A Clockwork Orange (Film)

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

A Clockwork Orange, is the 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick, the films is based on the book by Anthony Burgess. The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex and follows most of the plot of the novel but makes some changes.

Production
The filming took place between September in 1970 and April the following year; which makes it the shortest shooting period of any of Kubrick's films at that point and for the rest of his career. The film was shoot almost entirely on location with sets only being constructed for the Korova Milkbar, the prison check in and the bathroom in F. Alexander's house.

Controversy and UK Ban
Prior to the films release, two other films: The Devils (1971) and Straw Dogs (1971), had been released and caused media controversy due to their extreme content. A Clockwork Orange was reviewed by the BBFC and was to be released without cuts; however during a newspaper interview British home secretary Reginald Maudling said he would like to see the film before it was released due in part to the social climate at the time in the UK and the media coverage of other controversial films. The film however was still released uncut, when it was newspapers and other media outlets criticised the violence and sexual content in the film. The film was blamed for a small number of crimes although most of the claims were unfounded; for example a 16 year old boy beat an old homeless person to death, although he had not actually seen the film at the time of the crime. Despite the questionable validity of the claims, this led to members of the public protesting against the film and in some cases threatening Stanley Kubrick himself. After months of controversy Kubrick demanded Warner Brothers withdraw the film in the UK in 1973 after advice from the local police. The film was finally rereleased in 1999 following Kubrick's death, although the film had been withdrawn in the UK it was still possible to see the film as it was limited to the UK, a popular method was to travel to France where the film was still easily available.