‘A Clockwork Orange’ is a film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick in 1971 in adaptation of the eponymous novel by Anthony Burgess which was published on 1961. Burgess is agitating about the issue of moral. He feels that integrity comes straightforwardly from inside one’s own feeling/heart; it is smarter to pick the terrible than to be constrained into doing the great. By removing an individual's choice is essentially transforming them into a bit of machine making them the way you want but unable to be human.
‘A Clockwork Orange’ is a short story describe in three stages. The primary one describes the abominations committed by Alex, a teenage who stay with his parents in a resident. As the leader of the droogs, Alex Obey only his own principles. With his gang he beats up, rapes, spread terror on his way to satisfy their (lust) need. In the second stage, in prison, he agreed to experience a trial treatment to evacuate all vicious and sexual driving forces of his mind. Now in the last and final stage, Alex, ends up in the city turns into the powerless prey of his previous exploited people to fill in as a way to endeavor to topple a political, coordinated by a gathering of protesters.
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Alex DeLarge is the protagonist of the film and a novel. He is young guy who enjoy going on a rampage of what he calls ultraviolence. In the beginning of the movie, Alex and his droogs (Pete, Georgie, Dim) beat up an old drunk guy beneath the bridge, after that they encounter rival gangs whom he called Billy boy’s and get into fight with them, then they drove to darkened country side and arrive at a place called ‘Home’, where they rape a writer’s wife and partly paralyzed the writer. Later, Alex and his gang plan to go to the health farm, there he kills a lady in the heat of passion. His gang betrayed him and hit on his head and leaved him for cops. He was sentenced for 14 years for his crime. There he voluntarily takes part in an experiment called the ‘Ludovico treatment’ - a treatment that cures criminal and guarantee Alex’s freedom in 2 years. But here where won’t be not able to do crime and will never be same again (as treatment deprives human being of moral choice). After Alex was released, he encountered drunk tramp who along with his friends take revenge for before tragedy, then he encountered with his fellow droogs and writer, all takes their revenge turn by turn. But due to the treatment Alex was not able to fight back and protect him from them, to escape from all this problem he jumps from the window. The media and society think he was victim of the treatment, he had lost his freedom, which made him to do suicide. Due to political pressure, the minister announces to give his freedom back. In the end Alex proclaims, “I was cured, all right!”.
As per Kubrick and Malcolm McDowell, from the book ‘Morality and the Movies’, “Ironically, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is ultimately life affirming” (Shaw, 82). He was cured to have his own freedom. According to Freud, Alex was not responsible for his action. It was his unconscious mind that motivate him for doing all this. As it does not allow us to thing what we want, and we keep repeating doing things, even if it is wrong, until we find what exactly we want. He says that we initially learn to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong, what behavior to accept and what to not and we learn all this from people around us. Whereas Richard Taylor highlights in his influence little book ‘Good and Evil’ that “the capacity to do evil is necessary condition for human freedom” (Shaw, 78).
‘A Clockwork Orange’ states that, human being should have their own freedom, and no one should take away from them. They have right to choose what they want to do and what they don’t want. Like Burgess's words, Alex, who looks human but has lost his humanity, so to focus solely on this psychological aspect of the film is to ignore the importance of its social and moral implications. Freud embrace no moral theory, since he claims that none of us are responsible for our own action.
From the overall theory, I would like to say that yes, a person should have their own freedom, no one can force them what they want to do and what they don’t, but everyone has the power to think what is right and what is wrong. If a person is doing harm to other, there should be law to stop that person. What Alex did in the movie in the beginning was totally wrong, as he was not mentally ill, he did everything to enjoy to what he said ultra-violent and drag his friends too, to do it. So, action had to be taken. And no one in the prison force him to do the experiment, he made his own choice. So, people should have their choice to take decision what is good, but not bad for other. In the end by giving his freedom back was not correct as it influences him to bring old Alex back, so that he can do evil things again, which might make him feel he was never wrong. As human being does have right to choose their own freedom, but if there are laws against bad things, he will be scared to choose it.
Work Cited
- Shaw, Dan. Morality and the Movies: Reading Ethics Through Film. N.P: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2012. Print.
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