A Clockwork Crazy

If Ivan Pavlov and a soft-core-porn movie director filmed a movie to show how operant conditioning worked on criminals, they would have produced A Clockwork Orange – the story of reforming deviant humans. What I first saw was a young man’s face staring at me for about fifteen seconds. Strange. But that didn’t even scrub the bloody surface of the BEATINGS and BOOBS to come.

Alex deLarge, the leader of a four pack of spandex-and-black-hat-wearing men – Droogies – who walk around England beating the shit of out innocent people with clubs, such as their first victim: a dirty old man lying on the ground, drunk. But Alex is just a student living with his parents, while his friends seem to be in their late twenties.

The next scene is a collage of flowers and classical music. The juxtaposition would make most people giggle. And I actually began rooting for the Droogies when they saved a young woman from being raped by a pack of pirate-hat wearing men. But later, they rape a Mrs. Alexander and paralyze her husband, all while Alex toots, “Singing in the rain…”

Alex finally gets arrested. He murders a red-haired gymnast with a large penis sculpture. We cut to two years later. Alex has memorized the Bible and seems calmer. But he still dreams of murder and sex. He speaks with a priest often. He eventually seeks alternative treatment and is transferred to a Dr. Brodsky. He’s fitted with a straightjacket before a movie screen for multiple sessions. Metal clamps force his eyelids open. He is subjected to violent films of death and sex, all while listening to Beethoven’s 9th. At first he smiles. But then he gags. The sickest part is how the clamps force his eyes open, and how a doctor continually drips water drops in his eyes. And the way Alex’s mouth wrinkles back in fear.

Eventually, every time he sees a naked woman or violence, he grabs his stomach and keels over. Though he’s reformed and released, obstacles are conveniently placed in his way. Alex tries moving in with his parents but a man named Joe rents his room. Joe has become like a son to his parents. And he acts like one, forcing Alex to leave. It seemed strange, that they treat him more like a son than they do Alex. But it all fits with the dark drama.

Alex is determined to make his own way. But the old bum he had beaten recognizes him, and soon Alex is in a brawl with a crowd of old, smelly men. But – to the rescue! – are two Droogies, now police officers. They take him to the woods and torture him.

Alex survives but he meets encounters Mr. Alexander. He forces Alex to listen to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, which drives him to commit suicide. In a hospital in bandages, Alex gains the public’s sympathy for being a government experiment gone awry. Though he’s recovering physically, no one knows if his noggin will revert to violence.