A Clockwork Orange: Humanity's Relationship With Technology

A Clockwork Orange: humanity’s relationship with technology

After the priest (Godfrey Quigley) warns Alex (Malcolm McDowell) of the dangers of the advanced technique, Alex reponds: “I don’t care about the dangers.” This scene in A Clockwork Orange serves as a depiction of human attitudes towards technology; we want all of the benefits, no matter the drawbacks. This attitude has persisted since the film’s release in 1971. The theme of the relationship between society and technology is present throughout the story about Alex, an ultraviolent and hypersexual criminal. Alex is arrested after a crime gone wrong. After serving part of his sentence, Alex hastily requests to be entered into a program that would reform him and shorten his sentence.

As a child in a working class, Alex serves as the base individual; the individual without vast wealth and comfortable living. In the first third of the movie, Alex is the leader of an ultraviolent group of criminals who fight and rape their way through life. In one of the opening scenes, the criminals stumble upon an old homeless man in a dark and dirty alley. The man declares that the world is a terrible place that allows you to attack the elderly and focuses on space instead of earthly law and order. The man, a veteran of an unnamed war, then falls victim to the violence of the teenagers. Along with an obsession of violence, Alex and his “droogies” desire sex as well. Following their attack on the man and another group of criminals, the teenagers travel to the house of a writer and his wife. After deceiving the wife into letting them in, Alex rapes her while singing “Singing in the Rain.” Through these instances, the opening third of the movie establishes Alex as a representation of the base, animalistic human. The next third establishes more characters who represent different factions of society. While in prison, Alex meets a prison guard (Michael Bates), a priest, and the Minister of the Interior (Anthony Sharp). These people represent the prison system, religion, and the government, respectively. Two years into Alex’s sentence, he becomes

I would be remiss if I did not mention the superb acting. In particular, Malcolm McDowell and Patrick Magee. McDowell’s portrayal of Alex in his incapacitated state in impeccable. Magee does an astounding job of selling Mr. Alexander’s hatred of Alex at the end of the movie. Michael Bates portrays the security guard in a ridiculous manner. While one may think that this acting job would detract from the movie, it actually contributes to the guards representation of the prison system; they are both over-the-top and absurd. While the acting is fantastic, the visuals serve as the strongest part of the cinematography. In the opening third of the movie, there are two distinct visual settings. During Alex’s ultraviolent episodes, the setting is dark and dirty. During the day however, light and color adorn the setting as Alex lives a more typical life. This discrepancy represents the discrepancies within humans; the duality of man one could say. We are violent, but shun that part of us and view it as dark and evil; we enjoy life, and showcase that with light and color. Both sides of Alex represent both sides of humanity, and the lighting represents how we feel about each side. During the experimentation on Alex, visuals continue to play an important role. Light is the prominent feature when Alex is talking about the treatment with the doctors. However, darkness dominates the screen