A clockwork orange (orange mécanique in french), is a movie produced by Stanley Kubrick in 1972. It is based on a Britain novel written by Anthony Burgess in 1962.
The main character of this movie Alexandre DeLarge is interpreted by Malcolm Mc Dowell. He’s the leader of a small gang of delinquents. Their routine is to go in a bar, drink a milk and drugs cocktail, and then to be extremely violent. For example, we see them beating an old man, fighting a rival gang, stealing a car, and also assaulting and rapping a couple in their own house. The most interesting part of this movie isn’t the creepy violent atmosphere than Kubrick managed to present with excellence. To me, it appears when Alex is arrested and put in jail for two years. Somehow, he managed to participe to an experience. Indeed, the Minister of the interior is testing an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminels within two weeks.
In order to, they use a conditioning method. In the literature we can find two kinds of conditionnement, one operant defined by Skinner, and the classic by Pavlov. In the operant conditionnement we can choose to make the comportement to increase or to decrease and eventually stop. The reinforcement’s aim is to make the comportement continue, and a punition is to make it stop. When we called it positive we add a stimulus and when it is negative we take a stimulus off. So, in this conditionnement we can find four possibilities:
- A positive reinforcement: we want the comportement to increase, so an appetitive stimulus is use (like a reward)
- A negative reinforcement : we still want the comportement to increase, but by removing an unpleasant element (like removing an obligation)
- A positive punition : we want the comportement to stop, so we add an unpleasant stimulus (like pain)
- A negative punition: we still want the comportement to stop, but eliminating a appetitive element.
The conditioning method using in this movie can be assimilated to a positive punition, but in fact, it is more like Pavlov conditionnement.
In his famous experiment, Pavlov managed to make a dog salivate hearing the sound of a small bell, that is to say, the dog assimilates the sound of the bell to his food. In the movie, Alex received a puncture before every time he has to watch violent movie (with Beethoven music in background). The product makes him sick. It hurts him so much that after the two weeks of experiment, every situation with sex or violence makes him sick like if he had the product in his body, but without having it in reality, and he is unable to move or act like he would have in his past.
For the minister, this expriment is a great success, but in reality, we see how dangerous it can become for the character. Indeed, he can’t defend himself anymore living in a violent society and against the brutality of the assault he will go through.
This movie is a great open minded vision on the society, and how we want everyone to be like we make them. We need the freedom to choose and act as we want and as we need to, according to the situation.
What did I feel if I could, if I was free, if I was not enslaved by my conditioning?
Le meilleur des mondes, Aldous Huxley (1977)
About 550 words
Word I have learned :
Reinforcement : renforcement
Unable : Dans l’incapacité
Open-minded : ouvert(ure) d’esprit