SSC Film Studies

Inspiration for the film
A Clockwork Orange was originally a novel by Anthony Burgess written in early 1961. It was inspired upon the writer returning home and seeing that many things had changed and that youth culture had taken over. He also goes on to say it was further inspired by his wife being beaten by drunk American service men which lead to his wife miscarrying.


Why did Kubrick choose to make the film at this time?







How did people react at the time?






Why was the film banned in the UK?
The British authorities considered the sexual violence extreme, furthermore, there occurred legal claims that the movie A Clockwork Orange had inspired true copycat behaviour, as per press cuttings at the British Film Institute. In March 1972, at trial, the prosecutor accusing the fourteen-year-old-boy defendant of the manslaughter of a classmate, referred to A Clockwork Orange, telling the judge that the case had a macabre relevance to the film. With pressure on director Stanley Kubrick to ban the film, Kubrick withdrew A Clockwork Orange from British cinemas in 1973. He said that the film would only be allowed to be seen after his death.