MovieChat Forums > A Clockwork Orange (1972) Discussion > Alex's reason for wanting the treatment

Alex's reason for wanting the treatment


Did he legitimately want to be good or did he just want to get out of his prison sentence early?

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To me, I never questioned that he looked at the treatment as an easy way of getting out of his sentence. Just like he had earlier become an assistant in the church, pretending to be 'saved', but spending his time enjoying the lurid scenes of killing and sex in the Bible. Right up until they strapped him in the chair, he thought the treatment just involved viddying some ultraviolence and a bit of the old in-and-out. He thought he would like it.

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Yeah that was always what I thought especially during the scene when he imagines himself being the one who is whipping Jesus on his way to the crucifixion. Just watching it again when he told the priest "I want to be good" I thought I detected a least some level of sincerity but I may just be looking too far into this.

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But then he looked and sounded so sincere when he told that Father "I want to be good", was he faking it, as he ultimately have ulterior motive for it?

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Well, Alex was shown to be a very proficient manipulator, with his parents, his droogs, the two teenage girls at the record shop, etc.

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Faking it - he’s a sociopath

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