10 Most Ominous Cinematic Prisons

This institution looks like a regular prison -- sterile and intimidating. However, there are worse things than imprisonment in store for juvenile delinquent Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell).

After he is sentenced to 14 years for murder, the Minister of the Interior makes him an offer he cannot refuse -- he can become a test subject for the new Ludovico technique, which promises to cure him of his penchant for sex and violence in a two-week span. Alex eagerly signs up, but soon starts experiencing nausea whenever he encounters any version of his formerly favorite pursuits.

Yes, prison takes two years away from him and deservedly so; 14 years might even have been a short sentence for murder. Still, the dystopian government also takes away Alex’s free will and turns him into a prisoner for life, making their “cure” the worst form of punishment and the most isolating type of incarceration.

While creating a strategy to cut crime and end prison crowding, the government forgets about individuality and compassion, the very thing that makes us different from psychopaths and sociopaths.

Sure, someone who is unable to think for themselves is not a threat, but they are not a human being, either.

Both Anthony Burgess’s novel and Stanley Kubrick’s film show that individual agency is worth more than collective conformity in the context of human compassion.