A Clockwork Orange - Home Invasion (Spectatorship)

This scene is one which borders potentially giving up alignment with Alex, yet techniques used by the director encourage not to do so. A common occurrence throughout the film, is a disassociation between Alex and the crimes he commits, and this scene reinforces this. Whereby he wears a mask, which straight away disconnects the character we have aligned with, into another persona. The graphicness of this scene is very uncomfortable, however the use of camera enables me to stay aligned with Alex's character, and somehow not feel angry towards him. This is achieved through the use of shot types, firstly we do see a low angle shot, however we know it is not the from the husbands POV as we are positioned behind him; we are prevented the chance to identify with his character, and take an A-central response towards him, through the use of close ups which creates a sense of pity towards him. Moreover, from a spectator POV, we are encouraged to view this scene in a voyeuristic way, we do not view this scene from the victims POV, and are simply placed within the scene, which is what creates the feeling of uncomfortableness. The fact we see the woman as passive, and are denied her POV, is what ultimately keeps us connected to Alex, and denies us from seeing him as rapist. Further, at the end of the scene, we notice how Alex says "Viddy well little brothers", this patronising comment, is what keeps alignment towards Alex. The comment again reinforces that Alex is our guide, and in this instance we are removed from the scene, and again prevented the chance to remove alignment. Overall, this scene can be seen as a test as to whether we stay aligned with Alex, however the preferred reading would be to in fact stay aligned with Alex, as again he was disassociated with the crimes, and we were prevented the chance to view him rape the woman- alignment towards Alex continues on from this scene.