The main character of this film is Alex, a social deviant who enjoys rape, ultra-violence, and Beethoven. The important thing to keep in mind, of course, is that all is metaphor in the world of Kubrick. Kubrick certainly does not mean to suggest that Alex, ultimately presented as the anti-hero par excellence, is someone whose actions we should affirm or accept wholeheartedly. Rather, we should take the character of Alex to represent a certain disposition towards life, and a very rare one at that.
Alex is meant to represent the Dionysian spirit in us all—the spirit of frenzy, excess, and the collapse of boundaries. He represents ideas that stray far from the “collective consciousness”—ideas that are so far off from the norm that society is simply unable to accept them (much less comprehend them); indeed, there arises a need to punish those who espouse these very radical ideas of self--creation and unrestrained freedom. In brainwashing him, this (not-so) futuristic society attempts to correct the “wrong." The 'wrong,' in this case, is simply the creative spirit found in the individual. Alex has managed to replace religion and societal structures (including morality) with creativity and individuality—and because of this, he has become a criminal. His violence is aimed at the life-denying nihilists who pervade his everyday existence; and not only pervade, but degrade. We cannot help but feel that on some very deep level, the violence is justified, and indeed necessary. Like Nietzsche's overman, we learn to excuse the truly creative spirits from the confines of a mechanistic morality designed by the herd, for the herd.
Indeed, I'd like to suggest that Alex, whose name means "defender of man" and whose Latin connotation of a lex suggests 'a law' (unto himself), is himself an artist of destruction. We see him aestheticizing violence---turning it into its own art form and thereby revolutionizing the very concept. Therein lies his creativity. In the world of Alex DeLarge, violence is now ultra-violence, as he manages to transcend destruction for its own sake. Many cannot help but perceive his actions as just that--destruction for its own sake. This is mistaken. Alex's violence is merely a means to a higher end, namely the birth of a non-complacent order of being who unremittingly strives to realize its true potential. Much like the artist who aims to bring us closer to God through the beauty of art, Alex aims to bring us closer to ourselves through the shock of ultra-violence. Alex is merely expressing what's inside himself, allowing his subconscious free reign of his actions. It is a godly projection that cannot suffer from the petty judgments of morality. Ultimately, it is by example that we are shown how it is that we can become closer to ourselves. Obviously, Alex's example is extreme, but it is a legitimate one. The suggestion is that we must look within ourselves to find our own kind of 'violence' that we may transcend into 'ultra-violence,' and thereby realize our true human potential through such acts of artistic fashioning.
Alex's message to us all is that life's energies should not be dulled and contained by such modern ideas as the conservative ethic, or the happy fascism of random rules and dictates espoused by the masses. We are not meant to go about life like mechanical animals, acquiescing to social customs, and protracting ourselves to tradition. We are not like clockwork, although the majority sure acts this way. Rather, we are like an orange--living organisms oozing with juice and sweetness. To express our chaos and creativity is our human destiny, for only then can we be assured of any type of real progress towards something more important than nihilistic complacency and its ensuing state of "happiness" and comfort.
Ultimately, we can see Alex as Nietzsche's "pale criminal," whose only offense is his transcendence of society's self-complacent decrepitude. With his shocking adventures, we are forced to experience paradoxical feelings of disgust and delight--feelings that are all-too often absent in the mire of our everyday lives.
But this much is unquestionable: breaking society's tablet of values for the sole purpose of ushering in an new era of thought and feeling has never looked so good as it does in this, Kubrick's masterpiece.
"...[a] most aggressive, passionate, and sarcastic movie about the ramifications of living in a world in which creativity has become offensive."
director: stanley kubrick
starring: malcolm mcdowell, patrick magee adrienne corri, aubrey morris, james marcus
