Pity for a Psychopath:A Clockwork Orange

Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is my favorite movie of his. Kubrick is a genius and one of the greatest directors of all time. It is one of the greatest character study’s of a psychopath in the history of cinema. And Alex is a horrifying character. What is so fascinating about his character is that Kubrick seems to be suggesting it is the society that has crafted this glamorous psychopath. The way Kubrick elongates the frame and other characters seem to be strange and Alex is normal. Its trying to show that outer forces influences this. Another example in how the world forged him was the first half. He is on top, He is the predator. A ruthless terrifying serial rapist and killer. And he is terrifying to the audience, other people even his own gang he lashes out on when they question his authority. Then in the second half after the treatment. Alex is on the bottom of the food chain, He is no longer the predator in the society he is the prey. He is completely defenseless and is attacked by the same society he once took advantage of. In a way Alex is paying for the horrors he committed in the first half. The homeless man gets revenge, his former droog’s attack him and with no where left to go. He goes to the house of the women he raped and murdered seeking safety to be met by the husband he attacked. The husband takes longer to recognize who he was and when he does, Alex faces true horror. Much to Alex’s hate they programmed him to get sick to Beethoven and they blare it to torture him. And Alex tries to commit suicide. Then he was at the hospital. And Alex has changed again, The Government to save themselves have put away the writer so he can’t say anything. It is clear that the government was doing some shady stuff by hiring to former criminals and continuing the harsh society Alex was created by. But somehow, The glamorous psychopath is back. Who knows how, Maybe the fall on his head, Maybe the government tinkered with his head so there would be no evidence of the treatment. As Alex say’s in his final line, He was cured. Cured of the treatment. Alex the psychopath is back, And who knows what he will do next. I’m aware of the alternate ending in the book but this ending just fits it so much better. Kubrick gets a lot of crap for changing other books but for this, He made the right choice.