Sir: Mr Walker (Letters, July 21) may well be right
that it is hard, if not impossible, to prove a direct causal connection between the film A Clockwork Orange and any particular act of violence.
But surely the cage against the film (and those who made it, praised it, and distributed it) rests more firmly on the moral effect it has on any individual who sees it, whether or not this is expressed in criminal action. I saw the film and it is true I have not yet beaten anyone up. But at the time I was quite well aware of the sickening moral degradation involved.
Many sequences in the film, especially those dreadful acts of violence set to light-hearted music, came across as nothing less than an appalling indulgence in violence as entertainment, and this was the tone of the film as a whole. It seemed to me that the quite secondary points about the treatment of such offenders was an academic argument quite submerged in this wilful and immoral indulgence in sadism, pornography and, to put it frankly, evil.
There isn't much cause for amusement in all this. But 1 did smile to see Mr Walker mention in the film's defence that the tramp isn't actually killed. I suppose one should be grateful for small mercies these days.
Julian Le Vay
137 Canelsdile Road, Haslemere, Surrey.
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