History Film / AClockworkOrange

* PracticallyJoker: Possibly unintentional, but Alex's [[MonsterClown clown like make-up]], jovial {{Sadism}}, and habit of causing mayhem and murder ForTheEvulz is very reminiscent of the Clown Prince Of Crime.

* FreezeFrameBonus: Close examination one of the newspaper articles near the end of the film reveals that Alex's real last name is Burgess and not "[=DeLarge=]" (which is in keeping with the novella, in which Alex gives himself the name "[=DeLarge=]" as a joke, referencing his penis size).

** In the novel, Alex kills the cat lady with a bust of Beethoven. In the film, he uses a phallic-shaped artwork, while the lady is wielding the bust against him.

* AgeInappropriateDress: Alex's mother dresses like a Carnaby Street mod.

* MisaimedFandom: In-Universe. Alex only likes ''Literature/TheBible'' for it scenes with sex and violence and fantasizes about being one of the Romans whipping Jesus.

* CostumePorn: The Droogs wear white shirts and pants, combat boots, huge codpieces over padded briefs, suspenders, and [[RealMenWearPink somewhat effeminate makeup]], and all but Dim wield heavy walking sticks as weapons. Dim's weapon is a bicycle chain wrapped around his waist. Everyone also has a different NiceHat. Alex's cufflinks are styled as bloody eyeballs, and Dim's suspenders have a pattern of blood spatters worked into them. A rival gang with whom they brawl has a Nazi/military sartorial theme.

* CoolHat: Alex and his Droogs share a diverse set of hats between each other: Alex and Dim wear bowler hats, Georgie has a top hat, and Pete sports a flat cap. Some of the films during the Ludivico treatment show similar gangsters with an even wider variety of hats.

* NiceHat: Alex and Dim have bowler hats. Georgie (TheDragon) wears a top hat, and Pete sports a beret. In one of the films Alex is forced to watch while in prison, an actor playing a thug and rapist wears a pirate hat.

* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: A synthesized version of the Funeral of Queen Mary is heard in the Korova milk bar, first during the intro and in a later scene where Alex and his droogs make a second visit. In the latter, Alex mentions in his narration that said music is actually coming from the bar's sound system, and as he describes its disc coming to a halt, a woman there starts singing a piece from Beethoven's 9th, much to Alex's delight. Some other scenes show tapes and reels being played, serving as the background music; one of them plays a pivotal role during the Ludovico Treatment, making Alex paralyzed whenever he hears the 9th.

** ''Scherzo'' from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Used in Alex's moments of bliss at first, then gets used by Frank Alexander to have him commit suicide since he's sick whenever he hears something from the Ninth Symphony.
** The ''Music/OdeToJoy'' from the above Ninth Symphony is used twice. Once when Alex visits the vinyl records store, and once during the [[TheLudovicoTechnique Ludovico Treatment]] with pictures from UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, a combination that ends up making Alex sick.
** "Film/SinginInTheRain" too, first when Alex sings it as he rapes Frank Alexander's wife, then when he sings it while taking a bath at Alexander's house, blowing his cover. And then in the closing credits.
* LighterAndSofter: For all of its reputation for shocking violence, the film is actually lighter than the book. In the book, Alex is even younger and more violently depraved. Most notably, the sex scene in the film was originally Alex raping two 10-year-olds (whereas in the film they are clearly the same age as Alex and have consensual sex with him). The film also lightens things up with occasional slapstick humor. Likewise, in the book after he is free from the Ludovico treatment he fantasizes about rampaging around the world committing ultraviolence, whereas in the film he imagines having sex with one woman.

* LoudOfWar: Mr. Alexander tortures Alex by locking him in a room and playing Beethoven at him.
* TheLudovicoTechnique: The TropeNamer, TropeMaker and TropeCodifier is the scene where Alex is brainwashed into becoming non-violent, with a rig keeping his eyes open (and him being tied with a straightjacket) and needing someone to apply drops to his eyes (and interestingly, at one point during filming, the rig scratched [=McDowell's eye=]). Nowadays often given a ShoutOut as a method of brainwashing or torture.

* MaleGaze: As part of the Ludovico treatment, Alex is faced with a naked woman on stage. The camera lingers on her breasts from his POV.

** A-Lex means "without law".

** "La Gazza Ladra" goes together with the tremendously violent action during the fight of Alex and his droogs against a rival gang in an abandoned theatre.
** During the "Singin In The Rain" scene, the line "I am ready for love" is ominously repeated several times and Alex does some PunctuatedPounding, kicking the writer in perfect sync with several beats of the song.
* MindRape: The Ludovico Treatment is nicely summed up by this trope; Alex is tortured mentally to the point where his ultra-violent penchants cause him pain, to achieve a form of brainwashing that will "reform" him.
* MisaimedFandom: In-Universe. Alex only likes ''Literature/TheBible'' for it scenes with sex and violence and fantasizes about being one of the Romans whipping Jesus.

* IControlMyMinionsThrough... Fear, Power and Sadism, by Alex (although it turns out his control doesn't last forever). Brainwashing and police brutality in the case of the government, and finally bribery.
* IconicOutfit: Alex's boots, pajamas, jockstrap, bowler and fake eyelash on one eye.
* IdiotBall: Alex, normally savvy enough to enter other people's homes while masked, decides the best course of action while bathing in the home of the man whom's wife he'd brutally raped two years prior - a man that doesn't recognize him, due to the mask - is to sing the exact same song he did while performing the act.

* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: The violence and rape is played out among images of nudity. You know the bit in the book where Alex beats the woman to death? He uses a plaster penis as the weapon in the movie.
* IronicNurseryRhyme: The film doesn't use a nursery rhyme, but it uses the next best thing: "Singin' in the Rain".. Alex sings this song while he and his droogs torture an old writer and rape his wife.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Joe, the lodger, was particularly mean and critical towards Alex, who was feeling the effects of his treatment. However, Joe was right in that Alex's crimes were sickening.
** The priest is portrayed as naive, preachy, and a possible molester based on his talk of 'urges' and how touchy he gets with Alex. However, he is also the only person at the Ludovico Technique demonstration who raises any kind of complaint or objection as to its morality.
** The shouty prison guard when he describes Alex as a "right brutal bastard" and sees through his cosying up to the prison chaplain by feigning interest in the Bible.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Zig-zagged. Alex gets away with much of what he does in the first part of the film. Then, he is arrested and is '[[MindRape rehabilitated]]' until he cannot defend himself, getting his ass kicked in the process. [[spoiler:In the end, he becomes cured, leaving him free to commit more atrocities.]]

** Earlier in the film, Alex himself (along with his gang of droogs) dishes this trope out on a rival gang who are about to rape a woman, managing to best them in a fight before savagely beating them.
* KnightTemplar: The government when pushing the Ludovico treatment, being more concerned with reining in crime than the moral costs.

** An interesting inversion appears near the end, with Frank Alexander making a [[http://www.collativelearning.com/PICS%20FOR%20WEBSITE/ACO%20expanded/dvd%20stills%204/insane%20writer.png similar facial expression]] while looking ''up'' at the room where [[spoiler: Alex is being tortured]]. This was specifically done to seem reminiscent of portraits of Beethoven.
* KungShui: The fight between the droogs and Billy Boy's gang is a long sequence of prop chairs, bottles and sheet glass breaking over people's heads. In a bit of meta-humor, they're fighting in a theater.

** The chief prison guard yells every single word.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Hoo boy. Everyone Alex wronged in the first half of the film get their revenge -- including the vagrant.

* GoneHorriblyRight: The Ludovico Treatment succeeding in suppressing his violent tendencies. Unfortunately, [[ALessonLearnedTooWell it worked a little too well]] [[AlwaysNeedWhatYouGaveUp as it left Alex unable to defend himself when he encounters all his former victims who were looking for payback]].

* GratuitousRussian: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadsat Sort of.]] A lot of the slang in the book is derived from Russian, but distorted. For example, "horrorshow" is derived from хорошо (''"khorosho"''), meaning "good."
* GrievousBottleyHarm: After the gang betrays Alex, George smashes a full milk bottle across his face. Played at least somewhat realistically, as Alex drops to the ground in agony.

** Mr. Deltoid punches Alex in the groin in his first scene.

** In the police station, Alex gets a good shot in to the cop harassing him.

* HalfwayPlotSwitch: Like the book, the film was specifically divided into three parts. The first introduces Alex and shows us the dystopian world in which he lives as we see him and his droogs go out and do all kinds of nasty things. Then we get to the second plot centered around the experimental rehabilitation technique, and finally the third story where Alex must deal with the effects of the technique.
* HappilyEverBefore: An example of the "cut the happier ending" variant. As noted, the book ended with Alex thinking about straightening himself out and settling down. The film strongly implies that he'll continue his criminal, vile ways.

* HazyFeelTurn: Dim and Georgie (Billyboy in the novel), who have grown up and joined the side of law and order during Alex time in prison, but since this is a CrapsackWorld, they've just embraced a more profitable and "respectable" kind of brutality. They're still just as cruel and sadistic as before. [[spoiler: Played straight by Pete in the novel, and possibly Alex as well]]
* HeelFaithTurn: Subverted. The audience is set up to believe that Alex is experiencing a religious epiphany in prison, only to find that he is actually fantasizing about participating in the battles, tortures and sex described in parts of the Bible.

* HesBack: Alex's smirk at the end, [[spoiler: realizing that the Ludovico technique no longer affects him]].
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Frank Alexander ''really'' appears to take sadistic enjoyment out of torturing Alex.

** Seen in combination with POVShot when Mr. Deltoid and the cops lean over Alex, who is cowering in the corner. Mr. Deltoid, who is only too glad to be rid of responsibility for Alex, leans in and tells him that the cat lady died from his bash on the head.
** It is used again during the demonstration of the Ludovico test with a pair of large breasts that Alex cannot bring himself to grasp, despite his internal monologue stating that what he really wanted to do was grab them and rape the woman.

* TheHorseshoeEffect: The whole message of the satire was that extremes eventually resemble each other, criminals and victims become indistinguishable, and yesterday's rebels SellOut and become part of the establishment. The droogs become cops when it's their age to find a job and their methods don't change much when they shift outfits and Alex despite comporting himself as an outsider rebel is, in fact, a middle-class kid who finally becomes co-opted by the government as a PropagandaHero.

* HufflepuffHouse: Pete becomes this in the film adaptation after having a slightly larger role in th literary source material. Like in the book, though, it's pretty clear he’s a timid boy who has latched on to Alex’s droogs while being naive to the true extent of Alex’s insanity.
* HumiliationConga: Alex goes through one when he gets released, though it might just have been karmic retribution. He ''did'' volunteer for the Ludovico experiment (failing to heed the warnings of the prison chaplain), although he had no idea what the experience would entail (namely, being conditioned to become violently ill whenever he feels horny, witnesses violence or tries to act violently, and worst of all when he hears his favorite piece of music, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). But he certainly never intended to lose his pet snake, or for his parents to take in a boarder and allow the boarder to rent out Alex's room, and they even consider said boarder as their son. The homeless old Irishman gets a well-deserved [[TheDogBitesBack Dog Bites Back]] moment at Alex's expense. He is then abused by two cops revealed to be Dim and George, whom Alex had previously assaulted when they showed a slightest bit of dissension.

* FreezeFrameBonus: Close examination one of the newspaper articles near the end of the film reveals that Alex's real last name is Burgess and not "[=DeLarge=]" (which is in keeping with the novella, in which Alex gives himself the name "[=DeLarge=]" as a joke, referencing his penis size).

** However, his extremely creepy actions throughout this scene suggest he did this more because he's a pervert than because he was trying to frighten Alex.
* FutureSlang: "Nadsat," a kind of future slang based largely on Russian (for example, one of Alex's favorite adjectives, "horrorshow," sounds a bit like Russian khorosho, "very good") ... but not as much as the book did. Burgess was a huge Creator/JamesJoyce nerd and wanted to follow his mentor in coming up with multilingual puns.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation[=/=]HeroicBSOD: There's a [[http://fusionanomaly.net/aclockworkorangeauthorface.jpg very unsettling]] low-angle shot of Frank Alexander's face contorting in horror when he realizes who Alex really is. This is no doubt part of his motivation for [[spoiler: torturing Alex with Beethoven's Ninth]]. The actor, Patrick Magee, is said to have then told Kubrick "I feel like I just took a shit in front of everyone".

** Alex gets betrayed by Georgie and Dim right as he tries to escape from the CrazyCatLady crime scene. He had "corrected" them earlier to reassert his authority on them, by hitting Georgie in the stomach and throwing him in a river, and then throwing Dim in the same river and slashing his hand.

* DownerEnding: The film controversially removed the arguably vital last chapter of the novel, altering the message of the entire work substantially. In the novel, Alex voluntarily relinquishes his former life of ultraviolence and rape after having the effects of the brainwashing "Ludovico technique" reversed, and hence having his ability to act as an autonomous moral agent restored. In the film, he is implied to have simply returned to his previous vicious and amoral state with the chilling final words, ''"I was cured, all right."''

* EroticEating: The two girls Alex met in a record store were sucking on popsicles. Not just any popsicles, either; they're actually ... um ... ''anatomically correct'' popsicles.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The very first shot is Alex sneering into the camera while a synthetic funeral march blares on the soundtrack, establishing Alex's strong, hypnotic and thoroughly evil personality before the voice-over even mentions "the old ultraviolence."
* EstablishingCharacterMusic: Alex is introduced to a moog synthesiser version of ''Funeral Sentences and Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary''.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Alex is a rapist and thoroughly unhinged character overall, but he's thoroughly disgusted when his beloved Beethoven music is used over clips of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.
** In the book, Alex has a particular hatred of Billyboy, because he has ''six'' members in his gang instead of just five, which is the standard. Sure, Alex is an unrepentant murderer and rapist, but we can't have people go around breaking the rules like that, it's simply not polite!
* EvilVersusEvil: On one side we have our "hero", Alex - a sadistic, capricious thug who robs, rapes, and brutalizes people for kicks - and on the other we have the government - an increasingly totalitarian party who employs unethical methods as a means of controlling its populace. Place your bets.

** During the treatment, Alex is attached to an apparatus that holds his eyelids open while he is forced to watch the movies. This is actually performed without special effects in the film. The doctor administering eyedrops to Malcolm [=McDowell=] onscreen was a real doctor, yet the clamps on [=McDowell's=] eyes scratched one of his corneas and temporarily blinded him.

* FanDisservice: There are several quite explicit rape or near-rape scenes. As a result, rape footage is among the many scenes of violence Alex is forced to watch as part of The Ludovico Technique meant to "cure" him. The film also does this in a more pleasant way to Alex's consensual three-way with a couple of girls pre-Technique, which is sped up and set to the William Tell Overture with hilarious results that underscore how little sex means to him.

* FantasticDrug: Substances like "synthemesc" (presumably mescaline or a close analogue), "drencrom" (presumably adrenochrome) and "vellocet" (given the resemblance to "velocity", probably "speed"-like amphetamines) are all normally mixed into milk (thus why it's called "milk plus", as in milk plus whatever you put in it.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: An interesting example. Anthony Burgess's novel included a closing chapter in which Alex matures and grows out of his violent ways. However, the American edition of the novel did not include that chapter, and that version is what Kubrick filmed. Most peculiar considering that Kubrick had already moved to England - where the novel was first printed - and lived there for more years than in his native America.
* ForcedToWatch: Alex's Droogs force Mr. Alexander to watch his wife being raped to "Singin' in the Rain".
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: [[WickedCultured Alex]] is melancholic, [[TheDragon Georgie]] is choleric, Pete is phlegmatic, and [[DumbMuscle Dim]] is Sanguine.

* CoolHat: Alex and his Droogs share a diverse set of hats between each other: Alex and Dim wear bowler hats, Georgie has a top hat, and Pete sports a flat cap. Some of the films during the Ludivico treatment show similar gangsters with an even wider variety of hats.
* CostumePorn: The Droogs wear white shirts and pants, combat boots, huge codpieces over padded briefs, suspenders, and [[RealMenWearPink somewhat effeminate makeup]], and all but Dim wield heavy walking sticks as weapons. Dim's weapon is a bicycle chain wrapped around his waist. Everyone also has a different NiceHat. Alex's cufflinks are styled as bloody eyeballs, and Dim's suspenders have a pattern of blood spatters worked into them. A rival gang with whom they brawl has a Nazi/military sartorial theme.
* CrapsackWorld: Great Britain is a crime-ridden violent country and is ruled only very inefficiently by an all too weak version of TheGovernment.
* CrazyCatLady: Well, she's not so much "crazy" as she is ill-tempered and into really kinky art.

* DayOfTheJackboot: Seems to be happening with the new government ushering in totalitarianism. The Minister muses that they're going to need prison space "for political offenders", the writer specifically mentions the government becoming totalitarian, and at the end, the writer has become a political prisoner.

-->'''Frank:''' We were assaulted by a gang of vicious young hoodlums in this house, in this very room you are sitting in now. I was left a helpless cripple, but for her, the agony was too great. The doctors said it was pneumonia because it happened some months later during a flu epidemic. The doctors told me it was pneumonia but I knew what it was. A victim of the modern age -- poor, poor girl.
* DemotedToExtra: Pete. In the book, he shows up towards the end having moved on and having a normal life (he's even engaged). As the film cuts off the ending this is lost, so Pete's sole character moment was lost.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Alex absolutely wants to undergo the Ludovico treatment so that he can be quickly released from prison. Then he finds out it's an extreme BehavioralConditioning that sickens him to no end and leaves him defenseless.
* DirtyCop: After being released from prison, Alex is horrified to discover that his treacherous gang members George and Dim are now bobbies. "A job for two who are now of job-age. The police!" Given Georgie's previous interest in earning money for their crimes, it's pretty clear that they're motivated purely to get paid for brutalizing people. When they cross paths with Alex again, they drag him to a secluded place and beat him nearly to death while still in uniform.

* DisposableWoman: Mrs. Alexander, the writer's wife who Alex and the droogs raped at the start, dies offscreen by plague or according to her husband, trauma from sexual assault. In either case, she exists to motivate Mr. Alexander's revenge.

** Alex gets betrayed by Georgie and Dim right as he tries to escape from the CrazyCatLady murder scene. He had "corrected" them earlier to reassert his authority on them, by hitting Georgie in the stomach and throwing him in a river, and then throwing Dim in the same river and slashing his hand.

* BaitAndSwitchAccusation: After being carried into the writer's home by the bodyguard, and explaining to him what had happened, the writer suddenly exclaimed "I know you!" But it's because he recognized Alex's picture in the papers that morning, rather than recognizing him as the rapist of his wife.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Alex jumps at the chance to receive the Ludovico Technique, seeing it as an easy route out of prison, but it conditions him to be defenseless when he's attacked and he's also conditioned against his lovely, lovely, Ludwig Van.
* BehavioralConditioning: The Ludovico Technique involves forcing Alex to watch videos of violence while being injected with drugs that induce nausea. As a result, the thought of violence makes him sick to his stomach. The story explores the moral ramifications of this kind of conditioning, even when accepted voluntarily.

* BilingualBonus: Much of the characters' slang is actually of Slavic origin. Like the Korova Milk Bar--"korova" is the Russian word for "cow".

* BlatantLies: Alex's parents lamely claim that Alex's pet snake Basil "had... like... an accident" and died while he was away. They clearly just got rid of it.

* {{Brainwashed}}: Alex is strapped down and forced to watch violent scenes while a drug that induces nausea is pumped into him to make him feel repulsion for violence. And sex. And Beethoven's music (because the film included it in the background).
* BreakingTheFourthWall: The opening shot shows Alex giving a KubrickStare directly into the camera, which is one of the film's most iconic images. Alex then raises his glass, saluting the camera. Malcolm [=McDowell=] came up with this on the spot and when Kubrick asked him about it, he said he wanted to let the audience know "they were in for one hell of a ride."
** A few scenes later, he whistles to the soundtrack music while walking home.

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: It’s strongly implied that the first night of the movie where they beat the writer and rape his wife was just another night for Alex and his Droogs. After his release it does seem that he knows where he is when he winds up at the Writer’s house, but he clearly doesn’t remember singing "Singin’ in the Rain" right in the writer’s face.

* CaptiveAudience: Alex's reeducation involves him being strapped into a chair and forced to watch scenes of violence that are set to classical music as part of his reeducation.
* CassetteFuturism: The film uses Brutalist architecture, which features stark, blocky and concrete shapes, to represent the alternate reality. Fashions are also very bizarre, with colorful wigs and bodysuits being fairly common. Alex plays music on a microcassette.

* CharacterSignatureSong: Despite being a Beethoven fan Alex is seen singing "Singin' In The Rain" twice. It's this that causes him to be recognized by one of his former victims.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: The prison chaplain believes Alex is finding religion. Alex discusses how he likes the parts of Literature/TheBible where folks fight and murder each other before sleeping with their wives' handmaidens. He didn't like the whole "preachy" part of the book.

* ContrivedCoincidence: In a single succession of events, the day Alex is released from treatment he's kicked out of his parents' house, is found and assaulted by the vagrant, [[CavalryBetrayal the two policemen who are about to help him are his former cronies who then proceed to brutalize him more]], and he finally limps and takes refuge in the house of the writer. It works well when viewed as [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools compressed narrative]] setting up a HumiliationConga.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Averted to a nightmarish degree; ''Alex'' is under the impression the Ludovico treatment will just be vidying a lot of films, and even with his eyes peeled open it doesn't seem to bother him. That's ''before'' the drug begins kicking in. Aversion therapy is used to make him sick at the sight of violence— and as a side-effect, the doctors administering the punishment used his beloved classical music to enhance the emotional effect, making him unable to enjoy the music either, and overall leaving him with psychological damage we spend the rest of the movie watching the horrifying effects of.

''A Clockwork Orange'' is a 1971 film by Creator/StanleyKubrick based on [[Literature/AClockworkOrange the eponymous 1962 novella]] by Creator/AnthonyBurgess. It blends a TeenageWasteland {{Dystopia}} with {{Satire}} and a soundtrack that incorporates a lot of ClassicalMusic (a Kubrick habit), some of which has been rearranged by Music/WendyCarlos on a Moog synthesizer.

In a dystopic alternate England where street crime is rampant and youths are uncontrollable, teenage delinquent Alex [=DeLarge=] (Creator/MalcolmMcDowell) and his "Droogs" Dim, Georgie and Pete (Creator/WarrenClarke, James Marcus, Michael Tarn) [[TeensAreMonsters prowl the night spreading terror and destruction wherever they go]], just for kicks. By daybreak, Alex returns home to his [[AdultsAreUseless vapid parents]], who turn a blind eye to his activities, and enjoys his second favorite thing in the world: classical music, and that of Music/LudwigVanBeethoven above all.

* DisneyDeath: Alex throws himself out of a window of the house of Mr. Alexander and he seems to die, but he is not dead, just seriously injured.
-->'''Alex''': But I did not snuff it, if I had snuffed it I would not be here to tell what I have told.

** Alex gets betrayed by Georgie and Dim right as he tries to escape from the CrazyCatLady murder scene. He had "corrected" them earlier to reassert his authority on them, by hitting Georgie in the stomach and throwing him in a river, then throwing Dim in the same river and slashing his hand.

* DownerEnding: The film controversially removed the some might say vital last chapter of the novel, altering the message of the entire work substantially. In the novel, Alex voluntarily relinquishes his former life of ultraviolence and rape after having the effects of the brainwashing "Ludovico technique" reversed, and hence having his ability to act as an autonomous moral agent restored. In the film, he is implied to have simply returned to his previous vicious and amoral state, with the chilling final words ''"I was cured, all right"''.

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Alex inadvertently reveals himself when he sings "Film/SinginInTheRain" (which he also did during the rape scene) whilst taking a bath.

** Also, the film's most infamous scene features the gang torturing a couple while Alex performs "Singin' in the Rain" While filming the scene, Kubrick decided on a whim to have Alex sing a song, and Malcolm [=McDowell=] chose the song [[ThrowItIn simply because he knew all the lyrics]].

* AdaptationalWeaponSwap: In the novel, Alex kills the cat lady with a bust of Beethoven. In the film, he uses a phallic-shaped artwork, while the lady is wielding the bust against him.

* ArtImitatesArt: The sculptures of women being used as furniture in the Korova milk bar were inspired by the ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatstand,_Table_and_Chair Hatstand, Table and Chair]]'' sculptures by Allen Jones. Jones declined to make the furniture for the movie but consented to have his work imitated.

* AdultFear: The "Singing in the Rain" scene is designed to send chills down the spine of any adult. The themes of absolute evil and of a manipulative government attempting to rob people of free will and using the cover of mental health to silence dissidents are pretty chilling on a more subtle level as well, and were surely even more so during the Cold War era in which the film (and novel) were made.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Outlandish hair colors are fairly common in this verse. Most old women have purple hair for instance.

* TapOnTheHead: Averted twice. Alex slamming the hollow ceramic phallus in the the lady's face ultimately proves fatal. Then when Dim breaks a milk bottle across Alex's head it avoids the usual cliche of knocking a person out, but rather leaves him in excruciating pain, disoriented, and with a huge cut on the bridge of his nose afterward.