The thing about Clockwork Orange

When I first watched a clockwork Orange, I hated it.

I disliked it so much I vowed to never rewatch it, I thought “it’s just a bunch of edgy stuff put together, the unnecessary violence is annoying” and from then on ignored the movie.

A month or so later it was Halloween (for the record, I love Halloween) and I was at a theme park; While I was waiting to get on a roller coaster I saw none others than a girl dressed as Alex, the protagonist of a Clockwork Orange, and I remembered of the movie. 

In that time I spent waiting, I thought “why do I hate Clockwork Orange?” That’s right,

why did I stop at such basic reasons to dislike Clockwork Orange?

I hated Clockwork Orange because there was lot of violence, this was the main start for my little quick analysis.

But why the violence?

In the movie the start is dedicated to flashing Alex’s character, to show how he functions and think.

Alex is impulsive and takes pride in his work. 

He is a killer, he is a rapist, he does everything he wants when he wants how he wants. He is entirely driven by his desires.

Brutal much.

Alex lives in a dystopian world which is basically in shambles, right outside Alex’s house there is a work of art which is completely ruined by the graffiti which I think is really meaningful to represent the entirety of that society.

The entire movie focuses on Alex’s “fixing” to make him a good citizen and later a political weapon as shown at the end of the movie.

After begin arrested he is put through mind torture which by trauma stops him from indulging in his desires. But it does not change Alex, it just controls him.

Control is a major point in the movie, the entire re-educative system is purely scientific and not actually ethical. 

Alex is directly a victim of it.

If you see the world building, you might even argue the hypocrisy of the system.

Nobody is good, there are many portrayals:

From the inhumane healing methods, to the way sex is represented to how politicians weaponized Alex it’s shows the type of conditions he grew up in.

Alex is a direct child of the world he lives in.

So, after this micro analysis of mine I went back to the first point:

Why did I hate Clockwork Orange? Because I resented Alex’s action, because redemption was not satisfactory, why? Because he hasn’t redempted himself at all.

All I could do in the end of the movie was witness Alex’s suffering from the revenge of anyone he has hurt now that he couldn’t have control anymore.

His old friends became policemen, symbols of control.

The old man also controlled Alex, due to the power dynamic.

Everything showed the unethical ways both Alex and everyone else took control and used it for their purposes, to the sufference of others. An eye for an eye.

At the end, I didn’t like the movie because I was too much in my own bubble to understand what the violence even represented.

I disliked so much the Clockwork Orange I ended up liking it.

By the time I finally got on the roller coaster I was mind blown like my brain has been opened.

This was an educative experience it kind of taught me to look further than my nose when it comes to pieces of media.

This all happened some years ago, you could have argued I had little to zero media literacy and you’d be right.

While it is embarrasing to admit now I also think it’s good to be self aware, I now can see very “taboo” movies (such as Salò) and be able to criticize them for them rather than stopping at what I could notice right away.

I never did a movie review before and this is my first try with it, sorry if it’s badly structured and if it has grammar mistakes.

This is Clown, this was my opinion and bless.