A Clockwork Orange

If the world’s population had an inclination towards ultra-violence and the police were not even considered a threat to them, what would life be like? Starting off as a young teenage boy, our main character, Alex, is a leader of a small gang. After being betrayed by his other gang members, he goes to jail and is selected as the “guinea pig” for a new program that the government had created to put a stop to violence.After he experiences this program and is released, he is beaten, used for others’ political gain, and hurt by people he trusted.

The movie and book were so close to identical. Their differences, if any, were very little details that were not obvious even to someone looking for them. I read the book before I watched the movie. Because of this I think the book was better. Many of the differences I noticed were very small ones.

The biggest difference that was the most noticeable was when he was put in jail. In this part of the story, the book shows his cellmates and how they first stood up for him, but later ratted him out. Another difference this one being much smaller, is when Alex and his gang members knock on an older woman’s house door asking to use the phone – this was a trick the gang used in order to gain access to steal things from people’s homes. In the book the woman tells them to go away, but in the movie she suggests the public phone. A second, small difference between the book and movie is in the movie Alex has a pet snake that he keeps in one of his dresser drawers, in the book he doesn’t have a pet at all. There were other differences, but they were all so small they weren’t even worth mentioning.

The movie’s script was taken mostly from the book, so it was almost like there was no need for a screenwriter. This is another reason for why I think the book was better. Calling the movie unoriginal is far off because everything about the story is unusual, but everything else other than the plot is uninspired. Maybe the director wanted it to be like this because changing the plot even a little bit would disturb the boldness of the book’s story. This could make either the book better than the movie or the other way around depending on if you read the book or watched the movie first.

I am not saying that the book and movie should have been polar opposites, but I wish they could be better differentiated. If you are really willing to try a completely new type of genre than I would try the book A Clockwork Orange. Be ready for a book written in a very street slang language and also be sure to keep an open mind. If the plot of this story interests you then you should read the book first to see if you really like it. Overall, this book is really creepy and I wouldn’t recommend it for most people.