex is the protagonist of this film. He is violent and immoral, but he survives society's attempt to take away his individuality. He is violent and immoral purely for his own pleasure, but that's his choice. The question is, do we accept that choice or do we try to suppress it? And if we forbid some acts, what will be forbidden next? Those of you reading this post in a public place may want to ponder this as you go outside in the cold rain to smoke your cigarette!