A Clockwork Orange, a 1971 film by Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999), is a grim, futuristic tale of gang (see entry under 1980s—The Way We Lived in volume 5) violence and governmental response to it. Ultimately, both are portrayed as equally destructive.

Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell, 1943–) is the teenage leader of a small gang of vicious hoodlums in a near-future England. Their joy in committing "ultra-violence" takes the forms of gang fights, rape, and the brutal beatings of randomly chosen victims. During a home invasion, Alex kills a woman. He is then betrayed by his gang, arrested, convicted, and imprisoned.

Alex gets out of prison by volunteering for a new "behavioral modification" program designed to make him a fit member of society. Through drug injections, Alex is "conditioned" to experience disabling nausea whenever he feels the urge to commit violence of any kind. Thus rendered incapable of...