Movie Notes: A Clockwork Orange

March 22nd, 2009

= 5 stars

Starring Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

A Clockwork Orange depicts a not-so-distant future in a technologically advanced society that has undergone crippling moral decay. It’s a dystopia of rampant crime, medical experimentation, and stifling bureaucracy. This isn’t the antiseptic, technologically awe-inspiring future of Kubrick’s visionary 2001. Alex (Malcom MacDowell) is a hoodlum of the worst kind, whom if asked for a reason for his heinous crimes would likely claim “boredom.”

In the film’s first scenes, Alex and his gang of “droogs” commit “ultraviolence” for fun, drink spiked milk, drive fast cars, and attack women. Alex later picks up two girls in a record shop (where a particular record cover advertises a familiar soundtrack) and takes them home for a “bit of the old in-out.” It’s sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll to the hilt — every rebellious teen’s fantasy.

Eventually, due to circumstances largely of his own doing, Alex is sent to prison for murder. There, he’s signed up for an experimental rehabilitation treatment, in which he’s drugged and shown films depicting his debaucherous crimes over and over. As a result, whenever he has a nefarious impulse, he becomes sick to his stomach and is debilitated. In this impotent state, he’s considered “cured” and released to the public.

The film tells its story through several extreme personality changes. Alex goes from hoodlum to weakling. A subversive writer goes from meek helplessness to red-faced revenge. The victimized become oppressors. In this way the film demonstrates that all people are capable of evil and good, and many are capable of committing serious crimes if put in a situations where they can do so. Revenge can be a common, convenient excuse.

There are many similarly schizophrenic scenes, namely the violent reinterpretation of Singing in the Rain that adds a strange, disturbing sense of irony and sarcasm to the original song. Another involves a slow-motion stroll of Alex and his pals that suddenly bursts into chaotic violence. One truly harrowing scene comes near then end of the film when Alex’s head is held underwater and beaten for what seems like an eternity.

There are some strange idee-fixes that occur throughout the film. One is the music of Beethoven. The ninth symphony, “Ode to Joy” is returned to again and again. The music is also transformed into a computerized theme, perhaps to indicate the perversions of humanity through technology. The music turns up in the milk bar, sung by another patron, the doorbell of “Home” where the writer lives plays a measure of Beethoven. Alex seems to link the music with an unattainable happiness, and it’s a cruel twist of fate that his favorite music is turned into a weapon used against him by film’s end. Is the film also perhaps saying that a man incapable of sin is also incapable of understanding passion in the form of the arts?

Another theme is that of Christianity. Alex has a strange statue of four Jesuses in lock step, which possibly represent him and his droog buddies. The prison pastor provides a pivotal role, trying to calm prisoners when he’s hopelessly outnumbered, and he’s the only dissenting voice saying a man without choice is not a moral human being, which falls on deaf bureaucratic ears. There are similarities to Alex’s eventual castration to Jesus himself as the ultimate pacifist. Perhaps a sin-incapable Jesus would be unable to function in modern, morally decrepit society. And this is perhaps not so untrue to life, as what was the Roman Empire if not a decaying society?

There’s a rule of four at work throughout the film. Alex and his three droogs. Notice how when Alex is eventually cornered and trapped, he’s at the mercy of four men, including Mr. Deltoid. At film’s end, Alex is trapped in a house attic with four people below, having their way with him. Four horsemen, perhaps?

A Clockwork Orange points out how we’re all capable of both good and evil, and argues that this is what it means to be human. To deny a person the ability to choose between good or evil is to leave them unable to defend themselves and therefore the ability to cope with society in general. It also denies them the power of choice. The impotent, choice-less human is the “clockwork orange,” which looks organic and alive on the outside yet behaves through autopilot on the inside. This concept could go as far as to say that the sinless people Catholicism puts forward as an ideal is a hopeless and unrealistic one. This is further exemplified by the people who change their behavior when given the opportunity. The only cure for keeping people from acting on their impulses is an inner moral compass, which must be taught and kept in check by society. People must learn to be good, and do so out of their own free will. They cannot be forced.

Unless society itself (meaning, the bureaucracy, government, and its citizens) values morality as a core tenet, moral people are at a disadvantage when it comes to functioning within it. Unless society itself behaves moral, there is no advantage to behaving morally, and therefore no incentive for it either. A conundrum is that society is in fact built of those very individuals.

An argument is also put forth that people are largely a result of their environment. Society creates hoodlums, doesn’t know what to do with them, and then looks for “quick fixes” like imprisonment, religious salvation, and wrong-headed rehabilitation because simple answers resonate best at the polls. Are the torturous acts of experimentation on Alex any kinder crimes in the eyes of God than those committed by Alex? Is a crime committed for the purpose of bettering society still a crime? In an amoral society, blame is perhaps overwhelmingly placed on the people who commit the crimes and not the societal reasons that inevitably play a part in their behavior.

Perhaps the saddest thing about A Clockwork Orange is that many viewers seem uninterested in the moral dilemmas I’m dwelling on and are more concerned with celebrating the shocking scenes of violence and debauchery. This stems from the cynical view that Alex’s transformational failure demonstrates that all is hopeless and crime is an unsolvable problem, and perhaps since people are capable of both good and evil, when people do evil things, we should shrug “oh well,” and laugh smugly. I reject that notion. Society has an obligation to raise future generations to understand the power of choice and not head on a nihilistic path. To have the capability of both good and evil and educated people on the moral choice of either need not, in itself, be a terrible thing.

IMDB: A Clockwork Orange
Wikipedia: A Clockwork Orange
Rotten Tomatoes: A Clockwork Orange 93%