A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Teenage delinquents Alex (Malcolm McDowell), Dim (Warren Clarke), Georgie (James Marcus), and Pete (Michael Tarn) living in a futuristic British state, indulge in nightly rounds of beatings, rapings, and, as they call it, "ultraviolence." Among their victims is prominent writer Mr. Alexander (Patrick Magee); they beat him senseless, and brutally gang-rape his attractive wife (Adrienne Corri). (Mr. Alexander is left a maniacal paraplegic, and his wife dies as a result of the attack). After violently quelling an uprising among his own gang, Alex is betrayed by them during an attack on another home, having been knocked senseless and left for the police.

In prison, he agrees to undergo experiments in "aversion therapy" in order to shorten his term. Now nauseated by the mere sight of violence, he is pronounced cured and released into the outside world. There, vengeance of one kind or another is wreaked upon him by his erstwhile fellow gang-members (now policemen), and by his former victims (including Mr. Alexander). After another spell in prison Alex returns home, where we expect him to resume his old criminal ways.

Adapted from the novel by British author Anthony Burgess, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is a visually dazzling, highly unsettling work that revolves around one of the few truly amoral characters in either film or literature. It pits a gleefully vicious individual against a blandly inhuman state, leaving the viewer little room for emotional involvement (though McDowell gives such an ebullient, wide-eyed performance as the Beethoven-loving delinquent that it is hard for us not to feel some sympathy toward him).

Meanwhile, we are dazzled by Stanley Kubrick's directorial pyrotechnics—slow motion, fast motion, fish-eye lenses, etc.; entertained by John Barry's witty, ostentatious sets; and intrigued by dialogue laden with Burgess's specially created slang (gang members are "droogies," sex is "the old inout," etc.). This is a particularly graphic film which has divided critics, but which no serious film student can afford to ignore.

Cast:

Performer, Character

Malcolm McDowell, Alex

Patrick Magee, Mr. Alexander

Michael Bates, Chief Guard

Warren Clarke, Dim

John Clive. Stage Actor

Adrienne Corri, Mrs. Alexander

Carl Duering, Dr. Brodsky

Paul Farrell, Hobo

Clive Francis, Lodger

Michael Gover, Prison Warden

Miriam Karlin, Cat Lady

James Marcus, Georgie

Aubrey Morris, Deltoid

Godfrey Quigley, Prison Chaplain

Sheila Raynor, Mum

Madge Ryan, Dr. Branom

John Savident, Conspirator Dolin

Anthony Sharp, Minister of the Inferior

Philip Stone, Dad

Pauline Taylor, Psychiatrist

Production Credits:

Producer, Stanley Kubrick

Director, Stanley Kubrick

Screenwriters, Stanley Kubrick and Anthony Burgess (based on the novel by Burgess)

Editor, Bill Butler

Cinematographer, John Alcott

Composer, Walter Carlos