A Clockwork Orange
Favorite quote from the movie: "Men on the moon, and men spinninī around the Earth! Thereīs not no attention paid to earthly law anī order no more!"
Story synopsis: This exellent movie is inspired by Anthony Burgessī 1962 novel "A Clockwork Orange". A gang of teenagers in a futuristic Britain goes out every night to commit rape, mayhem and ultra-violence. 
Their leader is Alexander DeLarge, called Alex and played brilliantly by Malcolm McDowell, (Who also made quite the performance in Caligula.) and his gang of "droogs", who are Pete, Georgie and Dim. They usually hang out at the Korova Milkbar before committing their heinous crimes, drinking Moloko plus, milk spiced with a drug to "sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence" as Alex says in the films opening sequence. Alex and his friends spends the first twenty minutes of the film commiting brutal acts of violence, rape and robbery, everything from frontal nudity to blood and beatings being shown, something quite unusual and controversial when the film was first released.
We learn that Alex is living with his "Pe and Em" in Municipal Block and that he is a very big admirer of
Beethovens, or "Ludwig Vans", as Alex affectionatly calls him, music. Alex is eventually forced to put down a rebellion within his gang, and as a result, his "droogs" betray him, beating him up and leaving him at the scene of his latest crime, a woman he has accidently beaten to death with a large phallus, in one of the films more memorable scenes.
Alex is then shipped off to prison, Staja 84F, where he spends two years as assistant to the prison chaplain, before hearing rumors of the new revolutionary Ludovico treatment, a treatment garanteed to get you out of prison in two weeks and also to make sure that you never get in again. Despite being warned by the chaplain that the methods used in the treatment are unethical and deprives a man of his free will, thus making him more of a prisoner than in any physical prison, Alex manages to get the attention of the Minister of the Interior, who is visiting the prison to select a guinea-pig for the Ludovico treatment, which he hopes will end crime, thus securing his partys position in the upcoming election. Alex is chosen for the cure and transferred to the Ludovico institute, where he undergoes treatment.
This consists of him being strapped to a chair in a straightjacket, with his eyes fixed open and his head immobilised so that he canīt refrain from watching the movies showing violence, rape and all forms of anti-social behavior, while under the influence of a drug that causes him to experience "nausea, a feeling of drowning, and a death-like paralysis". During these sessions Beethovens Ninth Symphony is used as the background score, despite Alex protests. This imprints Alex with a conditioned reflex, in other words, he experiences those same feeling every time he is moved to attempt acts of violence, and as a side effect, every time he hears Beethovens Ninth.
After the two weeks are over Alex are released, after being displayed at a press-conference, and attempts to return to his home and his parents. He discovers when returning home that his parents now have rented out his room and are reluctant to accept him back and the police have confiscated all his belongings. Alex wander the streets contemplating suicide, when one of his former victims, an old beggar, recognises him and attacks him. Unable to fight back and experiencing nausea, Alex is rescuced by two policemen, who turn out to be his two old comrades, Pete and Dim. They drive him out to a secluded place in the countryside and beats him up, leaving him half unconscious on the ground. Alex crawls from the scene of the beating and stumbles onto a house called "Home", where Alex and his gang once broke in and brutally beat up an old author and raped his younger wife. Alex now stumbles into the same house again without at first knowing where he is, until he sees and recognises the author, now in a wheelchair as a result of the attack. The author recognises Alex also, but only as the young man who have been used as a guinea-pig in the new treatment that is being touted as the end of crime. The author is apparantly concerned that the government will use this brainwashing technique to subvert democracy and now sees the perfect opportunity in using Alex against the government by exposing what has been done to him. The author, with the aid of his assistent, Julian,
(played by David Prowse, the man in the costume of Darth Vader in Star Wars.) offers to take care of Alex for a while and prepares a bath for him. While Alex is bathing, the author is making telephone calls to friends telling them about Alex, when he suddenly recognises the voice of Alex singing "Singing in the Rain" in the tub, the same song he sang during the assault on the author and his wife. When Alex emerges from the bath the author has prepared a meal and some wine for him. Alex, sensing that something is wrong, examines the food and wine but can find nothing suspicious and so eats.
During the dinner the author explains that his wife died shortly after the rape, and he blames this on those who raped her. After a while the authors friends arrive and begin asking questions about the treatment, and Alex explains to them that as a side effect he is now unable to listen to Beethovens Ninth. Shortly thereafter Alex succumbs to the poison in the wine and loses consciousness. When he wakes up he finds himself locked in a room on the second floor, with Beethovens Ninth blaring through the floor. The author is shown enjoying Alex screams for mercy. Alex decides that there is only one escape from his misery, and jumps from a window, intending suicide.
He doesn't die though, but goes through a long black period, where he dreams that doctors are "messing around with the inside of his gulliver", that is his head. When he awakens, he finds himself in a hospital. While recuperating, he undergoes psychiatric tests, and during these a marked return to his old violent ways seem apparent. He is also visited by his parents, whom now seem remorseful and eager to have him back. During their visit we also learn that the public opinion has shifted and that the government is being held to blame for Alex attempted suicide. Later Alex also recieves a visit from the Minister of the Interior, the same man he met in prison. The minister offers Alex a deal, if he'll cooperate with them they'll provide for him. The minister also reveals that the author, "a writer of subversive litterature", has been put away, since he was under the delusion that Alex had harmed someone near and dear to him. The movie ends with the minister and Alex posing for the press, and the minister reveals that he has a little surprise for Alex. The strains of Beethovens Ninth are heard, and Alex's face becomes vacant as surreal imagery fills the screen, and Alex's voice is heard exclaiming; "And I was cured alright!"
Also note that on several of the newspaper pages seen briefly in the film Alex is called Alexander Burgess, although he states his name in the film as Alexander DeLarge, of course a pun on Alexander the Great. Anthony Burgess invented a slang called Nadsat for the book, and although only a few words are used in the film I've decided to include a little Nadsat-dictionary here.
Produced: 1971. Directed by Stanley Kubrik.
Cast: Malcolm McDowell as Alex,
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