Film Analysis: A Clockwork Orange

The film opens with a close up shot of Alex dressed in white with gray suspenders showcasing his false eyelashes on his right eye and with the brim of his pork pie hat tilted slightly downward. His ominous blue eyes peering right through you as if you did not even exist. Slowly the camera pulls back as Alex takes a sip of drug laced milk revealing the type of company he keeps. His “droogs” as Alex called them were seated next to him on a bench in the Korova Milk Bar. The Korova Milk Bar was decorated with nude figures of women posed as if they had fallen backwards and they attempted to catch themselves by putting their arms behind them. The flats of their stomachs doubled as a table where glasses of milk could be placed. Other nude statues
One of his biggest triggers is the milk from the Korova Milk Bar. His drink of choice, milk plus, by his own admission “will sharpen you up and make you ready for the ultra-violence” has a detrimental effect on Alex and his thought process. Once consumed, as various other drugs Alex’s self-control is lost deep inside his mind and the conditioned response of violence comes to the forefront in dramatic fashion. Alex’s has conditioned himself through his consumption of milk plus to act out his violent impulses. It is plausible that his conditioning is a direct reaction to the socialistic society that shows very little respect to the disenfranchised youth during that time period. The ultra-violent outbursts Alex displays could be a statement on his struggles against the oppressive society he is a part of. Alex and his droogs’ ultimate goal are to make the victims of their crimes appear to be the lowlifes of society and that they are being punished for their role in perpetuating the socialist agenda. Moreover, Alex has convinced himself of the delusion that he is a freedom fighter or the savior of a pre-socialist society
Classical conditioning experiments have been performed on humans with a large degree of success. One of the most notable and most controversial classical conditioning experiments done on humans was Watson’s “Little Albert” experiment. This experiment was conducted to test the fear response in humans. The experiment started off by introducing Albert to several animals, a white rat, monkey, bunny and a dog (Creelan). When Albert started to play with the rat, Watson banged a hammer on a metal pipe scaring Albert causing him to cry. Over time the sight of the rat without the banging of the hammer caused Albert to cry. Albert associated the loud scary noise to touching the rat, thus being successfully conditioned to fear the rat. By today’s standards, this experiment would never be allowed due to the ethical standards set forth by the American Psychological Association