One odd thing that I have been thinking about...
When Alex is back at the authors house -- He is given a bath. In said bath he sings "Singing in the Rain." Now, no doubt he does this because he recalls doing that when he first plundered the place. But... shouldn't that trigger his conditioning? That song and the actions he did during that night should be thoroughly interlaced in his memory. Just by singing it, shouldn't he in his mind eye be thinking about the rape and abuse he dealt out?
Btw. One time I was trying to hit on a girl back in high school. She was really bookish but also cute as a button. I approached her when she was searching for something new to read amongst the bookshelf. We started talking. She took out A Clockwork Orange and asked me if I had read it. I said that I had and also added that I thought it was downright superb, one of my favorites.
Then she asked what it was about -- so naturally I told her.
Needless to say she wasn't very conversational afterwards.
I think this is one of those themes that is stronger and more thorough in the book. There we see everything from Alex's vantage point -- and much of the text is basically him justifying what he's doing. That way you grow into this realization that you're reading about a guy whose trying to present himself in a favorable light. That's particuarly apperent when he kills the artist -- since his justification is so week and flimpsy that it's practically see-through.
While with the film, the "objectivity" of the movie-frame as well as the decadent production design and fleshing-out of other characters makes that fall by the wayside somewhat.
Did you read that article? It's positive towards the film and it's use of nudity. And it did point out some of the symbolism going on with the mammaries. Throughout the first part of the film there are a lot of focus on udders. When Alex goes through the brainwashing -- and he's confronted with the nude woman on the stage -- it's her bulging bazookas that he instrinctually searches to maul, his inability to do so highlighting his loss of control (instead of say, trying to rape her).
It's a classic way of symbolism, accentuating something through the narrative and then bringing them back to make a character point.
This brings to my attention that this club hasn't watched a single Peckinpah flick.
It's interesting that the novel came out in 1962. Kids weren't even carring about the Beatles yet at that point. The counter-culture really hadn't taken off much by that date. Burguss was waaay ahead of the curve.
May-perhaps it was due to the population boom (an huge amount of teenagers) and many lower-class segments of society recieving more thorough schooling (meaning they and their rowdy ways were apparent to the rest of society to an extent which they hadn't been previously).
Well I wouldn't say he chooses. He basically matures. Dude's 15 in the novel. The message in the end is basically that kids grow out of it.
I think that's sort of a leftover from the novel. In the novel -- there is more of an emphasis on the mental childlikeness of the characters. They eat nothing but sweets and choclate. They are quite capricious and fickle. The drink milk that is literally milked from a woman's teet.
12. Fear and Desire -6/10
11. The Killing - 8/10
10. Lolita - 8/10
9. Spartacus - 9/10
8. Paths of Glory - 9/10
7. Eyes Wide Shut - 9.5/10
6. A Clockwork Orange - 9.5/10
5. 2001 - 9.5/10
4. Dr. Strangelove - 10/10
3. Barry Lyndon - 10/10
2. Full Metal Jacket - 10/10
1. The Shining - 10/10
Great film.
Smarmy basterd.
An interesting tidbit -- the gang that Alex and his droogs fight in the opening wear Nazi insignia.
The Man With No Name is probably the most obvious example.
Ethan in The Searchers
Nemuri Kyoshiro from the Sleepy Eyes of Death seires
.
Maybe Bogart in The Maltese Falcon fits the bill?
Bonnie And Clyde, the crew from The Wild Bunch as well as Ryunosuke from Sword of Doom
(though those examples might be straight-up villians... especially that last one)