AA.VV.
Arancia Meccanica

‘‘It is a filthy world because there is no justice, there is no more... it is a filthy world because now the young mistreat the old like you do...’’

These are the words of the homeless man that Alex and his Droogs beat up on the street, to which the hooligans obviously pay no attention, but which strike those who watch the film intelligently. We are in the '70s, when Kubrick decides to capture a world that appears tragically adrift: parents unable to educate their children, the spread of violence and drugs, absurd and corrupt politics.

Alex, a ruthless hoodlum who spends his life among drugs, rapes, and violence, is a perpetrator because he is a victim of the society that conceived him, and Kubrick can't help but paint this character with a certain mischievous delight, looking at the protagonist, the fierce leader with proud features, with a complicit eye. Then when Alex, after so many misdeeds, is subjected to the "Ludovico" treatment to make him a good boy like so many others, the director's disapproval is palpable: only man can succeed in the attempt to change one's nature, useless devices like psychological conditioning can do nothing.
And in fact, the protagonist returns, at the end of the film, exactly as he was before, unharmed by the treatment, and revives his sick dreams of ultra-violence. One must approach this masterpiece with an anachronistic attitude: we return to the '70s, and we will discover that this film proves to be terribly disturbing, revealing, visionary, and these peculiarities have ensured that the true message of the film was misunderstood by most.

Crowning a great directorial performance is the exceptional soundtrack, from Beethoven to Rossini, up to the unforgettable tune of ‘’Singin’ in the rain’’, which accompanies Alex in his madness. A gem: in the scene where Alex kills the owner of the weight-loss clinic with the phallic sculpture, the director inserts a series of subliminal messages related to sex, scenes of rapes or masturbation in a fraction of a second.

Was he perhaps trying to tell us something? Think about it, then I’ll tell you.