Pena e libertà. Sulla rappresentazione della violenza in “Arancia meccanica” di Stanley Kubrick

The article highlights the risks of a representation of violence that conforms to the stereo-types and simplifications of securitarian orientations, which in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ proves to be devoid of attention both to the factors of social co-responsibility that foster crime and to the needs of primary prevention. This approach easily lends support to emerg-ing neo-retributive trends that emerged from the 1970s. Nevertheless, Stanley Kubrick's work strongly emphasizes how the opposition of violence to violence creates a vicious cy-cle that makes overcoming it impossible: a juxtaposition that is concretized in the bizarre program of coercive re-education to which the film’s protagonist agrees to undergo and whose strident incompatibility with the autonomy of each human individual constitutes the core of the entire cinematic work. In the following notes, it is highlighted that the aforementioned program does not outline a correct picture of the re-educational purpose, which implies not the nullification but the promotion of individual freedom. Additionally, it is observed that the binding nature of penal provisions does not entail, contrary to tradi-tional assertions, intrinsic contents of violence (violent intimidation has never contributed to reducing evil but has largely served as a means to induce actions aligned with evil).