Film: A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange

Being a real horrorshow story of how a young droog was broken of his liking for the old ultra-violence.

An adaptation of a 1962 novella by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange is about Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell), a young thug (or "droog" in the film and novel's Russian-influenced street slang Nadsat) who leads a band of other young thugs. In a strikingly realised hyper-seventies future, they while away their evenings with Beethoven, violence and rape.

Predictably, Alex commits a murder, and is sent to prison. There, he's the subject of experimental brainwashing which leaves him incapable of committing any anti-social acts. But does the state have the right to rob even Alex of his free will?

Apparently concerned that the extravagant violence of the film would encourage copycats, especially in Britain, Stanley Kubrick withdrew A Clockwork Orange in 1974. It was only re-released in 2000, after his death. In the meantime it circulated clandestinely on nth generation videocasettes, adding to its air of underground mystique.

Despite this, its renown is fairly deserved - it's visually remarkable, with great performances and an excellent score by Wendy Carlos. And for a tale with such a sensational reputation, it has a surprisingly complex moral core.

Work nominated by Danfare