A Clockwork Orange

Stanley Kubrick, UK, 1971, 136 minutes

"Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven."

Yes, it's A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick's follow up to 2001, as dystopian as its predessor/counterpart was utopian yet equally brilliant in its technique.

You probably all know the story, but I'll recap it anyway.

A charismatic young man by the name of Alex (Malcolm McDowell) leads his gang of droogs in a succession of anti-social acts, culminating in rape and murder. Society then hits back. Alex is sent to prison where, after undergoing predictably brutal treatment at the hands of the authorities, volunteers for the experimental Ludovico technique which is supposed to leave him completely rehabilitated within two weeks. The Ludovico technique turns out to be a form of radical aversion therapy whereby Alex is forced to watch images of atrocities, his eyes clamped open, all played to the strains of his beloved 9th Symphony. The treatment works - Alex is violently sick whenever he contemplates violence. But, as he is released back into the world, the treatment's side effects become ever more apparent...

This is also one of those films where the behind the scenes story is as just as fascinating the film itself.

Inspired by Anthony Burgess's first wife's experiences at the hands of American army deserters in WWII and written as a means of attaining financial security for his second when he erroneously believed himself to be suffering from terminal illness, the book A Clockwork Orange was first published in the UK in 1964. This version comprised three sections, each of seven chapters. Curiously, however, the later US version of the novel, upon which Kubrick based his film, omitted the final chapter, thereby allowing a different interpretation of the novel's message.

Drawing adults-only ratings and considerable controversy on both sides of the Atlantic, the film was subsequently withdrawn from circulation in the UK by Kubrick and remained unavailable except via samizdat copies for over a quarter of a century, with this no doubt contributing to its growing cult status. (To give but one example, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham would frequently perform in white suite and black bowler hat droog-style dress.) While the reason for Kubrick's decision is understandable, with the revelation that threats had been made against the him and his family, the film's withdrawal also served to a further layer of irony: whereas Burgess always insisted on the importance of human freewill; the ability to choose good or evil - the clockwork orange of the title is a play on the Malay word for man, orang, and alludes to a mechanical man - here was Kubrick denying the entire population of a country the right to make up their own minds.

Whatever one thinks of the film and its stance on violence - if any text can really be said to have one - there is no question that it remains a powerful, thought-provoking piece of cinema that warrants a new generation of viewers.

Review by Michel Gentil
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2006