A Clockwork Orange (novel) After his fellow cellmates blame him for beating a troublesome cellmate to death, he is chosen to undergo an experimental behaviour modification treatment called the Ludovico Technique in exchange for having the remainder of his sentence commuted. The technique is a form of aversion therapy, in which Alex is injected with nausea-inducing drugs while watching graphically violent films, eventually conditioning him to become severely ill at the mere thought of violence. As an unintended consequence, the soundtrack to one of the films, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, renders Alex unable to enjoy his beloved classical music as before. The effectiveness of the
A Clockwork Orange (film) himself, "I was cured, all right!" The film's central moral question (as in many of Burgess' novels) is the definition of "goodness" and whether it makes sense to use aversion therapy to stop immoral behaviour. Stanley Kubrick, writing in "Saturday Review", described the film as: Similarly, on the film production's call sheet (cited at greater length above), Kubrick wrote: After aversion therapy, Alex behaves like a good member of society, though not through choice. His goodness is involuntary; he has become the titular clockwork orange — organic on the outside, mechanical on the inside. In the prison, after witnessing the