Which is an experience that you never have again with the story. “When you read it for the first time, that’s your only really pure experience with it - you have this tremendous advantage of reading something for the first time. His preference for adapting novels, as opposed to writing his own original stories, offers an interesting insight into his creative process. Like many of his films, Kubrick adapted “A Clockwork Orange” from a novel of the same name by Anthony Burgess. For those who’ve never seen the film, it’s worth a watch simply for the bizarre on-screen world Kubrick has brilliantly created. As they enjoy their dystopian cocktail, they are seated on nude statues sculpted to be used as furniture. Internally, the decorations and furniture are largely sexual in nature, implying that sex and the depiction of it have become commonplace.Īlex and his droogs spend much of their time in a “milk bar,” where they drink a narcotic concoction that pours out of a statue of a woman’s breast. The brutalist architecture of the buildings and their tattered state seem to indicate a decaying society. Visually, the film is a surreal 1970s vision of a dystopian future. The resulting effects of the treatment, its efficacy and its moral implications are central themes to the film. The treatment is supposed to eliminate all criminal impulses within Alex through Pavlovian methods of associating any violent thoughts with becoming extremely sick. While incarcerated, Alex is accepted into the experimental Ludovico Technique treatment program. But aside from playing hooky, Alex and his droogs enjoy themselves by robbing and raping anyone they see fit, which ultimately leads to the death of a woman and lands Alex in prison. For those who’ve never seen the film, this seems like a description of typical teenage misadventures.

“A Clockwork Orange” centers around a sociopathic teenager named Alex, who leads a small gang of neighborhood friends that he refers to as his “droogs.” Together, they spend their time skipping school and causing mischief. With Kubrick’s reputation for injecting layers of hidden subtext and meaning into every scene, “A Clockwork Orange” offers viewers and aspiring screenwriters and filmmakers much to dissect nearly five decades later.

The film is so iconic that most people have seen or heard a form of media that has referenced it in some way. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s classic film “A Clockwork Orange.” First released in 1971, “A Clockwork Orange” was originally met with mixed reviews and controversy due to its graphic depiction of sexual violence, but it has since become a cult classic for cinephiles and Kubrick enthusiasts.

A clockwork orange 50th anniversary