A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Notes
Alex and his group are at a bar (0:0:52). Alex is the leader and he is feeling great.
Alex's group are beating up a drunken man (0:02:24). Another group of criminals are trying to rape a woman (0:04:35), but Alex and his friends want to have some violence with them instead. Alex and his group are driving a stolen sports car (0:07:39). Alex and his friends get inside a writer's home (0:10:50) and they rape writer's wife in front of the writer. The writer seems to have the only home with no sexual pictures or items.
Alex and his group are back at their regular bar. A woman is singing at the bar (0:14:42) and Alex hits his friend, because his friend is laughing at Alex's favorite composer. From now on, the other members of the group don't like Alex's unpredictable violent behavior anymore.
At his parent's home in his own room, Alex starts to listen to his favorite composer, Ludwig van Beethoven (0:18:49), an 18th century classical music composer (classical and romantic era) who was born in 1770.
In a music shop Alex appears in an 18th century Rococo style suit (0:26:06) maybe to refer to the future Barry Lyndon movie. Stanley Kubrick is referring to his own previous movie - 2001: A Space Odyssey (0:26:39) at a music shop desk.
Alex is betrayed by his gang and he gets arrested (0:43:20) and sentenced to jail.
In the prison Alex pretends to be interested in the Bible, but he reads it for the sexual and violent images he gets inside his head (0:55:41). Alex wants to talk with the prison priest in private, because he wants to get out the jail by trying a new treatment (0:58:17). The priest is questioning the treatment, because human will partly lose his own will (1:00:38). Goodness is something that is chosen by the individual. The brainwashing of a clockwork orange type of personality begins (1:09:57).
The writer is against the current government (1:47:46). The writer is scared that more people will be brainwashed like Alex (a bit like in totalitarian countries, like the Nazi Germany). The writer's eyes roll up (1:49:31), because he realizes Alex has killed his wife [Ody] [Col]. Alex tries to commit a suicide (2:00:52), because he is forced to listen to music that makes him feel awful.
The political scene begins (2:08:03). The minister wants Alex to behave in the favor of the current government. Alex's eyes roll up like he is going to dream something (02:13:34): the audience is shown a picture where a man and a woman are getting married, so maybe Alex is dreaming of a normal relationship.
Last modified: December 6th, 2012
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Max Limitz (max.limitz@gmail.com)