Alex Delarge In A Clockwork Orange

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review of ‘a clockwork orange’ [internet] Chicago sun-times, 1972) Ebert’s cynical view is that the film’s roots of entertainment are shallow and based purely on superficial violence. Alex Delarge as a character is who is viewed in a range of different ways with Ebert being disgusted with him yet Kubrick himself liking Alex. When you are shown Alex on screen he is shot by Kubrick as normal in a world of obscurity. Kubrick uses wide angle lenses which distort objects to the side of the shot making them look slightly strange so when Alex is shown to us on screen he is either in the centre of the wide angle shot making him the only normal figure “So a visual impression is built up during the movie that Alex, and only Alex, is normal.” (Roger…show more content…
At the end of the film we have Alex day dreaming of rape and “We're now supposed to cheer because he's been cured of the anti-rape, anti-violence programming forced upon him by society during a prison "rehabilitation" process.” (Gene Siskel’s review of ‘a clockwork orange’, [internet] Chicago tribune, 1972) which is morally wrong but you are still on Alex’s side because Kubrick wants you to be. This moral conflict on the viewer had a substantial amount of controversy around it and the ideology of the film becomes slightly cloudy. There are also elements of the film that suggests “The viewers’ complicity” (Peter Kramer’s “a clockwork orange: controversies” 2011, p.55) with Alexs' crimes. There is also the more obvious Orwellian theme of the society being criminal and extremely totalitarian. The violence shown by Alex can be perceived as him being violent because society offers him no alternative because the society he lives in is criminal so to be good he must act outside the law. Ebert argues that this is not Kubrick’s message at all. He thinks Kubrick's message is “ if society is criminal, then it's people may as well be too.” (Roger Ebert’s review of ‘a clockwork orange’ [internet] Chicago sun-times, 1972) It's

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