A Clockwork Orange. [1]

First off, happy new years. Hope everyone had a lovely time and that you all have a lovely and fulfilling year <3.

I personally think this is a brilliant film. The camera shots are beautiful, the layout and settings show an exaggerated future clearly. The storyline has many different levels to it, you can look at it from a Christian or psychological level. Or maybe you get disgusted and never finish watching it.

The establishing shot really caught my eye, we get a close up on Alex's face and slowly pan out, we know this story doesn't take place during our time and that this guy isn't someone we want to mess with.

There are many scenes that this film is known for; the one I hear people talk the most about is the rape scene where Alex sings "Singing in the Rain." It just throws you off, how someone can sing such a lovely song while doing something so horrid. He holds a smile the whole time, its mesmerizing to me in a way the things that he finds pleasure in.

[I won't go into deep detail for those who for whatever reason haven't seen these films. I don't want to spoil them for you.]

He undergoes therapy to get the "bad" out of him, this leaves him feeling a "deathlike paralysis with deep feelings of terror and helplessness" whenever he witnesses or tries to do something cruel or something that would make most people sick. I don't know about you, but I find myself feeling bad for the guy. They condition these feelings into him, he's lost himself, he can't even listen to his favorite classical music without wanting to off himself. The doctors who are in control of this therapy claim that he will be "healthier" that being nauseated at the sight of such crimes is the correct feeling, the right feeling.

The tables have turned on little Alex. He is set free because he's "cured." He runs into trouble and can't protect himself. He ends up at the wrong place and tries to end the misery he's been put in. All the hard work from the therapy is gone. He's old Alex; he can laugh at pain and smile at agony.

The theme of this film questions conditioning. It is said that conditioning will help us sort of create the world we want but his new found "goodness" is forced upon him, its involuntary. "Good should come from the inside." Alex thought that he could fool anyone and still be the monster he is and get out of prison with this therapy. The odds were against him, he was changed. In the ending we see the government buy him back and try to cover up their tracks. He's a monster once again.

Random fact:

Pretty sure you've heard this one by now but during the therapy sessions where Alex has his eyes forced open he actually scratched a cornea during filming and was temporarily blind. Not only did that happen but he also cracked a few ribs during filming.

[I won't rate these films, they're all classics. I'll give you the heads up that I'm not that good at finding themes and the real deep meanings in films. I end up losing myself in them and forget that I have to look at them from a cognitive point of view. I hope to not disappoint, I just want to become a better writer and come up with new ways of thinking. This closes off my first post.]