Teenagers scare the living sh*t out of me They could care less as long as someone'll bleed -My Chemical Romance

A depiction of the violent nature of youth and a satire of the criminal justice system. Due to a mix of immaturity, a lack of real-world experience, and being a mess of hormones teens tend to lack empathy and often act on their cruelest instincts or sexual impulses without any remorse. That's what gets portrayed here as we follow a high school aged gang leader as he and his fellow "Droogs" go around assaulting, raping, and commiting various other crimes against anyone they see fit simply because they can and it's fun for them. The film does an excellent job of capturing all the qualities of a teenage sociopath in its narrator/protagonist "Alex." He's arrogant, manipulative, has no sense of guilt, spouts off borderline unintelligible jargon just like today's buzzword obsessed culture does, and when he finally receives some comeuppance from those he had harmed in the past he even has the audacity to play the victim. In an atypical move he's an intentionally unlikable, villainous, and downright evil focal character making for a unique viewing experience. All of this is brought to life by a fantastic Malcolm McDowell performance.

He's enterprising, aggressive, outgoing, young, bold, vicious. He'll do.

This naturally makes the moral of the story pretty murky. I mean, it's not like you can root for or sympathize with such a vile scumbag when he gets caught, jailed, and begins to experience the same kind of brutality he once dished out. Something I really struggled with when reading the book. Luckily, Stanley Kubrick made the message much clearer in this adaptation. This is a scathing critique of prisoner reform programs and the unethical practices going on behind the scenes that don't succeed at getting these kind of violent offenders to turn over a new leaf before releasing them back into society anyways, with some shots taken at governmental corruption along the way. As you might expect given the subject material being covered here, the content in this movie is quite harsh. There are fairly graphic displays of sexual assault and torture. Kubrick managed to make this watchable in spite of all that however by intelligently pulling his punches where he needed to and imbuing the whole thing with a rather cartoonish vibe. A clash between rival gangs, for example, plays out like something you would see in a Tom and Jerry short. Stuff such as the way the world is filled with erotic imagery meant to symbolize the lustful fixations of those in their pubescent years gives off a ridiculous and even playful tone that makes some of the more barbarous moments easier to sit through, but never to the point where it fails to acknowledge or represent the severity of them. This a borderline masterpiece and one of those rare examples of a film being better than the book it's based on, if only because it's themes have been made easier to decipher. The sole complaint I have that could be considered anything more than a personal nitpick extends to the rape sequences. These scenes thankfully cut off before reaching I Spit on Your Grave levels of explicit, but you still see restrained women getting forcefully stripped naked. The problem is that these parts feel rather fetishized as if Kubrick is unnecessarily throwing the exposed breasts and buttocks onscreen for some cheap titillation, which if that is truly the case would be disgusting given the context. Outside of that there's little to take fault with here. A classic for a reason, this is a one of a kind piece of cinema that provides a Looney Tunes gonzo look into the mind of an unrestrained juvenile delinquent with meanings that can still be dissected and discussed for years to come. It's practically mandatory viewing for anyone with a serious appreciation for the medium, regardless of whether you typically shy away from such hardcore offerings or not.