wolf

Directed by Stanley Kubrick (1971)

A Clockwork Orange is based on the Anthony Burgess novel (1962) of the same name. The film's narrative closely follows the book's narrative, with the major difference being the omission of the book's more positive ending. Of particular interest to this study is the book's reference to the music that Alex hears in his head.

Briefly, the film is about a teenager named Alex, who likes nothing more than ultra-violence, rape and Beethoven. He and his gang (called droogs) terrorise people on a nightly basis, including a writer and his wife (the former is viciously beaten, the latter viciously raped and beaten). Alex's authority is challenged by his droogs, but he puts down the mutinous uprising. Alex is caught by the police after he murders a woman (known as the Cat Lady) in her house. He is sent to prison for fourteen years.

While in prison, he learns of a treatment, called the Ludovico treatment, that would see him released in a matter of weeks. He volunteers for the treatment, and is subjected to gruesome films paired with drugs that cause nausea. He is eventually conditioned to react to violence and sex (including thinking about the acts) with sickness and loathing, and becomes incapacitated. One side effect of the treatment is that he can no longer listen to the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony without feeling nauseous.

He is released into society, and finds that his parents have taken in a lodger, and that he can no longer live there. Whilst walking along the riverfront, he is set upon by one of his former victims, and rescued by some police, who turn out to be his old droogs, Georgie and Dim. The two take him out into the country and terrorise and beat him. The whole time, Alex is a retching mess. He staggers to a house, only to realise that the man who has taken him in is none other than the writer who he viciously beat two years ago. The man does not recognise him for that act (they wore masks), but recognises him as the criminal who was subjected to the Ludovico treatment, which he says is a terrible injustice. He plans to use Alex to bring down the government. Whilst on the phone to some co-conspirators, Alex begins humming in the bath. When the writer finally hears what Alex is singing he realises that Alex is the hoodlum who beat him and raped his wife, for the song is the same as the one Alex sang as the violence was taking place ("Singin' in the Rain"). His vengeance (which serves the conspirators purpose) is to lock Alex in a room with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, fourth movement playing loudly below it, driving Alex to jump from the window in an attempt to kill himself. He does not die, but ends up in hospital, with all sorts of things happening to him. The government deflects the public's outrage against the "injustice" to Alex by undoing the Ludovico treatment (and "dealing with" the writer). Alex is forgiven his crimes (and released into the world as the monster he was in the beginning) and as a final treat, Beethoven's Ninth is played to him in the hospital ward. Alex envisions himself having sex with (or raping) a young girl, and the film ends with the words "I was cured all right."