Power And Violence In "A Clockwork Orange" Novel And Film

A Clockwork Orange is both a novel written in 1962 by Anthony Burgess and the film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick a decade later release of the book. Both the film and the book do a wonderful job of telling their story. The movie concentrates on aesthetic settings, music, and the idea that the protagonist’s personality does not change, while the book focuses on the slang, characters’ thoughts and motives and, unlike the movie, shows how the protagonist can change.

The novel and the film make audience think about the meaning of life, about the world, about person’s actions. However, the book does better job in telling the story of main character and explains his prospective better.

The book and the movie tell the audience the story about the main character, Alex. He is charismatic anti-hero, a cruel leader who speaks of violence as a high art of life, as a kind of pleasure, who worships classic music, and overall an intelligent man whose purpose in life is to have fun. Alex is sent to prison for a murder of a woman where he becomes a part of the state's latest criminal education program involving changing the nature of criminals. After completing the experiment Alex becomes a victim of violence himself. He is unable to resist any violence as well as to perform it.

The experiment takes away two most important things from Alex – music and violence. Educational program of changing the nature of criminals displays violence and music as evil. Every time Alex sees the violence or thinks about it, he experiences horrific desperate pain with uncontrollable reflects; the classical music has the same effect on him. This takes the freedom of Alex away and makes him feel desperate and miserable.

One of the roughest moments of the book is the home invasion of writer F. Alexander. Alex nearly beats the writer to death, destroys a book he had been writing, and let the author watch how Alex and his friends, George, Pete and Dim, rape the author’s wife and leave them both in a puddle of blood. Burgess concentrates on the characters’ thoughts and motives and gets the reader into the head of Alex and his friends. These moments are displayed in the film adaptation directed by Stanley Kubrick, however if the audience had read the book, those moments look a little comical to them. One of the important components of the book is ultra-violence, which permeates the whole plot. While this shocking scene is in the movie, it is not nearly as graphic and detailed as in book. The audience of the movie does not feel as close to Alex as the readers of the book.

The movie was released in 1971 and has a futuristic theme. Kubrick pays a lot of attention to the design of the settings and stage clothes, as seen in the extravagant styles of the characters. For example, when Alex invades the writer’s house, he wears hat, a wooden cane, fake eyelashes, and fake long nose. The house of the writer has a very ostentatious design. This strange setting design draws away from the general idea of violence. Adding to that viewers cannot discern true meaning inherent in the book behind the whole eccentric setting.

Another poorly displayed aspect of the movie is the fights between characters. The fights are very theatrical and unnatural. As if acrobats perform in a circus or some kind of masquerade. This theater act kills the realism of the story and draws away from the main idea of the movie.

Another big difference between the book and the film is the use of slang. The author of the book invented a language, “Nadsat,” that Alex, his friends and the younger generation speak. When reading the book, the audience doesn’t understand the slang and so they have the barrier between themselves and protagonist of the story. However, by reading more of the book, the reader starts to understand the slang, the barrier between themselves and Alex disappears and suddenly they imagine themselves with Alex, feeling what he is feeling. It makes the reader incredibly close to the protagonist. The director of the movie decided to include only few slang words in the movie, so while the audience may have understood the story, they aren’t as close to Alex. This causes involvement in the plot to decrease.

One aspect in which the film overcome the book is the ability to hear the music. The soundtrack of the movie is truly amazing. The combination of classical music and the violence that occurs on the screen deeply affect the viewers in the way they can understand Alex’s prospective. The dynamism of the plot does not let the viewers get bored, in some moments audience start to worry and empathize with the characters. The theme of music is present in the book however it is hard to fully understand the music without hearing it.

The movie ends with the Minister arriving to the hospital where Alex is being treated after he jumps from the window. The Minister apologies to Alex and promises him a job if Alex sides with his election campaign. Alex agrees and the Minister gives him a stereo system playing Alex’s favorite symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth. When Alex hears it, he understands that his violent behavior has come back and he has thoughts of having sex with the woman standing next to him. The central idea of the movie, “A Clockwork Orange,” is that human nature is unchangeable. Prison cannot re-educate the criminal. Evil persists. Violence generates violence. Alex’s parents tried to change his demeanor, as well as prison, religion, and science and they all fail. That is, the essence of the film is that cruel person who cripples people’s lives manages to escape punishment and he can continue to create chaos.

The novel has different conclusion. After Minister promises Alex job and protection, Alex finds new friends with whom he returns to his old habits, he enjoys the violence as he did before. Until Alex accidentally encounters with Pete, his old friend with whom he used to torture people. Seeing that Pete has a family and a wonderful life Alex finds less and less satisfaction in meaningless violence and crimes. He starts to think he can change his life and give up crimes to the family of his own. Anthony Burgess gives the audience understanding that even such a cold-hearted person as Alex can change himself. This contradicts to the theme of the movie. Kubrick impertinently uses the book and cuts the movie on the one of the main points of the book. This causes audience to believe in the entirely different theme from what Burgess tries to convey.

The movie and the book A Clockwork Orange do a great job in telling the story of Alex. However, the book goes dipper into the character’s analysis and have more pleasant conclusion, while the movie focusses more on the settings and the overall appealing of the story altogether. If distract from the plot of the book, the film is quite satisfying. However, in comparison to the book, film lacks or changes many components of the original novel written by Anthony Burgess. While the novel brings the audience closer to Alex and explains Alex’s point of view.