ANALYSIS OF THE PRISON SEQUENCE AND THE ENDING OF THE FILM
The Narration of This Sequence
Unintentionally killing Cat Lady, Alex is betrayed by his companions who hate him for a long time and is put into a state prison. There he is deprived of personal items and recorded in detail, which seems as respecting his private property. But the prison instantly turns a lively person to ‘number 665321’, and not only take away but also trample the unique dignity of criminals, which is nothing but a cart-before-horse. Prisons answer violence with violence; therefore, criminals there lose all their dignity. It aims to institutionalize the evil in human nature and command that with the evil of rules rather than make a criminal “rehabilitate”.
In prison, Alex experiences a variety of transformation and enlightenment. However, its strict disciplines have few effects on him. Whether it is the violent punishment or the patient religious teaching, it makes Alex show no sign of repentance. He thinks nothing but Virgin Mary’s naked body while reading “Christ’s Nativity” in Bible. He imagines himself as a Roman executioner dressed in fashionable clothes while reading “Christ’s Crucifixion”. Even when he is injected “emetine” in transformation experiment, he still thinks if he could be out of the prison to reunite his gang and continue his past happy days of ultra-violence. The above traditional educating means, say violence control or theological influence, work slowly for Alex who is eager to be released from prison. Therefore, he chooses Ludovico treatment, accepting pure spiritual therapy to remove the inner darkness. During the Ludovico experiment, the scientists force Alex watch a lot of immoral films every day, including violence, rape, and a large number of war casualties. And at the same time, he is given an injection that makes him feel sick while watching those violent films, eventually conditioning him to suffer crippling bouts of nausea at the mere thought of violence, just like Pavlovian conditioning. Experimenters add Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to a black and white video of Nazi violence as the background music, which makes Alex cried out in pain: “Using Ludwig Van… is a sin! He did no harm to anyone!” At that moment, Alex’s suffering and the doctors’ cold reactions make audiences question the true meaning of violence and evil. In the achievements showing after two weeks, the “reborn” Alex reacts nothing and collapse on the ground before bully and temptation. He loses his desire and ability to resist. Just like the dog in Pavlov’s experiment, which salivates as long as it hears the bell, Alex is fitted with hypocritical clockwork and suffers crippling bouts of nausea at the mere thought of violence. The Minister of the Interior praises such spiritual therapy finally make prisoners “be a true Christian, ready to turn the other cheek, ready to be crucified, rather than crucify… and sick to the very heart …show more content…
…Kubrick not only uses the Ninth Symphony at pivotal dramatic points but also constructs the film to resemble the structure of the Ninth” (2002, …show more content…
When asked the preference of pre-existing music by Michel Ciment, Kubrick says, “Unless you want a pop score, I don't see any reason not to avail yourself of the great orchestral music of the past and present. This music may be used in its correct form or synthesized, as was done with the Beethoven for some scenes in A Clockwork Orange. But there doesn't seem to be much point in hiring a composer who, however good he may be, is not a Mozart or a Beethoven, when you have such a vast choice of existing orchestral music which includes contemporary and avant-garde work. Doing it this way gives you the opportunity to experiment with the music early in the editing phase, and in some instances to cut the scene to the music. This is not something you can easily do in the normal sequence of events” (1982). Meanwhile, it is also very clear that the elegance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony here forms a great contrast with scenes and plots of the film. Such highly dramatic conflict is a challenge to the traditional techniques of soundtrack and therefore conveys a strong sense of irony. Kubrick indicates this ironic contrast in this way: “I think this suggests the failure of culture to have any morally refining effect on society. Hitler loved good music and many top
The Narration of This Sequence
Unintentionally killing Cat Lady, Alex is betrayed by his companions who hate him for a long time and is put into a state prison. There he is deprived of personal items and recorded in detail, which seems as respecting his private property. But the prison instantly turns a lively person to ‘number 665321’, and not only take away but also trample the unique dignity of criminals, which is nothing but a cart-before-horse. Prisons answer violence with violence; therefore, criminals there lose all their dignity. It aims to institutionalize the evil in human nature and command that with the evil of rules rather than make a criminal “rehabilitate”.
In prison, Alex experiences a variety of transformation and enlightenment. However, its strict disciplines have few effects on him. Whether it is the violent punishment or the patient religious teaching, it makes Alex show no sign of repentance. He thinks nothing but Virgin Mary’s naked body while reading “Christ’s Nativity” in Bible. He imagines himself as a Roman executioner dressed in fashionable clothes while reading “Christ’s Crucifixion”. Even when he is injected “emetine” in transformation experiment, he still thinks if he could be out of the prison to reunite his gang and continue his past happy days of ultra-violence. The above traditional educating means, say violence control or theological influence, work slowly for Alex who is eager to be released from prison. Therefore, he chooses Ludovico treatment, accepting pure spiritual therapy to remove the inner darkness. During the Ludovico experiment, the scientists force Alex watch a lot of immoral films every day, including violence, rape, and a large number of war casualties. And at the same time, he is given an injection that makes him feel sick while watching those violent films, eventually conditioning him to suffer crippling bouts of nausea at the mere thought of violence, just like Pavlovian conditioning. Experimenters add Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to a black and white video of Nazi violence as the background music, which makes Alex cried out in pain: “Using Ludwig Van… is a sin! He did no harm to anyone!” At that moment, Alex’s suffering and the doctors’ cold reactions make audiences question the true meaning of violence and evil. In the achievements showing after two weeks, the “reborn” Alex reacts nothing and collapse on the ground before bully and temptation. He loses his desire and ability to resist. Just like the dog in Pavlov’s experiment, which salivates as long as it hears the bell, Alex is fitted with hypocritical clockwork and suffers crippling bouts of nausea at the mere thought of violence. The Minister of the Interior praises such spiritual therapy finally make prisoners “be a true Christian, ready to turn the other cheek, ready to be crucified, rather than crucify… and sick to the very heart …show more content…
…Kubrick not only uses the Ninth Symphony at pivotal dramatic points but also constructs the film to resemble the structure of the Ninth” (2002, …show more content…
When asked the preference of pre-existing music by Michel Ciment, Kubrick says, “Unless you want a pop score, I don't see any reason not to avail yourself of the great orchestral music of the past and present. This music may be used in its correct form or synthesized, as was done with the Beethoven for some scenes in A Clockwork Orange. But there doesn't seem to be much point in hiring a composer who, however good he may be, is not a Mozart or a Beethoven, when you have such a vast choice of existing orchestral music which includes contemporary and avant-garde work. Doing it this way gives you the opportunity to experiment with the music early in the editing phase, and in some instances to cut the scene to the music. This is not something you can easily do in the normal sequence of events” (1982). Meanwhile, it is also very clear that the elegance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony here forms a great contrast with scenes and plots of the film. Such highly dramatic conflict is a challenge to the traditional techniques of soundtrack and therefore conveys a strong sense of irony. Kubrick indicates this ironic contrast in this way: “I think this suggests the failure of culture to have any morally refining effect on society. Hitler loved good music and many top