Stanley Kubrick: A Clockwork Orange

didnt like the movie it actually made the point that the book was arguing against.

 

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Arbitrary authority?
He was a rapist and he crippled someone. He was a sociopath. I don't think we come out with a simple message at all. It was horrible what he did. It was horrible that he lost perhaps his only redeeming feature: his love of Beethovan.

I don't think the movie resolves or that for a moment anyone who liked the film would like to be buddies with Alex.

Actually that is too general. Other sociopaths might. But most of the audiance is not going to come away with him as a hero.

I don't society has resolved this issue either.

 

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And the movie was done from his point of view as a sociopath - the authority was arbitrary from his point of view and in his circumstances, brute power applied to him for its own reasons, (the use of Beethoven for conditioning not motivated by his attachment, for example - simple bad luck).

And the authority was no less sociopathic as it applied to him, even incorporating his wingman thugs into its own thug wing.

In the book, he grew out of it - which is a significant change in the entire context, no?

The authority did not grow out of it, just to throw one in - that means a lot less in the movie.

 

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I think Kubrick made the right decision by chopping off the last chapter. Obviously, Burgess wasn't happy with that and normally when a movie chops a book up the results are disastrous.

However, I really love the ambiguity that forces the viewer to think. If it all wrapped up nicely with Alex changing into something "good", there would be much less to ponder and less room for introspection.

When he declares he is "cured alright" are you happy for him or sad?

 

I agree with you Captain, its like the end is the beginning, much like in real world, we thought we knew the problems, kinda fixed those but then we are facing the same problems again.