History YMMV / AClockworkOrange

* HypeBacklash: This film is ''very'' divisive, despite being considered a classic, many people despise it for how it looks like it glorifies sex and violence and wants the viewer to sympathize with Alex.
* JerkassWoobie: Although {{Jerkass}} is a way too nice term to describe Alex, some people see him as this in the second act and the third act, considering what happens to him. A little too sympathetic a label, but his [[AttemptedRape near-rape in prison]], his inability to enjoy anything in life, and the merciless beatings at the hands of his victims-turned-victimizers humanize him. Of course, a lot of this falls flat because some viewers note that Alex is made sympathetic because he is made weak and dehumanized. He loses his woobiness, however, when he rapes 10 year old girls.

** Alex did quite a few bad things, but as soon as he raped a woman in the ''Singing in the Rain'' scene, he was beyond redemption. This is partly why the twenty-first chapter is so controversial -- a lot of readers think it's simply not in his character to suddenly reform.

* RootingForTheEmpire: Alex getting beaten up by the police and his former tormentors is supposed to be horrifying, but since he brought it all on himself a number of viewers found it [[CatharsisFactor cathartic]] to see him get his comeuppance.

** As much as Alex deserved it, you can't feel bad for the poor boy when, after he's released, he has no home due to a lodger staying in his room, he's left at the mercy of his previous victims, former gang members and rivals and he can't do anything to stop them because the treatment has left him unable to perform violence even to defend himself.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Despite Kubrick's camera tricks (especially {{fisheye lens}}es) and the defenestration of Alex, it's pretty hard for a good portion of the audience to forgive Alex for his rather heinous crimes. Mostly because most of the enemies are Strawman characters deliberately made grotesque by the film's satirical focus, so it makes it pretty obvious that the film is telling us what to think and feel, and some audiences don't like that.
* ValuesDissonance: Alex is a man who is a rapist, attacks old people, and shows no remorse until he undergoes a controversial technique to make him harmless, to the point that it makes him miserable because the world hasn't forgiven him for his crimes. In the 2010s, being known as someone who raped two children would get his ass kicked in prison, as many inmates believe in WouldntHurtAChild and in light of the #[=MeToo=] Movement. Not to mention with the advent of social media, ''many'' people would protest having a convicted murderer getting off with a slap-on-the-wrist sentence; if Brock Turner's rape sentencing is any indication.
* ValuesResonance: On the other hand, prison reform has become a serious topic in the 2010s, especially with ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' talking about how even nonviolent nuns are put in with thieves, murderers, and desperate drug addicts, and that it's hard for recently-released inmates to build a normal life. It also hammers home that someone has to ''want'' to become a better person and forcing the change on them will have negative consequences.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: When the novel's main character is a murderer and child rapist, this is inevitable.

** Alex is an AxCrazy psychotic villain who wears [[LightIsNotGood light clothing]], frequently does the KubrickStare, is accompanied by henchmen who are/were cops, listens to [[Music/LudwigVanBeethoven Beethoven]] while committing atrocities and he's played by a British actor. Wait, are we sure that we're not talking about [[Film/TheProfessional Norman Stansfield]]? Hell, Alex even sings [[Film/SingingInTheRain Singing in the Rain]], the same song that would be used in ''Film/TheProfessional'' though this time it's to show the innocent child-like sides of Mathilda Lando and Leon Montana.

** Alex is an AxCrazy psychotic villain who wears [[LightIsNotGood light clothing]], frequently does the KubrickStare, is accompanied by henchmen who are/were cops, listens to [[UsefulNotes/LudwigBeethoven Beethoven]] while committing atrocities and he's played by a British actor. Wait, are we sure that we're not talking about [[Film/TheProfessional Norman Stansfield]]? Hell, Alex even sings [[Film/SingingInTheRain Singing in the Rain]], the same song that would be used in ''Film/TheProfessional'' though this time it's to show the innocent child-like sides of Mathilda Lando and Leon Montana.

** Alex is an AxCrazy psychotic villain who wears [[LightIsNotGood light clothing]], frequently does the KubrickStare, is accompanied by henchmen who are/were cops, listens to [[UsefulNotes/LudwigVonBeethoven Beethoven]] while committing atrocities and he's played by a British actor. Are we sure that we're not talking about [[Film/TheProfessional Norman Stansfield]]? Hell, Alex even sings [[Film/SingingInTheRain Singing in the Rain]], the same song that would be used in ''Film/TheProfessional'' though this time it's to show the innocent child-like sides of Mathilda Lando and Leon Montana.

** Alex is an AxCrazy psychotic villain who wears [[LightIsNotGood light clothing]], frequently does the KubrickStare, is accompanied by henchmen who are/were cops, listens to [[Music/LudwigVonBeethoven Beethoven]] while committing atrocities and he's played by a British actor. Are we sure that we're not talking about [[Film/TheProfessional Norman Stansfield]]? Hell, Alex even sings [[Film/SingingInTheRain Singing in the Rain]], the same song that would be used in ''Film/TheProfessional'' though this time it's to show the innocent child-like sides of Mathilda Lando and Leon Montana.

** Alex fantasises about being in the decadent Roman times. Creator/MalcolmMcDowell would later star in ''Film/{{Caligula}}''.

** Its seems likely that Patrick Magee was remembered by a lot of people after the [[Film/TalesFromTheCrypt following year]] of the film's release as a handicapped man who gets brutalised and takes his own brutal revenge later in the script.

** The method of brainwashing Alex has been through. [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans He would use it against a team of superheroes]].

* ValuesResonance: On the other hand, prison reform has become a serious topic in the 2010s, especially with ''Orange is the New Black'' talking about how even nonviolent nuns are put in with thieves, murderers, and desperate drug addicts, and that it's hard for recently-released inmates to build a normal life. It also hammers home that someone has to ''want'' to become a better person and forcing the change on them will have negative consequences.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: While the film doesn't usually fall under this trope, it was placed under it by Regis Philbin, who was babysitting Kelly Ripa's children on air. Apparently, the fact that a film shows British people in funny hats does not make it Mary Poppins.

* FridgeBrilliance: When Georgie and Dim (as policemen) are dragging Alex between them, their numbers are 665 and 667. This puts Alex in the middle: 666.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The film is a horrific view of a society crippled by teenage hooligans, but it actually ''inspired'' similar crimes throughout the UK, first during its initial release (enough that Creator/StanleyKubrick had Creator/WarnerBros pulled it from theaters in England) and [[http://dangerousminds.net/comments/still_ticking_stanley_kubricks_ban_clockwork_orange then after its DVD release]]. Some argue that if Kubrick had not made Alex so much more handsome and attractive, or dialed down some of the original evil from the novel (like the rape of two ten-year old girls converted into a consensual threesome with age-appropriate girls), this trope could have been averted entirely.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The film is a horrific view of a society crippled by teenage hooligans, but it actually ''inspired'' similar crimes throughout the UK, first during its initial release (enough that Warner Brothers pulled it from theaters in England) and [[http://dangerousminds.net/comments/still_ticking_stanley_kubricks_ban_clockwork_orange then after its DVD release]]. Some argue that if Kubrick had not made Alex so much more handsome and attractive, or dialed down some of the original evil from the novel (like the rape of two ten-year old girls converted into a consensual threesome with age-appropriate girls), this trope could have been averted entirely.

** For some "Singin' in the Rain" is associated with this film, and it still is among a small group of fans, but luckily for Creator/GeneKelly the audience that watches family musicals is always going to be bigger than people who watch Kubrick films.

* AwardSnub: Mr. [=McDowell=] ultimately didn't win an award for his performance as Alex. He didn't even get ''nominated''!

** Far more people have seen the film than have read the book, which Burgess himself considered one of his minor works (as do most literary critics, since he was a respected author of LitFic and a literary critic in his own right), and whose main resentment was that thanks to the film it became one of his BlackSheepHit.[[invoked]]

%% Per the Complete Monster cleanup thread, Alex does not qualify for the trope. Do not add him.
%%

* CantUnhearIt: Creator/StanleyKubrick said that this was the reason why he cast Creator/MalcolmMcDowell as Alex; Kubrick had just come off of watching [=McDowell=]'s performance in the film ''Film/{{If}}'' before he read the Creator/AnthonyBurgess novel, and as a consequence, could not get [=McDowell=]'s face and voice out of his mind when reading the narration of Alex.

* ValuesDissonance: Alex is a man who is a rapist, attacks old people, and shows no remorse until he undergoes a controversial technique to make him harmless, to the point that it makes him miserable because the world hasn't forgiven him for his crimes. In the 2010s, being known as someone who raped two children would get his ass kicked in prison, as many inmates believe in WouldntHurtAChild and in light of the #MeTooMovement. Not to mention with the advent of social media, ''many'' people would protest having a convicted murderer getting off with a slap-on-the-wrist sentence; if Brock Turner's rape sentencing is any indication.

* TearJerker: As much as Alex deserved it, you can't feel bad for the poor boy when, after he's released, he has no home due to a lodger staying in his room, he's left at the mercy of his previous victims and former gang members and he can't do anything to stop them because the treatment has left him unable to perform violence even to defend himself.

* CantUnHearIt: Creator/StanleyKubrick said that this was the reason why he cast Creator/MalcolmMcDowell as Alex; Kubrick had just come off of watching [=McDowell=]'s performance in the film ''Film/{{If}}'' before he read the Creator/AnthonyBurgess novel, and as a consequence, could not get [=McDowell=]'s face and voice out of his mind when reading the narration of Alex.

** The Korova milkbar bouncer standing next to Alex’s droogs in the opening scene is Creator/PatRoach, better known for his various roles in the ‘’Franchise/IndianaJones’’ films.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: The message of the last chapter might easily be read as "affinity to rape and violence is just a phase and teenagers grow out of it around the time they come of age".

* ChaoticEvil: Alex. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Rape, murder, theft, a little classical music...]]

* FridgeBrilliance: When Pete and Dim (as policemen) are dragging Alex between them, their numbers are 665 and 667. This puts Alex in the middle: 666.