“Ludovico technique”: A form of aversion therapy in which a patient is forced to watch, through the use of specula to hold their eyes open, violent images for long periods, while under the effect of a nausea, paralysis and fear-inducing drug.
But of course you’d already know that if you’ve seen Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian masterpiece, “A Clockwork Orange.” For Alex DeLarge, the main baddie — or goodie, depending where you stand on suppressive societies — this involved being strapped to a chair while heavy doses of Nazi propaganda, conveniently scored to the tunes of Beethoven, were blasted at your face.
You may think this exceptionally cruel, O my brothers, but don’t forget Alex had beaten up an elderly vagrant, stolen a car, broken into a man’s home, crippled him, raped his wife, then killed a cat-lady with a penis statue before getting himself into such a deplorable situation. The treatment was so effective he became violently (like Robert Durst level) ill each time he would encounter Beethoven (his favorite musician), violence (his favorite pasttime) or a woman’s breast (his favorite breast).
Okay, ready to try it?
Kubrick made some great teasers, but none of them were quite so meta as this. As they watch the preview, the audience is forced to go through the very same process of torture the protagonist is forced to endure in the climax of a film that none of them had even seen yet. Kubrick used subliminal imagery to advertise a movie about subliminal imagery. The only thing missing is our old friend Ludwig Van and his dreaded ninth symphony.
Don’t worry, though, a later cut would more than make up for that:
If you’re really feeling brave, set this on 2x speed, sit back and try not to have your brain explode.
READ MORE: Stanley Kubrick Original to Become Film Trilogy
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