1. Discuss the background to the film:
This film is about a young group of boys who enjoy 'ultra-violence', the main character being Alex. Alex enjoys committing crimes and hurting people for fun, even his friends- everyone fears him due to his attitude and behaviour. When Alex is imprisoned he decides he wants to try a new experiment where professionals try to re-sensitise him to violence and abuse. This experiment works but has horrible consequences for Alex. Doctors decide to reverse the experiment which brings Alex back to his original state.
2. How was the film reported by the press and how did the youths respond to the film?
The press gave the film very bad connotations as whenever it was mentioned or brought up it was in relation to some horrible happening. The film caused such great controversy the director had to pull it from the shelves until he died because he didn't want to have to put up with the hassle. Youths were reported to have reenacted scenes from the film, suggesting the copycat theory was prominent when watching this film. The film was blamed for putting these ideas in people's heads.
3. How can Stan Cohen's theory be applied to this film?
Alex and his friends were the Folk Devils that nobody liked and everyone feared due to their reputations of what they would do. Their behaviour caused moral panic as everyone knew what kind of things they get up to in their spare time for fun and anyone could be their next victim. When Alex got out of prison and was reformed as a good man people wanted revenge for the bad things he had done, they believed he deserved to be treat badly as payment for all the bad things he did to society as a whole. At the same time people also feared him when they recognised who he was because they probably couldn't believe he actually was reformed and wouldn't trust him to be free from jail.
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