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and female dominance.

Sexual obsession also appears in the non-criminal characters, for instance, the nurse and doctor who are caught in the act of in out, in out', or the murder victim with the giant penis ornament. The obsession is channelled in a different way, and a lot comes from an institutional perspective. Alex's ex-Droog's join the police force while he is in prison. When he comes out they use their frustration to beat him to within an inch of his life. The sexual obsession within the adult' characters now becomes cloaked behind the police uniform, or the warden at the prison, or the psychiatrists treating Alex at the hospital. As pillars of a failing community they do not have the choice' so freely exploited by Alex and his gang, so they take it out in other, more acceptable' ways.

Choice' is a major aspect of the film because the male characters are seen to enforce this idea of masculinity, but Kubrick sees this as ambiguous. Alex Jack sees Joker's callous killing of a wounded, female Vietnamese soldier as Kubrick saying: You men need to tuck away your penises and surrogate penises (guns), because you will never get anywhere with them. Masculinity is a myth and a dead end.' The psychiatrists in A Clockwork Orange' take away Alex's freedom of choice through psychological manipulation, and therefore strip him of his own self worth. Choice' is a freedom Alex is born with, but by being brought up in this society he has been conditioned and nurtured to think only one way. By taking away his ability to chose, society is being institutionally condemned to decay.

And how potent is this decay? Malcolm McDowell (who played Alex), speaking thirty years after the film was first release said, when asked about cinema violence mirroring real life: Are we supposed to ignore the fact that we live in a very violent society?' He continued, maybe it's frustration about the American dream gone sour. I don't know what it is. It is the expectations of something that's never quite fulfilled. There's great anger and frustration around. There's a lot of that.' Kubrick doesn't condone the violence of the film, he uses it to example freedoms of choice. When Alex is cured, violence still finds him and it suddenly takes on a more disturbing tone. The audience, complicit with the immorality of Alex's previous endeavors, begins to sense more unease when the violence is turned on the murderer. In most cases, this would be an uplifting but sadistic closure, as the baddie' gets the

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