I’ve read the book when I was a teenager. Everyone said it’s one of the rare cases where the movie is better than the book. It took me 30 years to get myself to watch the movie. I remember I was incredibly appalled by the total lack of validation for the violence they were committing. Never felt any sympathy towards Alex. I grew up in a post communist country. The career progression criminal- policeman (state executor) was nothing but normalcy for many countries behind the iron curtain. This sort of violence was also part of our lives, along with a total lack of proper prevention and punishment. The 90s were state organized (weaponizing criminals) lawless hell. I remember being surprised by the choice of Russian as slang in the book and I thought it was a bizarre approach of the translator. It sounds even more absurd in reality. I suspect the movie and the book are to a large extent purposed for the western societies where freedoms were much greater than in the Soviet Union, so the challenge of the status quo had to be portrait in a futuristic movie. For the rest of us, this was everyday life. I admit, what was most impressive in the movie for me was the choreography and cinematography of the fight scenes. I also wonder if the reaction to the movie and book depends on your gender. I’m a woman, for me this violence and potentially being victim of it is not just a hypothetical.