Osobliwy sen Aleksa. O szczególnej roli obrazu filmowego w adaptacji "Mechanicznej pomarańczy" Anthony’ego Burgessa

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ALEX’S PECULIAR DREAM ON THE SPECIFIC ROLE OF THE FILM IMAGE IN THE ADAPTATION OF ANTHONY BURGESS’S CLOCKWORK ORANGE

In Anthony Burgess’s Clockwork Orange, the main character, Alex DeLarge, falls into a nightmarish dream that is the turning point in his fixed inner life. Stanley Kubrick’s motion picture, based on Burgess’s novel, lacks the theme of the nightmarish dream; this is significant and consistent with the strategy regarding director’s own style of dramatisation of novel’s psychological tissue. The dynamic change of Alex’s status from a divine lunatic into a scapegoat means a transformation of destructive and reciprocated violence into uniting and sacrificial violence that kills and revives at the same time. Kubrick understood Burgess’s intentions; thus the film adaptation of Clockwork Orange is an update of the novel. The risk of monstrous violence is still very real. The film is devoid of the nightmarish dream that has saved Alex in the novel. However, there is completely dehumanised simulation of a fantasy for which the nightmare becomes a guarantee in respect of circulation and dynamisation of violence instead. Alex becomes the holder of symbolic power, which should be noticed by the audience. Audience’s position in Kubrick’s text is subordinated to Alex’s reception. The audience has to recognise the simulation and this peculiar role of Alex. Otherwise, he becomes the advocate of violence.