A Clockwork Orange (1972)

Without a doubt Kubrick's most notorious film, A Clockwork Orange is today one of the most popular cult films of all time, and continues to grow in popularity even today, some 26 years after its' original release. Kubrick read Anthony Burgess' novel of the same name in the summer of 1969, which in fact was a gift from Terry Southern, who worked with Kubrick on the Dr. Stranglove screenplay. He instantly took to the book, finishing it in one sitting and quickly rereading it.

Kubrick's film adaption was always going to be controversial, and it certainly lived up to its reputation. The plot itself is as simple as it is torridly brutal, revolving around the adventures of 16-year old Alex, the films hero, or indeed classic anti-hero, who with his gang of droogs, spend their youth torturing, raping, murdering and robbing - for fun. However, only some 45 minutes into the film, Alexs' spree of terror comes to an end, as he is caught and subject to a new form of 'punishment' - brainwashing. Such is the power of the brainwashing technique that he feels nauseous every time anyone mentions violence or sexual assault, and whenever he hears the music of his beloved Ludwig van Beethoven.

The film was shot mostly on location in England, where before shooting had begun Kubrick was busy searching through back issues of architectural magazines to find houses matching the descriptions given in the novel. Alex's inner city flatblock was filmed in Thamesmead, and the home of the writer whose wife Alex so brutally rapes and kills, was a home in Oxfordshire. The interior of this home was another building in Radlett, the record shop in which Alex seduces two teenage girls was a Chelsea chemist, and in all only 4 sets were built for the film. These were for the Korova milkbar scene, the prison reception area and the mirrored hallway and bathroom of the writer's house. Each of these sets were built in Borehamwood, near the old MGM studios.

Filming of A Clockwork Orange was made much easier by the use of advanced film technology on the set and on location. Examples of such technology include lightweight cameras, faster lenses and improved sound systems. The microphones used were so effective that Kubrick did not have to dub any dialogue at all for the entirety of the film, and the amount of light produced by new 1000 watt quartz lights gave Kubrick the freedom to shoot in any direction around the room that he pleased.

Of course, many critics went haywire at the release of the film, branding it a simple allegory of ultraviolence and mass tittilation. Despite this criticism the film opened strongly around the world, including England, where Kubrick at first thought audiences would be less receptive. In America, even though the film was given an X-rating, it still managed to be nominated for three Academy Awards, for Kubrick's writing, directing, and producing. However, the controversy in England over the film was sparked by a number of 'copy-cat' crimes, that police and judges had blame solely on the film. Such crimes included a brutal bashing by a 16 year old dressed in an Alex costume, and the rape of a woman by a teenager singing "I'm singing in the rain". After much deliberation with the main distributor, Warner Bros., Kubrick decided to pull the film from being shown in England cinemas. The distribution ban continues to this day, and it is still very difficult to the get the film on video at any place around the world.

Yet, aside from all the suggestions and controversies regarding the film itself, one must again look deep into Kubrick's work and attempt to reveal the moral questions that lie behind all the violence and bloodshed. The most obvious, if not powerful question, is that of whether it is right to reform a criminal in such a way as Alex was - scientifically brainwashed to such an extent that he is driven insane by his own disabilities and resorts to suicide. The attempt at suicide fails; but we are left with an image of a pathetically hopeless Alex being spoon fed by a nurse. Alex, the sickeningly vibrant young man who we all despised somewhat at the beginning of the film, now an incapable being whom we all can do little but sympathise with.

It may seem to some that A Clockwork Orange takes a one-sided negative view of criminal reformation, especially after viewing the pure terror of Alex's brainwashing ordeal as he is forced to watch day after day of ultraviolence and rape with his eyes held open by hooks. But rather, Kubrick somehow manages to blend argument and debate into the context of the film, and at the same time present to us his own view of reformation - that Alex should 'choose' to be reformed and to become good. He must be, as the title refers, an orange - capable of growth and sweetness, not a wound-up idealistic clockwork toy. Kubrick's view of the situation is in fact much more realistic than Anthony Burgess', who, in the 21st chapter of his novel, shows Alex seeing an old Droog friend, Pete, who has 'grown up' and married; encouraging Alex somewhat to grow up himself and leave youth behind.

Kubrick passed this ending off as optimistic, instead, as I have already said, choosing to portray the pure helplessness of the 'reformed' Alex in a tragic scene at the conclusion of the film. Both Kubrick and Burgess, however, have one thing in common of their overview of the situation - that youth must have its 'fling', however wild it may be. For Burgess, the cure is age and wisdom. For Kubrick, who again chooses the pessimistic view, the only 'solution' is to deprive youth of their minds and quash the fury that lurks in every teenager's heart - the battle between right and wrong, between good and evil; a battle not always won by good itself. Kubrick himself described the film as: "a social satire dealing with the question of whether behavioural psychology and psychological conditioning are dangerous new weapons for totalitarial government to use to impose vast controls on its citizens and turn them into little more than robots"