Comments on: A Clockwork Orange – The Last Chapter

By: bob

bob — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:21:37 +0000

I picked up a copy and just finished the last chapter. Not that I had missed anything from it in my online reading, but definatley not how the movie ended. I’m now very sure that Kubrick used that last scene to include the chapter. Alex’s vision at the end of chapter 20 is nothing like the last scene, but it would tie into chapter 21 quite nicley. The attire of the woman still rasies qestions, but I’m not going to ponder on that until I read the actual book.

Perhaps Kubrick was telling us to get off our asses and read the book..since the ending was so abrubt and open.

By: keelsetter

keelsetter — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:54:51 +0000

Hi, Bob -

The link that David Simms provided (third post from top) contains a lot of coverage regarding that final chapter. If you still have any nagging questions regarding the various interpretations for it, I recommend you check it out as it contains a lot of food-for-thought.

By: bob

bob — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:44:24 +0000

The last chapter was supposed to be the point of the book, that time can heal wounds, calm the unruly youth. I have no come across a copy with the 21st chapter yet, but I think that we’ve been misguided by this not being included in the movie. Isn’t the final chapter(s) the conclusion, where everything settles back down after the climax?

If the last scene; with Alex and the woman was Kubricks way of including it, but is done in a way that it could very easily have been misinterpreted. I personally question the motive of that scene…it says different things…the woman is wearing black wedding atire (not white, which to me implies that this is out of wedlock) and the societial types are appluading. Basically he is free to indugle, and the society aproves of his actions because they are of his own choice, not what they actually approve of.

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but as I stated, I only have the “jist” of the last chapter…I’ve never actually had the chance to read it.

By: keelsetter

keelsetter — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 01:56:38 +0000

I didn’t fully understand most of what was written until later. What attracted me to the book were all the cool pictues!

By: jbl

jbl — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:09:44 +0000

I can only be amazed by what you were reading at age 8. Maybe it’s because I was 8 some 15 years before the film was released. I was originally impressed by the soundtrack and the Russian-based slang (I had been studying that language in school). It wasn’t until later viewings and reading the book that some of the underlying content sank in.

By: Keelsetter

Keelsetter — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:22:25 +0000

Hi, David -

Thanks for the link – lots of great info there and I look forward to diving deeper into the discussion thread. I hadn’t even considered Alex’s role as a father in the missing chapter to possibly be even more cynical than the truncated version. And yet, it’s true: why should we think Alex will be a good father, or that his son will be different than he was? I really have no idea where Burgess would have stood on that. Interesting stuff, to be sure.

By: David Simms

David Simms — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:42:43 +0000

Cinema Styles had a good post on this a while back which can be found here – http://cinemastyles.blogspot.com/2008/02/whats-it-going-to-be-then-eh-clockwork.html

His view was in favor of the last chapter and there was some good discussion of the pros and cons of it in the comments.

By: TigerTom

TigerTom — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:16:44 +0000

I enjoyed the film, mainly I think because of the music; Beethoven’s Ode To Joy distorted by a ‘spectrum follower’. It’s also interesting when Alex’s(?) fellow droogs turn on him; we see the limits of brutal leadership.

I wonder how many ‘intellectuals’ like it because it simply gives a literary glamour to gang violence?

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:35:52 +0000

I first saw A Clockwork Orange when it was first released in the US. I saw it about a year or so after my tour of duty in Viet Nam. It made a similiar impact on me as did M*A*S*H. The idea of taking away the choice of good or evil does take away our humanity. God gave us free will, and man cannot take it away from us. Alex apparently grew up in a family with not much of a moral center, no real love, no good examples. A very weak family. I see much of that today, so it is a look into the future which is now our present. Scary, right?