FILM

A Clockwork Orange

In a dystopian futuristic Britain, Alex DeLarge and his drooges spend their nights committing crimes of ultraviolence until they caught caught one night and Alex is sent to prison for murder. To speed up his prison time, Alex volunteers to take a radical new drug designed to wipe out the criminal impluse and must learn to deal with the unintended side effects of the drug.

A Clockwork Orange
Official Website
Cast:

Malcolm McDowell; Patrick Magee; Adrienne Corri; Miriam Karlin

Director:
Stanley Kubrick

Producer:
Stanley Kubrick

Written by:
Stanley Kubrick

Distributor:
Warner Bros.

Budget:
$2,2 million

Box Office:
$26.2 million

Awards:

Best Picture - Nomination
Best Director - Stanley Kubrick - Nomination
Best Adapted Screenplay - Stanley Kubrick - Nomination
Best Film Editing - Bill Butler - Nomination



Metacritic Score:
78

Rotten Tomatoes Score:
89%

Other content you may enjoy

A_Clockwork_Orange_Title.jpg
Read

What Does the Title of “A Clockwork Orange” Mean?

Aside from the metaphorical meanings of the title of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971), the name reportedly came from an off-hand Cockney expression, “as queer as a clockwork orange,” which the source novel’s author, Anthony…
Read more
aclockworkorange.jpg
Read

How Does “A Clockwork Orange” Use the Moon as a Symbol?

The moon - or “luna,” as it’s called in Nadsat, the slang language Burgess invents in the film’s source novel - has strong symbolic power in both the film and the novel. In Kubrick’s film, before Alex and his gang savagely beat an…
Read more
A-Clockwork-Orange-a-clockwork-orange-14752448-965-577.jpg
Read

In “A Clockwork Orange,” Are There Any “Good” Guys?

Audiences typically choose to look for the “good guys” in a movie. Viewers latch on to the protagonist because they are often presented as the “hero” of the story; a charismatic presence for which one feels compelled to root. But in A…
Read more
Darth_Vader.jpg
Read

How can cinema differentiate between likeable and loathsome villains?

In films, we traditionally have characters that progress the narrative and help viewers analyse their features. Heroes are introduced as individuals who become part of a goal-orientated quest where they triumph over obstacles at turning points…
Read more
ACWO_Ludovico.jpg
Read

What is the Ludovico Technique in “A Clockwork Orange,” and How Does it Work?

A Clockwork Orange (1971) features one of the more uncomfortable scenes in cinema, when Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is submitted to the aversion therapy tactics of the fictional Ludovico Technique. In the film, a Dr. Brodsky (Carl Duering) of the…
Read more
1RnKkO5-1050x853.jpg
Read

How Did the Collaboration of Kubrick and Alcott Perfect “A Clockwork Orange’s” Dystopian Aesthetic?

During production of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), together with Geoffrey Unsworth, Stanley Kubrick was able to reinvent and sharpen special effects techniques in cinema of the time. Before the end of production, Unsworth had moved on, leaving his…
Read more
A Clockwork Orange
{parents:category_name}

A Clockwork Orange: The Glamorous Psychopath

In the age of the anti-hero, (think the Lannisters and the Underwoods) A Clockwork Orange’s hero, Alex, stands out as a prototype and prime example of a strange but fascinating subset of the anti-hero type, which we like to call the glamorous…
Read more
A_Clockwork_Orange_Nadsat.jpg
Read

What is Nadsat in “A Clockwork Orange,” and What Is It Derived From?

While Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange (1971) does feature the complex language of the demoralized youths of future England, it only gives us a portion of the Anglo-Russian hybrid that Anthony Burgess constructed for his…
Read more
childrenofmen-1.jpg
Read

A Film for Every Holiday: Celebration of Life Day, “Children of Men”

Judy Brooks picks the film to watch for today’s holiday and tells us why it’s the right choice for the occasion. Celebration of Life Day is observed annually on January 22 to honor the children of the world. Alfonso Cuaron’s dystopian…
Read more
A Clockwork Orange
{parents:category_name}

Center Framing: Mad Max, Wes Anderson & Kubrick

Read more