Synopsis: A miscreant named Alex and his band of "droogs" spend their time drinking milk and tormenting locals as they live a life where they do as they please. Eventually things catch up to Alex as he becomes incarcerated and in an attempt to reduce his time inside; he offers himself to an experimental treatment that will "cure" him of his bad tendencies.
Summary: It begins with Alex and his droogs in a milk bar listening to Beethoven's 9th. Alex is self described as a lover of music, particularly Beethoven's 9th Symphony. His group goes to have some fun which consist of tormenting a homeless man then tricking a writer and his wife into letting them into their home. He then rapes the writer's wife while her husband is forced to watch.
Quite a lovely seen as he chants the song "Singing In the Rain" while he enjoys his act of debauchery and theft.
After the night ends he returns home where we see his family is none the wiser about what activities he partakes in. Spoiler 1 (Click to View)
The next day we see that his fellow gang members are unhappy with their modest earnings and want to score larger sums from their doings. Alex though, understanding the nature of a leader puts there ideas to bed by pushing two of his droogs into a shallow pond and, offering one his hand, cuts it when he tries to get help from his leader. This sparks insurgence among his group.
They convince him of a woman who lives alone and would be an easy target with a large profit. They go to her house at night and break in once she fails to fall for their ploy to get her to open the door. Alex being tricked without knowing goes inside her house alone and confronts her.
He beats her to death without meaning to and attempts to flee from the cops (as she had called the cops before he had gotten inside). Once outside however his droogs blind him and leave him to be captured.
He is captured by the police and due to the severity of the charges, he is sentenced to 14 years. Two years go by with Alex trying to make the most of his sentence when he hears about a new treatment that will have him cured of his bad tendencies and out of jail in a fortnight. Spoiler 2 - Ending (Click to View)
This treatment consist of Pavlovian conditioning, forcing him to become ill when he sees violence as well as sex.
However while being forced to watch deplorable acts the background music happens to be his favorite song. Beethoven's 9th. He pleads with the people making him undergo this to stop the music as he doesn't want to hate the song (who can blame him). They however decline and state it is his punishment. He goes through this until they release him. Whenever he tries to get violent, is acted upon violently, or has lustful urges he becomes uncontrollably ill. They put him on stage for government officials to see and have a man physically abuse him. The man then makes him lick the sole of his shoes for him to stop which Alex does. He will do anything to prevent or make the debilitating sickness stop. After that display a woman walks on stage, wearing nothing but panties this FINE fucking bitch slowly walks up to him. He stares up at her and slowly reaches for her breast. Before he can touch her however, the sickness begins and he is left curled on the ground coughing and gasping. The display ends and she exits the stage. The majority of the people there are impressed except for a pastor who claims he is being forced to be good and has no choice in the matter. This is silenced by the claim they aren't interested in moral right just results in decreasing crime.
From here he heads to his old home to surprise his parents. Only his parents aren't happy he is home and have rented out his room to a lodger who claims to be like the son Alex should have been. Once Alex find out that he is no longer wanted he leaves and goes wandering the streets. While in a trance pondering his situation a homeless man asks him for money. Alex though doesn't register whats going on until this man and many others are badgering him for money. They go as far as to push him down and rough him up, causing the sickness to overcome him.
The police show up and shoo the assailants away. Alex looks up and sees that the two police officers are none other than two of his once droogs who held massive disdain for him. They laugh to each other as they drag him into their car to a backwoods area and attempt to drown him in a trough. Once they believe he has been done in they leave him. Alex being barely conscious stumbles his way through the forest and arrives at the closest domicile there. He rings the doorbell until a man opens and carries him inside. Once in he realizes that this place seemed familiar to him and soon it hits him that this place is the home of the writer which he had assaulted and whose wife he had victimized. The writer doesn't recognize him at first as Alex had a mask on when he had done so. However while recovering in a bath Alex can not help himself and begins to sing the same song he had once screeched while there. "Singing In the Rain". The writer hears him and it strikes the man deep inside. He knows who Alex is and what he did. The writer invites two people over who claim to be interested in what the government had done to him. They arrive while Alex is eating a meal that was prepared for him, being none the wiser of what was going on. After the writer and his friends get some information out of Alex, such as Beethoven's 9th causes the sickness in him, Alex passes out from eating / drinking drugged food.
He awakes on a bed upstairs with Ode to Joy playing loudly from below. He screams in pain and pleads for them to stop tormenting him. When his pleas are unanswered he knows what he has to do. The only way to stop the terrible pain he must endure is to take his own life. He jumps through the window and falls several stories to the ground.
Alex wakes up in several cast at a hospital. While there they attempt to gauge his psychological state and help him heal. He eventually gets a visit from the prime minister a man who was a proponent of the treatment Alex underwent. The minister assures Alex that the writer was taken care of and that Alex will be given ample restitution as well as a job for his cooperation. He seeks to show the media that it wasn't due to the treatment that Alex tried to kill himself. Once they understand each other the media swarms in for a photo shoot of the two of them together. Beethoven's 9th is played for him, and in that moment something in him snaps. Alex is cured.
End
I loved this movie. It was like Holden Caulfield angst to the extreme with a much darker plot. I'd recommend to anyone.
(Jun 16, 2013 12:35 AM)Coton Pker Wrote: one of my favorites.
a wild government conspiracy book... and the movie isnt bad either.
its the only thing i can think now when i hear ludwig von.
I loved this movie. I just rewatched it last night.
Would you recommend the book? I enjoy reading.
(Jun 16, 2013 12:38 AM)Coton Pker Wrote: it's alot in english slang.. so it's kinda hard to read if that's not your language..
but it's hella descriptive, and much more brutal than the movie.
I'm not to versed in colloquial British but I am pretty good at inference. I'll check it out tomorrow when I head to the public library. Thanks for the recommendation!
Dec 10, 2013 08:41 AM (This post was last modified: Dec 10, 2013 08:42 AM by eJaku.)
i'm singing in the rain just singing in the rain what a glorious feeling i'm happy again.
One of the best pictures you'll ever see, but its Kubrick and im a fanboy.
Definitely dark and right up their with The Wall. Clockwork Orange has many government conspiracies that you could wonder what they are doing to people today.