Last night I was having a discussion about the last scene of
Kubrick's Clockwork Orange.
In this scene we see Alex sitting in a hospitalbed, while talking
to the minister, who offers him food and a job. Then fotographers
rush in and while they are taking their pictures Alex has a vision
of him making love to a woman dressed in white, while officially
dressed people appluad from the side. Alex then utters 'I'm cured'
We were discussing wheter Alex menat that he wa cured from his
therapy and now got his free will back again and consequently
pick up his old interests of sex and violence. This would mean
that alex would be bad after all and the force of evil in the movie would
not be punished after all. On the other hand is it possible to see
Kubricks version of a wedding in the last scene, just like the book ends.
The woman in white is the bride and the applauding people could
be seen as a metaphor for the society that approves of alex's behaviour.
In this reading Alex would have come to the conlcusion that he was the bad
guy and that from now on he chooses to live life conform the mores of
society. His good side has now beaten the eavil forces in him. A happy and
after all. Who has an opinion on the forces of evil and good in
A clockwork Orange. I would also be interested in the way viewers reacted
to this movie. One last question. Could anybody explain me the title?
Martijn de Waal
University of Amsterdam, Film Studies Department