A week ago I had to watch a movie for my “Theories of crime” class. This was an alternative for our midterm. Because a lot of people were packed with midterms they requested the professor to give something else instead of a midterm so Professor Maida gave us this project.
First we had to watch the movie “Clock Work Orange,” before watching the movie we had to go over the first seven chapters of the book including all the theories that could be applied to the movie’s victims and preparators. Also, after submitting our paper, we had to give a presentation which had to be very creative. I thought this whole process was very stressful because presentations are always arduous for quiet introverts. Not that I didn’t like this whole process. I found it very constructive but time consuming. Your time is mostly taken up by thinking about the theories and different terms, applying them to the whole movie.
Clock work orange (1971) directed by Stanley Kubrick portrays the real picture of a criminal’s life. Alex, the protagonist is the main character of the movie. Everything revolves around him. He is both the perpetrator and the victim of this movie. He’s into all sorts of criminal activity. Moreover, he also had created a gang of which he is the leader. He is only 15 year old committing crimes such as murder, robbery, rapes etc.
I chose to write about this movie and especially Alex because it’s unbelievable to imagine a 15 year old commit such vicious crimes like rapping a women in front of her husband. The question is where did this idea even come in a 15 year old boy’s head? Crimes like RAPE, MURDER, and BURGLARY; why did he even do any of those?
There are so many questions we could ask ourselves and others but the answers are limited. In his case there are answers as to why he did what he did.
The theories that I study in this class inform me about how, why and where “criminals” or May I say “people” commit crime. This class taught me that these people are “labeled” with words such as killer or murderer that they actually try to live up to these words, which makes it worse because now they are titled something big and they want to be perfect in it.
This movie is an excellent piece for any criminal justice student or any criminal justice professional because it illustrates the cruel reality of this world. There are things worse than a car accident. We don’t know until we are in such a situation and God forbid we ever shall be because no one ever wants to be.
