Contextual Study: A Clockwork Orange and it's Reception

    Due to being one of my favourite fims, i decided to do a contextual study of 'A Clockwork Orange' in relation to my previous post identifying the thriller conventions explored in Kubrick's screen adaptation of 'A Clockwork Orange'.

    'A Clockwork Orange' is a film adaptation of Anthony Burgess' 1962 dystopian novella of the same name; released in America on 19th December 1971. Alex is a charismatic, sociopathic delinquent whose interests include classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and what is termed "ultra-violence". He leads a small gang of his friends - Pete, Georgie, and Dim- whom he calls his droogs. We follow Alex on the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture, and attempted rehabilitation via controversial psychological conditioning. They use classical conditioning - learning through association- through aversion therapy to try and condition Alex to despise violence.

    Aversion therapy is a form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. This conditioning is intended to cause the patient to associate the stimulus with unpleasant sensations in order to stop the specific behaviour.

     The most famous example of classical conditioning is 'Pavlov's Dogs', where he conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell. In this case, food acts as an unconditioned stimulus where the dogs natural salivation at the food is the unconditioned response. A neutral stimulus - a bell- would receive no conditioned response from the dog. During conditioning, the food would be placed in front of the dog whilst the bell rang; which would produce the unconditioned response of salivation to the food. After conditioning,the conditioned stimulus - the bell- received the response of the now conditioned response of salivation at the sound of the bell alone.

    In the case of Alex in 'A Clockwork Orange', it would be plausible to assume that the discomfort Alex is being exposed to acts as an unconditioned stimulus; where his natural reaction to this discomfort is the unconditioned response. Therefore, violence is a neutral stimulus as he has never been opposed to it, partaking in it regularly; and so for him to observe violence receives no conditioned response. During Alex's 'treatment', Alex would be subjected to discomfort whilst shown a series of violent images; which would produce the unconditioned response of Alex's discomfort. After 'treatment', the conditioned stimulus alone - any type of violence- would receive the now conditioned response of feeling sick/uncomfortable when thinking about or seeing violence after he's finished treatment and is released back into society. 

Reception and Controversy


    Along with Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Wild Bunch (1969), Dirty Harry (1971), and Straw Dogs (1971), the film is considered a landmark in the relaxation of control on violence in the cinema. In the United Kingdom, A Clockwork Orange was very controversial and withdrawn from release by Kubrick himself.

    In the United States, A Clockwork Orange was rated X in its original release. Later, Kubrick voluntarily replaced approximately 30 seconds of sexually explicit footage from two scenes with less explicit action for an R rating re-release in 1973. Because of the explicit sex and violence, The National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures rated it C ("Condemned"), a rating which forbade Roman Catholics seeing the film. In 1982, the Office abolished the "Condemned" rating. Subsequently, films deemed to have unacceptable levels of sex and violence by the Conference of Bishops are rated O, "Morally Offensive".

      Although passed uncut for UK cinemas in December 1971, British authorities considered the sexual violence in the film to be extreme. In March 1972, during the trial of a fourteen-year-old male accused of the manslaughter of a classmate, the prosecutor referred to A Clockwork Orange, suggesting that the film had a macabre relevance to the case.
    The film was also linked to the murder of an elderly vagrant by a 16 year old boy in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, who pleaded guilty after telling police that friends had told him of the film "and the beating up of an old boy like this one." Roger Gray QC, for the defence, told the court that "the link between this crime and sensational literature, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established beyond reasonable doubt". The press also blamed the film for a rape in which the attackers sang "Singin' in the Rain".

    Christiane Kubrick, the director's wife, has said that the family received threats and had protesters outside their home. Subsequently, Kubrick asked Warner Brothers to withdraw the film from British distribution. In response to allegations that the film was responsible for copycat violence Kubrick stated: "To try and fasten any responsibility on art as the cause of life seems to me to put the case the wrong way around. Art consists of reshaping life, but it does not create life, nor cause life. Furthermore, to attribute powerful suggestive qualities to a film is at odds with the scientifically accepted view that, even after deep hypnosis in a posthypnotic state, people cannot be made to do things which are at odds with their natures.”
   The Scala Cinema Club went into receivership in 1993 after losing a legal battle following an unauthorized screening of the film. It was only after Kubrick's death in 1999 that the film reappeared in cinemas and was released on VHS and DVD.