Saw this film for the first time last night on Film4 and it's excellent!

The story is based in the future on a violent gang of which, the leader Alex, is imprisoned for murder. He is then chosen as the Guinea pig for a revolutionary program which makes him feel physically sick when witnessing any kind of violence or sex.

This then leads him to try and take his own life, only to fail and end up in hospital. He is then restored back to his former self through treatment.


It was a very controversial film:

Taken from wikipedia,

In the United Kingdom, the sexual violence in the film was considered extreme. Furthermore, it was claimed that the film had inspired copycat behaviour. In March 1972, a prosecutor at a trial of a 14-year-old boy accused of the manslaughter of one of his classmates referred to A Clockwork Orange, telling the judge that the case had a macabre relevance to the film.[5]

More direct connections were made after the murder of David McManus, a homeless 60-year-old man who had 1½p stolen from him. The attacker, a boy age 16 from Bletchley, pleaded guilty after telling police that his friends had told him of the film "and the beating up of an old boy like this one"; defence counsel told the trial "the link between this crime and sensational literature, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established beyond reasonable doubt".[6] The press also blamed the influence of the film for a rape in which the attackers sang "Singin' in the Rain". Kubrick subsequently requested that Warner Brothers withdraw the film from UK distribution.

At the time, it was widely believed that the copycat attacks were what led Kubrick to withdraw the film from distribution in the United Kingdom. However, in a television documentary made after Kubrick's death, his widow Christiane confirmed rumours that Kubrick had withdrawn A Clockwork Orange on police advice after threats were made against Kubrick and his family (the source of the threats was not discussed). That Warner Bros. acceded to Kubrick's request to withdraw the film is an indication of the remarkable relationship Kubrick had with the studio, particularly the executive Terry Semel.

Whatever the reason for the film's withdrawal, it could not easily be seen in the United Kingdom for some 27 years. The first VHS and DVD releases followed shortly after Kubrick's death. It was also shown in many UK cinemas.

lol....I got yelled at by a certain mod when only mentioning the title...hahaah

this might be deleted or something.

Why? Jebus, it's only a film.

I bet the same person is annoyed with game censoring too.

Brilliant film, one of my favourites. Apart from Dr. Strangelove I'd call it Kubrick's best film. It's a shame he felt the need to ban it here in the UK though.

i dont get why people seemed to like the film so much, i found it alright cause the downfall of the movie was alex in the hospital for too much of the film...
Great ending though

All of my friends have told me to watch it so many times and I still have not seen it.
Is it really that good?

I was watching it on some site and got half way through, but the last 3 parts of the movie didn't work. The beginning is pretty fauked up stuff.

i love the ultraviolence.

i am in love with that movie. its extremely sick and twisted. very dark humor and a psychotic look at probably an original childhood gangster.

its a slur language of old russian and english. they like to use russian throughout the film and it confused me because they werent IN russia. dont know why the writer had it like that.

i had to watch the movie a few times to udnerstand it really. the first time was just a train wreak that i had to watch til the end....it kept having me go WTF?! between the raping, the brainwashing, and "ultra violence" and his fetish for beethoven.

if you arent smart enough to catch the symbolism and sexual innuendos i advise not watching this movie. it is also very graphic.

hands down the flim is one of my favorites. i have it on DVD and watch it all the time. i also read the book.

The time Alex spends in the hospital is important to the subtle meaning behind the film, aside from the more obvious motifs.

Read the book if you liked the film. The ending is different. You actually get a whole different meaning from the book than the film.



Dude....hellz yeah. I have that 8 film Kubrick Box set. it's AMAZING. He's by far my favorite director.

The book, narrated by Alex, contains many words in a slang dialect which Burgess invented for the book, called Nadsat. It is a mix of modified Slavic words, Cockney rhyming slang, derived Russian (like "baboochka"), and words invented by Burgess himself.
<Wikipedia>

It's just something he made up

The book is amazing as well

i blame this movie for taking away my youthful innocence....























actually i blame my ex girlfriend....














more thanks than blaming in retrospect....















i should call her...

lawls....classy

This movie is just ****ed. And pretty well known in the states.

The film is packed full of morals and ethics such as the importance of why every person should have choice or they cease being. Jill is right though, you really do need to be sharp to pick up a lot of the film although there are people who watch it purely for the violence.

Aparently Kubrick banned it because of threats he recieved to his family, NOT because of the "copycat" murders/rapes.

theres more to the movie than just the violence and rape. infact theres a ton of hidden meanings. take for instance why he sings "singing in the rain" you think a younge kid about to rape a woman would come up with a more grown up song dontcha think? theres alot of innocence that alex has. hes also the youngest in his group and hes the head honcho.

youre right about kubrick. i read that on a website he recieved many threats because of the violence and the message it sent across. it was one of his most barbaric films. this wasnt full metal jacket with a ton of cursing. oh no, this was images that are very frightening to see if youre not "immune" to the sickness in the world

yeah, it's right up there with "psycho" over here when it comes to legendary.