Clockwork Orange Essay, Research Paper
“A ClockWork Orange”
The picture opens to a close up of an eye with a peculiar long eyelash. The camera fades back onto the face of a young gentlemen, he begins to narrate: “There was me, that is Alex. And my three droogs (friends), that is Pete, Georgy and Dim. And we sat at the karuba milk bar trying to make up our plans for the evening ”
For those of you who don t know this famous opening scene, I am talking about the movie “A Clockwork Orange”. This movie, In my opinion, Is one of the greatest movies of all time. Not only a great movie, but directed by a great man, Stanley Kubrick. Some of his other movies include Full Metal Jacket and Dr.Strangelove. Full Metal Jacket deals with Vietnam, while Dr. Stranglove deals with the cold war and nuclear weapons. “A Clockwork Orange” deals with moral judgment and the thought of taking it away from someone. The pattern here to me is very clear. Kubrick liked to dive into subjects that are very controversial and gave his own opinion in the form of a movie. A Clockwork orange is filled with a lot of hidden meaning and satire, which is what I m going to discuss in this
essay. The movie itself doesn t mention when or where this took place. But since it was shot in London during 1960, much of the culture of that time is shown throughout the movie. As I stated earlier the movie starts out by showing four young men dressed all the same, sitting in a milk bar. The milk bar sounds harmless but the “milk” they sold at this bar was laced with drugs that helped them in what they were planning to do: beat, rape and murder.for what they were planning to do: beat, kill and rape. After they leave the
milk bar, their first victim is a drunk homeless man. This is where Kubrick showed his audience why they were beating people for apparently no reason. Just before they beat the old man to death, he complained that there was no law or order anymore. And that everyone was in space ” circling around the earth and living on the moon ” This gives the simple reason that these four young gentlemen were beating people simply because they could.Alex is the leader of their clan. But along the way his other three “droogs” grow tired of his ways. So they betray Alex by knocking him out and leaving him for the police. Alex gets the blame for the murder that they just committed and is sent to jail. Alex is very smart though, and wants to get out as fast as he can so he can continue with his obsession with killing. While in prison Alex hears about a kind of treatment ” that gets you out quick.” Out of a very slim chance, Alex is signed up for this treatment. It is explained to him that the treatment is still under development and the scientists don t know how successful it will be. But Alex s need to get out of jail is to great and he doesn t even hesitate to sign
up. What Alex doesn t know is that the treatment will ruin him. Even though the treatment is altogether successful, Alex now lacks choice between good and evil. He is pulled to the good side but only because the treatment make him physically sick if he even thinks about doing something bad. This is the central idea of the film: Do we lose our humanity if we are deprived of the choice between good and evil? The night before he is let out of jail, he is put
to a test. Alex is put on a stage to show what will happen when he is confronted with a choice between good and evil. Unfortunently he has no choice as his mind and body is propelled to the good. Right away the minister who preaches in the jail, stands up and yells: ” but the boy has no choice, he is not even human anymore!” No one listens.The next day Alex is put back on the street. This is when things start going bad for Alex. When he tries to go back home his parents kick him out. He gets beat up by some of his old victims who, for some reason didn t die. Alex can t even fight back because that would be bad, so all he can do is crawl up in a ball and take the beatings. As he is getting viciously beaten, two police come to break up the fight. To make things worse, the two police happen to be two of his old droogs, Georgy and Dim. They take him out into
the woods and beat him even more.Alex is at the end of his rope. But he manages to crawl to the nearest house, which is, a very bad decision made by Alex. The owners of the house are more of his past victims. Alex doesn t realize this but The owner eventually does. And he also realizes that Alex was the one who went though the treatment. When he finds this out he wants Alex to help him embarrass the government, and show the people of London what the government did is wrong. He states things like ” The common people must be led, driven, pushed ” and ” they will sell their liberty for an easier life ” This man has clearly lost what he s trying to do. Alex s Victim finds out who Alex really is and what he did to him. Alex s victim decides to torture him using the treatment.Alex tries to kill himself which shows how far he has been driven by the Government. But luckily he doesn t die. At this point the government gets in touch with him and offers him an easy living. All Alex has to do is “be friends” with the government and show no hard feeling towards the government. Right away pictures are taken of Alex and the main head of the government. Then Alex says to himself ” I was cured all right.” Smiling his grim smile of death and mayhem.”The Clockwork Orange”, what does the title mean? I think it was pertaining to the main idea of the movie. Orange meaning something organic like humans. And clockwork meaning something like conscription or being all the same. That s what drew me to this movie, it s title. But after watching it, “The Clockwork Orange” is a very complex movie, I had to watch it twice just to get the main idea. But the hidden meanings that are in it make the movie very enjoyable. I suggest you go rent and watch this fabulous movie.