A Clockwork Orange - Movie Description
A Clockwork Orange, 1971 film, was produced, written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It's a film adaptation of satiric, futuristic novel by Antony Burgess of the same title. The word orange probably comes from the word orang-utan, ape-like creature. The film features disturbing, violent imaginary of youth gangs, teen delinquency, technological control and dehumanization.
It's quite difficult to categorize A Clockwork Orange, it's crime-drama-thriller film and has also comedic moments. The protagonists narrate most of the film in "nadsat", hybrid, jargonistic language comprising English, Russian and slang.
Among the themes attributed to the film are: definition of "goodness" (one of the central moral question in the film), the abuse of one's liberty, the outrage against behavioral psychology and it also raises many thematic questions: How can evil be eradicated in modern society? Do we lose our humanity if we are striped of free-will between good and evil?
A Clockwork Orange had been forbidden by Britain for thirty years.
The film won many awards -BAFTA Awards, Hugo Awards, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, etc. It was nominated for 4 Academy Awards (best director, best film editing, best picture, and best adapted screenplay) but, that year, The French Connection won in all these categories.
The story takes place in England, in 1995, and follows the life of a young man called Alex DeLargo (Malcolm McDowell) who enjoys rape, violence and classical music. He is a leader of a small group of bullies (Pete, Georgie (James Marcus) and Dim (Warren Clark)). He and his droogs do drugs, drink, skip school, steal cars, rape helpless women and start fights in the street. Alex is irreverent and arrogant leader, and because of this his droogs plot behind his back against him. In their plan to rob a woman, Alex, being smart and sneaky, somehow manages to break into the house to unlock the door for his droogs, while they wait outside. Once indoor, confronted by the woman, the owner of the house, he strikes her in the head. When he meets his droogs outside, they smash him with a hard object leaving him for the police to finally arrive and arrest him. Alex is sentenced to 14 year prison term because the woman he stroke, ended up dieing.
During his time in prison, he reads bible and is never involved with any fights.
Alex signs up to be a guinea pig for a scientific experiment in hope of shortening his sentence. The experiment, called Ludovico treatment, is devised by the British Government. It is a series of "session" and is supposed to make Alex "better" and revert him from being bad to good and to programme him so that he always choose the good.
The process deprived him not only of his evil, but deprived him of his right to think and be free. After being brainwashed by the scientists, he is released from prison. But, when he returns to civilization, he is kicked out of his home and rejected by his friends and relatives. The experiments has some side effect (Alex attempts suicide and fails) and the doctors of the original Ludovico treatment set out to cure him. Alex is cured and is able to think and do what he wants.