Wednesday, February 2, 1972

A Clockwork Orange, the controversial masterpiece, is released

A Clockwork Orange


Released: February 2, 1972


Studio: Warner Bros.


Genre: sci-fi/cult


Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 26.59 Worldwide: ?


Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: ? Worldwide: 82.82

Directing: Stanley Kubrick


Screenwriting: Stanley Kubrick


Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri, Warren Clarke


Review:

This “true masterpiece from Stanley Kubrick” VD is “provocatively adapted” FS from the “stunning novel” A07 by Anthony Burgess. This “dystopian mediation on violence and free will” E18 is “truly harrowing, disturbing cinema.” BFI It is “a glossy, stylish, graphically-violent, controversial, futuristic, science-fiction satire about the effects of crime and punishment…on a British teenaged punk.” FS The “Singin’ in the Rain” sequence “remains one cinema’s most deeply upsetting” E18 scenes.

The story centers on Alex (McDowell), a young, violent leader and “his vicious gang of droogs” FS who “terrorize their way through London in this dark social satire with an eye on the cause and effects of ‘ultraviolence.’” A98

After a night of hooliganism…including gang rapes and beatings” FS Alex is imprisoned. He is selected as a candidate for “a grim, unorthodox governmental experiment” FS in which he is brainwashed against violence. However, “he is dehumanized in the process of being cured.” FS When he meets up with some former victims after his release, they “serve up their own form of justice.” VD

Kubrick’s film was still unavailable for screening in the UK at the end of the century “at the request of the film-maker himself. But despite, or perhaps because of, that, it retains an enduring underground popularity.” BFI


Sources:

Awards/Honors/Lists:


Dave’s Movie Database Lists:


Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists:


Awards:


Oscars:

Wins: 0

Nominations: 4 - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay


Other Lists/Honors:


First posted 5/30/2023.

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