Very strange yet somehow engaging. The film is basically about a guy named Alex, who is a fan of “ultra-violence” and surprisingly, Beethoven. Anyway, Alex is part of a gang who go around assaulting, stealing and raping people. One night Alex gets caught and goes to jail. There, he becomes the subject of an experimental treatment (aversion therapy) which involves him being tied up to a chair in a cinema with his eyes held open and not being able to move while being subjected to films depicting violence, rape (pretty much all the crimes he has committed). Beforehand, Alex is given an injection of a substance, which starts affecting him when he is in the cinema, making him feel extremely sick and nauseous.
Thus, we eventually (after a fortnight of therapy) see that when Alex sees or even thinks about violence, etc, his body has become so conditioned to having the feeling of sickness accompany these thoughts, that he just collapses on the ground in the state of trauma, unable to function normally − violence ends up making him physically ill. In addition, he feels sick when listening to Beethoven (which before he loved to listen to), as classical music provided the backing track to many of the violent films he was subjected to. So Alex is deemed cured and we see him become what is supposed to be a ‘proper’ citizen. In the end, after Alex attempts suicide to escape the pain, the health minister in charge of the treatment admits it was wrong to use the therapy and we see that Alex is cured − and back to his immoral thoughts.
Thus, we eventually (after a fortnight of therapy) see that when Alex sees or even thinks about violence, etc, his body has become so conditioned to having the feeling of sickness accompany these thoughts, that he just collapses on the ground in the state of trauma, unable to function normally − violence ends up making him physically ill. In addition, he feels sick when listening to Beethoven (which before he loved to listen to), as classical music provided the backing track to many of the violent films he was subjected to. So Alex is deemed cured and we see him become what is supposed to be a ‘proper’ citizen. In the end, after Alex attempts suicide to escape the pain, the health minister in charge of the treatment admits it was wrong to use the therapy and we see that Alex is cured − and back to his immoral thoughts.
It was a slow start − it took a bit to get me into the film, seeing as though the nudity and rape at the beginning didn’t exactly draw me into the film. However, it was a darkly satirical and slightly surreal science fiction and being quite a philosophical film, I can see why it has garnered so much attention. The character of Alex deLarge is strangely charismatic and endearing − for the most part. These are the types of films I like: complex and thought-provoking. I’m still undecided if I will see this film again, maybe not for a while.
4/5
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