10 Not So Obvious Messages With Deeper Meanings In Stanley Kubrick's Films

A strange name for a film, A Clockwork Orange is combining something unnatural with something natural, and this juxtaposition of the natural and unnatural is what gives it that timeless zesty appeal (pardon the peculiar pun “my brothers and dearest friends”). Our protagonist, Alex De Large, should be hated, but he isn’t. Alex is perhaps the ultimate glamorous psychopath. How is it that most viewers sympathise with Alex even after seeing him commit acts of violence towards the elderly, and after raping a woman? Well, it’s because of the juxtaposition the title is hinting at.

With the use of the made up Nadsat language, that acts as a euphemism to soften his actions, and seeing everything through Alex’s perspective, the audience is entertained by his intelligence and sophistication, by his love of Beethoven, by his image and the way he addresses us as his brothers and dearest friends. In essence, we vicariously live the film through Alex, and due to his human aspects we choose to forget about his horror, and are as likely to see him as an iconic, stylish anti-hero figure than the vicious thug he truly is.

It’s no surprise random acts of violence inspired by the film took place, and with Kubrick receiving death threats, the film was removed from circulation until 1999. Things in this film are never black and white, like the outfit Alex and his droogs wear… they are indeed A Clockwork Orange. “Viddy well little brother, viddy well!”