Stanley Kubrick
Arancia Meccanica

I return to performing as a reviewer after about 7 months, and the work I will gradually describe is a masterpiece by the genius of Stanley Kubrick, the New York director who tragically passed away 8 years ago. In 1971, he wrote, produced, and directed "A Clockwork Orange," based on the novel of the same name by Anthony Burgess. A violent film. An entertaining film. A realistic film. A psychological film. There are many adjectives that can be attributed to this feature film, which was initially censored in various countries.

"There I was. That is Alex, and my three droogs. That is Pete, Georgie, and Dim. And we were sitting in the Korova Milkbar, trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova Milkbar sold milk-plus, milk with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultraviolence."

Thus begins this film, as mentioned before, based on the dystopian novel by Burgess, written in '62, based on a futuristic society devoted to extreme ultraviolence and the conditioning of human thought. The protagonist in question is Alex De Large, a sharp young man with a keen intelligence and vivacity, leader of a gang that consistently robs and commits rape in ordinary people's homes. He is indeed the head of the Droogs, who, along with him, spend their nights torturing people in their homes, clashing with rival gangs, and beating up homeless people.

"One thing that I never liked was to see a filthy, drunken old man, barking out songs beloved by his fathers and belching away as if he had a whole sick orchestra in his stomach."

Alex lives with his parents, is strictly monitored by a Probation Officer, who meticulously oversees every single move of the boy, and his passions are ultraviolence and Beethoven's music, which he affectionately calls Ludwig Van. There are many disagreements he encounters with his Droogs. Georgie would like more control of the gang, while Dim does not want to be constantly and insistently mocked for his bullying behavior and his premature stupidity. One evening like any other, they indeed betray and hit their leader on the nose, who had inadvertently killed a quirky art collector when the intent was only to rob her. Thus, being found by the police, the young man is taken to the station and subsequently sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment, among criminals who drool at every movement of the boy. There he becomes aware of the initiative of the new government in power, which promises immediate release, provided that one submits to an innovative "rehabilitation" program, the Ludovico Program. Without asking too many questions, he accepts all the conditions and is transferred to a place populated by doctors where he is forced to watch scenes of violence on a screen, while the effects of a substance injected just before begin to cause him intense pain and a sensation of "death by suffocation," as pointed out by the experiment's conductor. In this way, within two weeks, he is completely conditioned to feel that same sensation of suffocation and pain in front of any stimulus evoked in the films he had seen: violence, sex, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Alex is released and officially labeled as a "mentally cured man by the State." Unfortunately, within a day, he will have to face people he had previously raped and beaten, like homeless people, his old Droogs, and the husband of a woman raped by him and his companions, who died months later from pneumonia. Indeed, Alex will no longer have free will and will be considered the perfect victim, unable to defend himself.

It all ends with a serious accident; Alex is taken to the hospital completely broken, and here fortunately he will be able to fully recover, even psychologically. While the poor young man spends time in the hospital, he receives the visit of the Minister of the Interior, who ensures Alex's cooperation once again. And as the latter shakes his hand in a gesture of approval, he is seized by a delightful and familiar vision: once again sex, once again his beloved Ninth Symphony by Beethoven (which, following the treatments he underwent, he could no longer listen to), and this time, a society that approves of him.

Note: in some parts of the film a particular language is used, a mix of English and Russian (gulliver=brain)

P.S. I wrote this review while sick, and I hope you appreciate it, not so much for the technical expressions, but more for the love I have for this film, even though I am only 15 years old.

Cheers!