So I skipped ahead a bit on this one. Of the movies I had already added to my Netflix instant queue, it was the one that Trav wanted to see with me at the time.
I had seen the first third of this movie when I was about 18. (See my "bad habit" in the post about #85: I fell asleep for the rest of the movie but acted like I hadn't.) This portion of the movie shows the main character Alex, an inherently evil and violent man, breaking into strangers' houses, raping women, and actually getting enjoyment out of torturing people. On one of their "adventures," a woman calls the police and between the time of the call and the arrival of the police, he accidentally kills her. His friends leave him, he's arrested and then of course, has to serve jail time.
After serving a bit of time, he agrees to participate in an experimental "aversion therapy" to shorten his jail sentence. His therapists force him to watch movies of disgusting, violent acts until his body has a Pavlovian response to the sight of violence and he becomes physically ill. Unfortunately, the movies he's forced to watch are accompanied by the classical music he adores, and this is used against him when he again meets the husband of a woman he raped.
I read Roger Ebert's review, and his was incredibly negative, mostly criticizing Kubrick for glorifying Alex and "celebrating his nastiness." I don't think that's what Kubrick was trying to do, though. I think he wants the viewer to see through that and still be able to recognize what is good and evil, and I feel that most viewers would have the same reaction that I did, which was utter disgust.
If an indicator of a good movie is that it affects you somehow, this movie is incredible. It gave me nightmares.
Rating: 8/10
Big Names: Malcolm McDowell
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