A Clockwork Orange Controversy

A Clockwork Orange
Release Date: 2^nd Feb 1972
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Novel: Anthony Burgess
Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates

       Stanley Kubrick removed it from the cinema himself after copycat groups formed and his family received death threats.
    The two copycat crimes that prompted Stanley Kubrick to have the film withdrawn in the United Kingdom were the rape of a Dutch girl in Lancashire in 1973 at the hands of men singing "Singin' in the Rain" and the beating of a 16 year old boy who had beaten a younger child whilst wearing Alex's uniform.

·      The wife of  the author Anthony Burgess was repulsed by the sexual content in the film and left the room during her first screening of it.

·      Anthony Burgess originally said he liked the adaptation, though his opinion changed later.

·      He even dismissed his book saying
“It became known as the raw material for a film which seemed to glorify sex and violence. The film made it easy for readers of the book to misunderstand what it was about, and the misunderstanding will pursue me until I die. I should not have written the book because of this danger of misinterpretation.”

Malcolm McDowell often said he was surprised that people thought the film glorified violence, he felt it did the opposite.
He also said on the character of Alex: The central character such is an evil one and it makes it difficult for the audience to accept but what he’s saying is, whether good or bad, he’s entitled to a choice.