Film Review: a Clockwork Orange - Quite Hysteria

Quiet Hysteria
The film industry is America’s current infatuation. We seem to seek in movies what we cannot find in reality: a sort of escape from life’s heavy demands. Consequently, we are heavily influenced by what we see and hear in them, both in our thoughts and actions. A horror movie might induce fear and trauma, while a romantic comedy will provoke a moment of joy and laughter, encouraging us to operate our lives as the charming protagonist did. Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is no different. In fact, it has become one of the most controversial films in movie history, not only because Kubrick boldly divulges the horrors we are capable of, but because the film addresses the issue of government conditioning, of the taking of a person’s free will, creating little more than a robot.
A Clockwork Orange is an intricate tale, adapted from the Anthony Burgess novel. It follows the protagonist, Alexander DeLarge, a delinquent teenager who, with the help of his three “droogs”, takes pleasure in the torture of people (A Clockwork Orange). Two of these friends, Dim and Georgie, later reveal their unwillingness to continue to blindly follow Alex’s brutal lifestyle. He responds by slashing them with his pocket knife and then buying them back with drinks, in an effort to make concrete his unquestioned status as leader. As they attempt to escape yet another murder scene, Alex’s comrades strike him with a bottle, leaving him momentarily blinded and helpless for the police to find. Alex is charged with murder and sentenced to 14 years in the prison of an unspecified British city. After serving two years of his sentence, Alex learns of an experimental treatment that will cleanse a prisoner of criminal thought and allow for his release within two weeks – the Ludovico technique. Alex cunningly volunteers for administration of the drug. After given the shot, he is subjected to grueling hours of violent, explicit films every day, over a period of two weeks. He is...