Accidental Aesop: The moral of the both the book and the movie seems to be "even the worst people deserve free will." However, there are other conclusions one can draw from the book.
The world is rough and so you need to learn self-defense or how to use a weapon: the thing that ends up stopping Alex and getting him sent to prison is a woman who was able to fight him long enough until the police showed up. Learning to fight will help you against maniacs who enjoy ultraviolence.
Also, don't let total strangers into your house no matter how much they press you. The Alexanders suffer horribly because they fell for the whole "car crash" con.
If you live by the sword, you'll perish by the sword: while the abuse Alex suffers isn't exactly moral, it is only because he made so many people, including his former droogs, hate him with his ultraviolent tendencies that he has so many enemies. If you act out, you won't be making too many friends or people who will vouch for you.
With all the sympathy Alex gets from the media, in contrast to his victims who don't get nearly as much coverage (if at all), A Clockwork Orange could be taken as a parable against sympathizing with the victimizer at the expense of their victims.
Fanon: Due to the extensive use of Future Slang, it's never made entirely clear what "vellocet", "synthemesc", and "drencrom" actually are—but fans have near-universally agreed that they're amphetamines, synthetic mescaline, and adrenochrome, respectively.note The word "vellocet" is widely assumed to be a play on "velocity", which is often used interchangeably with "speed"—a common slang term for amphetamines.
Jerkass Woobie: Although Jerkass is maybe too light a term to describe Alex, many people see him as this in the second and third acts, considering what happens to him. His near-rape in prison, his inability to enjoy anything in life, and the merciless beatings at the hands of his victims-turned-victimizers humanize him quite a bit. Though again, some feel it falls apart and that Alex is only made sympathetic because he is made weak and dehumanized, or perhaps find it somewhat karmic.
In the book, Alex and his droogs breaks into an author's house and paralyze while forcing him to watch as they gangrape his wife. Unsurprisingly, Alex then goes onto rape two 10 year old girls after convincing them to come back to his place. This is partly why the twenty-first chapter is so controversial — a lot of readers think it's simply not in his character to reform so suddenly, that is if they even see him as capable of it at all.
Alex's film version is no less horrible, but going so far as to rape a woman in the Singing in the Rain scene takes his actions to another level of reprehensibility.
The Minister of the Interior crosses this by signing off on the Ludovico Technique in the first place. While he could be seen as well-intentioned here, he's clearly doing it for self-serving reasons, and it's pointed out that the treatment may very well be turned on anyone who resists the government. He's only concerned about crime in the first place because of overcrowding in prisons, seeing as he plans to imprison political dissidents. He's certainly crossed it by the end, when he covers up the whole incident with Alex's cooperation, essentially making a Deal with the Devil to protect himself.
Strawman Has a Point: The lesson this story gives is how evil it is for the state to use mind-altering techniques to cure anti-social behaviour. While it is true that you might see brainwashing akin to removing free will, the protagonist Alexander spends most of his time pre-treatment meting out acts of violence against defenseless innocents and raping people; also, in the book, two of his rape victims are ten-year-old girls. This leads the reader/viewer to consider perhaps the state has a point, or at the very least it's the lesser of two evils.
Tear Jerker: As horrific as the things he's done are, it can be difficult not to feel bad for Alex when, after he's released, he has no home due to a lodger staying in his room, he's left at the mercy of his previous victims, former gang members and rivals and he can't do anything to stop them because the treatment has left him unable to perform violence even to defend himself.
Did Alex really reform at the end of the novel? Or has he simply grown tired of committing violence himself?
How responsible is Alex for his actions? The way he describes the urge to rape the two ten-year-old girls he comes across, it's implied he acts on uncontrollable urges, but he also willingly drinks spiked milk that makes him more violent. This is probably intended by the writer, as the book deals with the concept of free choice, specifically the choice to be violent, and Burgess himself saw it as a weak satire without stuff thought too much in detail.
Were F. Alexander's fellow anti-Ludovico activists also in on the plan to drive Alex insane and/or suicidal? Alex certainly thinks so in his internal monologue, since he's just as if not even more useful as a dead martyr (and indeed they earlier complained that he didn't look roughed-up enough to rally the movement around). On the other hand, they seem perfectly willing to forgive Alex for his assault on the Alexanders years ago. (Notably, the Kubrick movie dispenses with any ambiguity and shows them all being in on it.)
Anvilicious: The book has multiple characters blather on in endless dialogues about free will and choice. This hammers the point home that you can't force a person to reform, even with advanced technology. The prison chaplain's speech is especially grating not only for its preachiness but its ineffectiveness (he makes the speech after Alex is submitted to aversion therapy, and not before).
Delusion Conclusion: During the climax of A Clockwork Orange, Alex seemingly kills himself by jumping out of a window. From here, Alex experiences an impressive shift in luck: he not only wakes up in hospital, but his brainwashing is undone, the lodger that had taken his place conveniently arrested due to an incident, his parents allow Alex back home, the government that brainwashed him has lost its chance, and the old men who were torturing him have been arrested. He's even given a well-paying government job and is ultimately inspired to settle down in the final chapter. Because of this miraculous recovery, some readers choose to believe that Alex died in his suicide attempt and that the final two chapters are his Dying Dream where he gets everything he wants including a chance to lead a happy life.
Values Dissonance: Especially with the advent of social media, many people would protest having a convicted murderer and rapist being let off with such a brief sentence as Alex's, regardless of the kind of treatment used to supposedly help them reform. There's also the fact that in the 2010s and beyond, being known as someone who raped two children would likely get Alex's ass kicked in prison, as many inmates believe in Wouldn't Hurt a Child.
Prison reform has become a serious topic in the 2010s, especially with Orange Is the New Black talking about how even nonviolent nuns are put in with thieves, murderers, and desperate drug addicts, and that it's hard for recently-released inmates to build a normal life. It also hammers home that someone has to want to become a better person and forcing the change on them isn't a good thing and will almost certainly have negative consequences.
Police brutality is another topic that has become a more prominent issue in 2010s. Alex's former droogs becoming police officers and getting away with brutally torturing him is eerily prescient of the numerous incidents of police corruption and white supremacist groups infiltrating police departments.
Far more people have seen the film than have read the book, which Anthony Burgess himself considered one of his minor works (as do most literary critics, since he was a respected author of Lit Fic and a literary critic in his own right), and whose main resentment was that thanks to the film it became one of his Black Sheep Hits.invoked
Most people have never heard the original "Music For the Funeral For Queen Mary".
For some "Singin' in the Rain" is associated with this film, and it still is among a small group of fans, but luckily for Gene Kelly the audience that watches family musicals is always going to be bigger than people who watch Kubrick films.
Award Snub: The film received four Academy Award nominations and went home empty-handed. Malcolm McDowell wasn't nominated for Best Actor and Wendy Carlos' score wasn't nominated. It was also snubbed for Cinematography and Production Design.
The iconic film score by Wendy Carlos (performed with Moog synthesizers), particularly her rendition of Purcell's "Music For the Funeral For Queen Mary", which can be considered the unofficial theme music for the movie. Then there's Gioachino Rossini, Edward Elgar and, above all, our old friend Ludwig van. The film's score, as well as its future-shock aesthetic, was a major influence on the Post-Punk movement.
The original compositions are also excellent, with the epic, haunting Main Theme being the most memorable.
Can't Un-Hear It: Stanley Kubrick said that this was the reason why he cast Malcolm McDowell as Alex; Kubrick had just come off of watching McDowell's performance in the film if.... (1968) before he read the Anthony Burgess novel, and as a consequence, could not get McDowell's face and voice out of his mind when reading the narration of Alex.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The film is a horrific view of a society crippled by teenage hooligans, but it actually inspired similar crimes throughout the UK, first during its initial release (enough that Stanley Kubrick had Warner Bros. pull it from theaters in England) and then after its DVD release. Some argue that if Kubrick had not made Alex so much more handsome and attractive, or dialed down some of the original evil from the novel (like the rape of two ten-year old girls converted into a consensual threesome with age-appropriate girls), this trope could have been averted entirely.
Ensemble Dark Horse: The hammy prison guard, whose uptight nature and visible outrage at both Alex and the government's method of treatment for Alex is an amusing foil to the otherwise morally bankrupt cast.
Fashion-Victim Villain: In the movie, Alex and his droogs' choice of costume can come across a bit silly, especially the oversized white codpieces that end up looking like diapers. In the book, however, their style of clothes is much more stylish and menacing.
When Georgie and Dim (as policemen) are dragging Alex between them, their numbers are 665 and 667. This puts Alex in the middle: 666.
During the dinner scene at Mr. Alexander’s house, Alex is shown wearing a red and white robe. Coincidentally, that robe is previously worn by the former on the evening when he and his wife were assaulted by Alex and his gang. It visually indicates that Alex symbolically becomes Mr. Alexander’s victim, especially when the latter would then torment him.
There have been a number of times since the film came out when it became a fad for gangs of youths to record themselves accosting and beating up strangers. Notable instances include "Happy Slapping" in the mid-aughts and "The Knock-Out Game" in the mid 2010s. Whatever the name, it's something straight out of Alex's alley.
Hype Backlash: This film is very divisive, despite being considered a classic, many people despise it under the impression it glorifies sex and violence and due to finding it too unreasonable to sympathize with Alex.
Burgess described A Clockwork Orange as "a jeu d'esprit knocked off for money in three weeks, and it became known as the raw material for a film which accused of glorifying sex and violence. The film made it easy for readers of the book to misunderstand what it was about, and the misunderstanding will pursue me till I die."
Kubrick himself felt that the film was a sophisticated and cold satire about institutions and it was making a case for radical free will in a very artificial and stylized context, but in fact the audience latched on to Alex because he embodied and lives out in full the adolescent male fantasy of guilt-free sex and violence, and who the film's premise allows audiences to see him as a counter-cultural rebel, completely missing the ending where he becomes a Rule-Abiding Rebel co-opted by the establisment. Kubrick pulled out the film from theatres upon hearing of copycat crimes and getting unwanted attention from people who didn't get what the movie was doing.
The face that the old man makes when he remembers who Alex is; it's supposed to be twisted in rage and horror, but the angle of the shot and the fact that he's convulsing while bent completely forward makes it look a bit silly. Patrick Magee was worried he was overdoing it and voiced his concerns to Malcolm McDowell, saying (not incorrectly), "I look like I'm having a big shit!" McDowell told him to play it the way Kubrick wanted: "I think this guy knows what he's doing." He was right: as over-the-top as it is, it works.
The speech given by the chaplain in the prison. Kubrick intended it to be sincere, and in his interviews he said it was, but the film makes it absurd, especially because it follows the scene where a naked girl in a purple wig comes on stage in front of everyone's attendance to demonstrate that Alex's sexual urges are under control. It's not a context that serves a good speech.
Narm Charm: Some of the most dramatic moments in the second half of the film (e.g. Alex's mother sobbing uncontrollably as he's ejected from his home, Dim and Georgie dragging Alex away in handcuffs while laughing hysterically, and Frank Alexander giving Alex the Death Glare after realizing who he is) are so over-the-top that they can come across as oddly comical—but that just adds to the story's hypnotic surrealism, contributing to the sensation of Alex's life being turned upside-down after his release from prison.
Older Than They Think: The first adaptation of A Clockwork Orange was in 1965, the film Vinyl by Andy Warhol. That film is some 60 minutes long, and is composed of long takes, changed the names of the characters and invented its own slang, "scum-baby" mostly, and it also used popular music ("Nowhere to Run", along with music by The Kinks and The Rolling Stones). It is however considered a masterpiece of avant-garde cinema, and it does make explicit the S&M subtext of the Burgess novel and which is also there in the Kubrick film.
Julian, Mr. Alexander's nurse/protection, is played by a young weightlifter and wrestler named David Prowse. After seeing the movie, George Lucas was so impressed with his size that he offered him the part of Darth Vader (the physical role, that is; James Earl Jones did the voice).
The Korova milkbar bouncer standing next to Alex's droogs in the opening scene is Pat Roach, better known for his various roles in the Indiana Jones films and playing Bomber in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
Sliding Scale of Social Satisfaction: Categorized as "Peak of Crime". The government finds itself unable to curb the rampant street crime in England. Young people are particularly prone to violence and unhinged, with the protagonist being the boss of a gang who terrorize the suburbs.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Mrs. Alexander (Adrienne Corri), who got raped by Alex and the Droogs, apparently died of the trauma offscreen (or from pneumonia in the film) if you believe her husband, Mr. Alexander. Having her killed to serve as her husband's motivation feels cheap to modern readers, and likewise it would have made the story much more gray and ambiguous if it was her at the end receiving and welcoming Alex and deciding to either kill him or help him out of her objections to the Ludovico technique rather than her husband, which would be missing the point of the film since she was the Morality Chain of Frank.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Mr. Alexander's torture of Alex is supposed to prove how he is no different from the evil government. But considering Alex and his goons assaulted him, paralyzed him, raped his wife in front of him, and his wife died from the trauma, and then Alex wormed his way into hospitality, one can think he was more than justified in tormenting Alex.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Despite Kubrick's camera tricks (especially fisheye lenses) and the defenestration of Alex, it's pretty hard for some members of the audience to forgive Alex for his rather heinous crimes, as while his misfortune is utterly horrific, he's still the same exact evil bastard that he was before. Additionally, the fact most of the enemies are Strawman characters who can come off almost exaggeratedly grotesque thanks to the film's satirical focus, which can make it come off a little too much like simply the film is telling the audience what to think and feel.
. Some argue that if Kubrick had not made Alex so much more handsome and attractive, or dialed down some of the original evil from the novel (like the rape of two ten-year old girls converted into a consensual threesome with age-appropriate girls), this trope could have been averted entirely.