I believe it is impossible to thoroughly review all the themes related to this film. A film that, to me, appears easy on the surface but is difficult in substance. As a kid, I heard discussions about it, and the aura surrounding it was that of the forbidden. The endless controversies that followed its release in theaters are no mystery. When I finally watched it a few years later, I remember having many superficial impressions. However, the most vivid memory is that of the contrast between individual violence, freely chosen, and social, collective violence aimed at imprisoning man in a cage. The hardest scene I remember is when Alex, now "converted" by the Ludovico Technique, is forced to lick the sole of his tormentor's shoe in front of a crowd of ghastly power figures. I have always found that scene chilling, even in subsequent viewings (one finally in the cinema a few years ago...). From there, a crescendo of violence ensues, different from that of the first part of the film. And despite Alex having committed horrific crimes, despite having chosen to be who he is, the punishment inflicted on him cannot be conceived by the viewer as "just." Thus, justice becomes another theme of the film, a question. Over the years, as I grew up, I glimpsed many other elements that I find worthy of great interest. Above all, what you highlight regarding the commedia dell'arte. The Droogs are masks; for this reason, their bodily movements are notably accentuated as in the theater of commedia dell'arte... since the mask precludes facial expressions, bodily communication becomes fundamental. Moreover, like in a comedy, the Droogs play a role to deceive their victims safely in their homes. The mask... is not just something that hides, but something that emphasizes... in commedia dell'arte, the red dot on the mask's temples signifies the devil's horns that have fallen... evil... there is a logical thread... the theme of theater is very present (the fight in the theater you mention is another important passage). But there are a thousand other themes... the postmodern language of the Droogs, social groups and the individual, the decorations, the costumes (!), sex, cinema, the eye, the use and reason of colors (... even in the credits...)
Then I remember the music. One cannot talk about this (as with other Kubrick films) without delving deeply into the music, and this is the only flaw in your review. The musical relationship in this case has a dual indissolubility with cinema. I remember how it blended in a way that could not have been otherwise with the image. Christ and Beethoven in a frenetic crescendo. Rossini delightful in the slow-motion of the image, the smirk of Alex. The "drugged" music of W. Carlos/Rossini. But the music also has another value. Besides being "support" in this film, it is history itself, as in the bitter irony of Ludovico van, who, from "inspirer" of ultra-violence, becomes torment, as in the contrast between the carefree innocence of "singin' in the rain," which provides grotesque support to sexual violence, later revealed by Alex to his victim, who transforms into the executioner. And then... religion, the Bible, and again blood, the final healing, and the union between Alex's individual violence and that of the state in a sort of wicked pact. I do not consider it a lesser film crushed between 2001 and Barry Lyndon, also because I think there are connections among these films, as if each were a chapter in a story where the protagonists are man, his choices, control, and his destiny.
A few words on the idea that the violence present in art may cause violence in life. I do not believe this is an acceptable connection. The reasons for violence in real life should be sought elsewhere, not in art. Someone, I do not remember who, said that if I go to see Hamlet and then go home and kill my uncle, the blame is certainly not on Shakespeare. That someone was not wrong in my eyes. Haloa.
