A Clockwork Orange Cultural Responsibility

Introduction The great works of Stanley Kubrick was one of the main reasons why I have become so interested in film over the past years. Something I have always admired about them was the amount of depth they held. So, when faced with having to choose a film to write this journal on there was no other option for me than my favorite Kubrick film, A Clockwork Orange, a film that shocked a nation with its explicit visuals and storytelling. In this paper I will touch on what I see as the film’s cultural invisibility, narrative, and lastly genre conventions.
Cultural Invisibility A Clockwork Orange is a film that I feel is very open to interpretation when it comes to its cultural invisibility. The film depicts a young delinquent, Alex, who in
his free time is the leader of a somewhat “gang” that consists of him and his friends whom they call “droogs”. After Alex and the rest engage in acts like beating the homeless and rape, they break into a woman’s home and Alex ends up accidentally murdering the woman with a phallic shaped statue. Which I believe is invisibility for showing that men’s acts are led by their sexual desire instead of their brain. Later Alex is arrested and instead of doing his full time in prison choses to undergo a treatment to reform him. He is forced to watch footage of rape and other acts of violence which makes him nauseous and unable to do these acts or listen to Beethoven’s ninth any longer.
After being reformed and going back into the real world Alex is faced with being beaten and attacked by the victims of his past and unable to defend himself because any acts of violence make him sick. I feel this shows that his victims seeking this revenge on him are no better than Alex committing the act in the first place. Alex not being able to defend himself is cultural invisibility to people’s right to a choice being taken away. Before, Alex had the choice to defend himself, or the choice to do these violent acts but that was taken away from him. He was in sort of a way treated like a robot and just programmed to reform and now be “good” instead of making these choices on his own. I also feel this film shows the more conservative and liberal sides both using. Alex as a weapon against each other. The man who they attacked earlier on in the film is a liberal activist, and he houses Alex after he is beaten because he had read about the treatment Alex underwent and wanted to use him as some sort of human weapon. The man, Mr. Alexander soon then realizes who Alex is and tortures him by playing Beethoven’s ninth till Alex attempts suicide. The cultural invisibility here I feel is Alex is some sort of fight for the “people” rather than the two political sides. Instead of giving into one side or the other he just wanted to give up. There are many ways to interpret the meanings of this film, but the past few paragraphs are the way I have chosen to see this film in terms of cultural invisibility.
Narrative
The narrative of A Clockwork Orange is one of my favorite things about it. Not only do we get a narrative from Alex’s delinquent point of view, but we get a narrative from his reformed point of view. This shows a battle between good and evil. There are very few films where we get to see two sides to one story, just from one character’s point of view. The evil side of Alex did all these horrible things including rape and murder. Things that no sane person would be okay with doing. But he enjoyed them, He was full of life, he was singing and he was around his friends. He had this freedom to do what he wanted and that brought him the happiness he wanted. Then after the therapy to make him “normal” again, he seemed more zombie or robot like. He was dead on the inside but living on the outside. Even enough to attempt suicide. The narrative switch is so interesting to me because we once saw this boy who was full of energy and life from being this sick, twisted person. Then as soon as his right to choose to go down the path of criminal acts was stripped from him he became this mindless drone who was unable to choose or fend for himself.
Genre Conventions Something about A Clockwork Orange is that I feel it does not fall into one genre.
It has many conventions of many genres. It is said to be a science fiction film. I can see it as this because it is set in the future in some dystopian society. The visual style also falls under science fiction. The way the milk-bar is set up, the way the characters are dressed and even the practices used in the film are something of a science fiction variety. The film is also described as a crime or drama film. Crime film usually involves some sort of criminal act, which this film isn’t shy of. There’s plenty of rape, beating up of the homeless, and even murder in this film. The drama side falls into the drama that ensues after Alex faces the consequences for his actions, and still faces them after he is reformed. And even the drama during the scenes where Alex and the droogs perform these vile acts. The film is also said to be a Satire. Alex’s friends who committed all those acts with him ended up being in the police force and the men that wanted him to go through the reformation later regretted it. I feel like this is a satire that shows that not a lot of people can deal with their consequences in life. They can just go back on what they say or do. And they shame Alex into feeling a way about his actions when they don’t look at his own. The film is also widely a satire to society, to make it feel like it is making people into drones who cannot think for themselves. Lastly, A Clockwork Orange is said to be a thriller. Thriller is a vast genre but one of the conventions it holds is making the viewer feel a certain way. The thriller aspect of the film to some is the intense sexual nature combined with the violence. Along with the scenes of Alex’s eyes being forced to be held open so he cannot close his eyes while watching the footage while being reformed. Another thrill aspect is the eerie feeling you get when watching the life be sucked out of Alex. You see him turn from this happy
go lucky delinquent to this depressed helpless man. Even though it is not the most thrilling of the film I feel the change in Alex leaves a lasting feeling inside you that most thriller films do.
Conclusion
A Clockwork Orange is not only a film that has made a big impact on me, but on many others. The depth and withstanding of this film shows there is always more to be discovered and it will show the test of time. Every time I watch it I see something new or think of something as something else, and that really shows when a film shines higher above the rest.