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A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Starring Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, and David Prowse.  Cinematography by John Alcott.  Edited by Bill Butler.  Produced, Written, and Directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell), a teenager living in the not too distant future, haunts the streets at night committing acts of violence for the sheer pleasure of it.  This dangerous lifestyle eventually catches up to him when his is betrayed by his gang of droogs and nabbed by the police after committing a vicious murder.  Fearing the significant punishment that looms in his future, Alex volunteers for an experimental rehabilitation program dubbed the Ludovico Technique that will potentially shorten his sentence.

After a number of brutal sessions of aversion therapy, he is released back into the public seemingly a changed young man. Alex may have a new perspective on violence, but his former friends and victims still remember who he was and are not as willing to forgive him.

Anthony Burgess’ inspiration for A Clockwork Orange came from an attack his wife suffered in the final year of World War II.  During a citywide blackout in London, she was assaulted and beaten by four U.S. Army deserters which resulted in a miscarriage and a lifetime of gynecological troubles. Burgess’ book, which was written in 1960 and published in May of 1962, became an ideological study of man’s free will, morality, and evolutionary regression.

The novel was recommended to Stanley Kubrick by writer Terry Southern while the two men labored over the preproduction of Dr. Strangelove.  A few years later, after astonishing the world with 2001:  A Space Odyssey, Kubrick once again planned to raise the bar for himself with an epic biopic about the notorious French leader Napoleon Bonaparte.  But when Dino De Laurentiis’ similarly themed Waterloo failed miserably in American box offices in 1971, Kubrick’s financial backers withdrew from his project. 

Kubrick was in an immediate need of a new picture with a smaller price tag.  Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange provided him with exactly what he was looking for; a complete narrative on a smaller scale that perfectly suited his recurring thoughts and ideas. In fact, of the eleven adaptations in his career, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is by far the least modified from its source material.

After writing the screenplay (solo for the first time in his career), Kubrick shot his picture with blazing efficiency.  Within a year of the first day of shooting, A Clockwork Orange was ready for audiences.  But were audiences ready for A Clockwork Orange?  With the recent abolishment of The Hayes Production Code and The Legion of Decency, Kubrick was truly free to do with his film as he saw appropriate. 

The result is as shocking, disturbing, and challenging as nearly anything that had been put to film. A Clockwork Orange struck up such controversy that Kubrick literally received death threats against himself and his family.  But the critical reviews were extraordinary and despite its X rating by the MPAA, Kubrick’s film went on to earn nominations for some of the industry’s most prestigious awards, including best picture at the Academy Awards (only the second X rated film to do so).  The years have not tamed the fire as A Clockwork Orange is still recognized as one of the most amazing and influential films of all time.

Budget: $2,200,000

Total US Gross: $26,589,355

Genre: Drama

Runtime: 136 Minutes

US Release Date: 12/19/71

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (intended ratio)

Awards:

Academy Awards: 
Nominated for best editing, screenplay based on previous material, director, and picture. 

Golden Globes: 
Nominated for best actor in a drama, best director, and best dramatic picture.

Directors Guild of America: 
Nominated for the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. 

Writers Guild of America: 
Nominated for Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium.

American Film Institute’s Top 100 Lists: 
100 Years… 100 Movies (#46), 100 Years… 100 Thrills (#21)
100 Years… 100 Heroes and Villains (#12 Villain – Alex DeLarge).

Tagline: Being The Adventures Of A Young Man Whose Principal Interests Are Rape, Ultra-Violence and Beethoven.

Quote: “It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.”

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