A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange. 1971 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Warren Clarke, James Marcus, Patrick Magee, Michael Tarn
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Buy A Clockwork Orange at Amazon.
Also part of the Stanley Kubrick: Warner Home Video Directors Series.

This will be the first time I've ever seen this one, actually.

Alex DeLarge (McDowell) leads a small gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie and Dim) which he refers to as his "droogs". After some time drinking narcotic-spiked milk at the Korova Milk Bar, they go out to commit some mayhem, starting with beating an elderly vagrant underneath an underpass. Next, they get into a brawl with another gang, which they have an easy time of, only departing when they hear the cops coming. After stealing a car and speeding through the countryside, Alex and his droogs enter the house of a writer, claiming they need to phone for an ambulance. Once inside, the droogs assault the writer and rape his wife while Alex sings and dances "Singin' in the Rain". Returning to the milk bar, they find some well-dressed guests, including a woman who sings a melody from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Dim expresses his distates for classical music, which earns him a blow from Alex's cane. Alex loves classical music. After going home, he puts on a cassette of the Ninth Symphony, accompanied by a fantasy montage of violent images. The next morning, Alex claims he's too sick to go to school when his mother wakes him. A social worker (Aubrey Morris) visits next, who suspects that Alex has been up to "some nastiness". Alex visits a music shop, picks up two women, and has sex with both of them.

When Alex meets up with the droogs, they express displeasure with his leadership, and say they want a "new way", that involves more ambitious crimes, and no more abuse of Dim. Alex answers by assaulting all three of them next to a canal, reasserting his leadership. Later on, they break into the house of a woman who runs a health farm, and owns a large number of cats and erotic works of art. Alex mortally wounds the "cat lady" (Miriam Karlin) with a phallus-shaped statue. Alex is attacked by his droogs after leaving the house, who leave him for the police when they arrive.

While incarcerated, Alex forms a bond with the prison chaplain, a kindly man who preaches to the prisoners about hellfire and damnation. Studying the Bible, Alex identifies best with the violent characters in it. Alex also finds out about the Ludovico technique, an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals. Alex is chosen for the treatment after the Minister of the Interior visits the prison looking for a potential candidate.

At the Ludivico facility, Alex is placed in a straitjacket, and subjected to films containing scenes of violence while being dosed with drugs to induce reactions of revulsion. He only reacts badly when he realizes one of the film's soundtracks is music by Beethoven, which means that Alex will now have similar feelings of revulsion for the composer's works. A demonstration of the "cure" follows, where Alex is unable to fight back against an actor trying to provoke him, followed by a nude woman trying to tempt him, which Alex also is unable to succumb to. Declared "cured" despite the chaplain's protests, Alex is released back into society.

The problem is, will society accept Alex now that he's "cured"?

Highly recommended movie.