A Clockwork Orange (1971)

“It seems to me that by describing horror with such elegance and beauty, Kubrick has created a very disorienting but human comedy, not warm and lovable, but a terrible sum- up of where the world is at… Because it refuses to use the emotions conventionally, demanding instead that we keep a constant, intellectual grip on things, it’s a most unusual–and disorienting–movie experience.” — Vincent Canby, The New York Times

SYNPOSIS

Stanley Kubrick’s reinterpretation of Anthony Burgess’s moral allegory proved a firestorm of controversy from the moment of its release. A worldwide sensation that generated impassioned debate and moral panic in equal measure (so much so that death threats ultimately led Kubrick to withdraw it from circulation in the United Kingdom until after his death), it nevertheless remains one of the director’s most enduringly popular works. The devilish Malcolm McDowell stars as Alex DeLarge, a charismatic young delinquent whose appetite for ultraviolence and Beethoven leads him into the sights of a state eager to eradicate criminal behavior by any means necessary. By turns savage satire, philosophical provocation, and visual tour de force, A Clockwork Orange poses a question as disturbing as it is timeless: is a society that eliminates the capacity for evil also capable of eliminating free will itself? Pauline Kael famously accused Kubrick of “sucking up to the thugs,” while others hailed the film as a daring inquiry into violence, morality, and social control. Wherever you land on it, A Clockwork Orange remains an unforgettable experience.