(1971) 5 Mark Deming After the visionary journey through space and time of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick offered a very different look at the future (which seemed uncomfortably close to the present) in A Clockwork Orange. But if one has to compare A Clockwork Orange to any of Kubrick's other films, it comes closest to Dr. Strangelove: for all its horrific violence and troubling moral ambiguity, it is ultimately a satire, and, like Dr. Strangelove, it wrings a shocking amount of humor from situations that few people would think of as funny. With the notable exception of Alex (Malcolm McDowell in the best performance of his career), most of the characters are little more than cartoons (with dialogue to match), while a great deal of the violence walks a fine line between Looney Tunes absurdity and crushingly vivid brutality. Kubrick's future state is often garish and ugly, veering between an amusingly hideous riot of color and texture gone wrong and the decaying remnants of a cinder-block nation (remarkably, Kubrick and production designer John Barry built only one set for the entire film, with everything else shot on existing locations that were dressed in "futuristic" style). And Kubrick throws in plenty of crude comic relief that suggests some degenerate variation on a Carry On film; from the overexcited school representative to the doctor and nurse enjoying recreational sex as Alex regains consciousness, Kubrick places his grim vision in an England where foolish absurdity is the order of the day. And while Alex seems one of the few characters capable of making a complex moral choice (never mind how sinister his choices happen to be), he also takes his choice more seriously than anyone else in the film. Alex has adopted violent hedonism not out of profit, politics, or pragmatism, but because he likes it, and, while this makes him difficult to admire, he's still the smartest and freest man in the film's moral universe.

cast-crew for A Clockwork Orange on AllMovie

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

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A Clockwork Orange

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Graphic Violence
Not For Children
Rape & Sexual Abuse

genres

Science Fiction

sub-genres

category

Feature

directed by

Stanley Kubrick

countries

UK

released

1971

run time

137 min.

produced by

Stanley Kubrick Productions, Warner Brothers

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cast

Malcolm McDowell: Alex

Patrick Magee: Mr. Frank Alexander

Michael Bates: Chief Guard

Adrienne Corri: Mrs. Alexander

Warren Clarke: Dim

Aubrey Morris: P.R. Deltoid

Anthony Sharp: Minister

Barbara Scott: Marty

Barrie Cookson

Carl Duering: Dr. Brodsky

Carol Drinkwater: Nurse Feeley

Cheryl Grunwald: Rape Victim

Clive Francis: Lodger

Craig Hunter: Dr. Friendly

David Prowse: Julian

Gaye Brown

Gillian Hills: Sonietta

Godfrey Quigley: Prison Chaplain

James Marcus: Georgie

Jan Adair

John Carney: C.I.D. Official

John Clive: Stage Actor

John Savident: Conspirator

Katya Wyeth: Girl

Lee Fox

Lindsay Campbell: Inspector

Madge Ryan: Dr. Branum

Margaret Tyzack: Conspirator

Michael Gover: Prison Governor

Michael Tarn: Pete

Miriam Karlin: Cat Lady

Neil Wilson

Paul Farrell: Tramp

Pauline Taylor: Psychiatrist

Peter Burton

Philip Stone: Dad

Prudence Drage

Richard Connaught

Sheila Raynor: Mum

Shirley Jaffe

Steven Berkoff: Constable

Virginia Wetherell: Stage Actress

Vivienne Chandler: Handmaiden

crew

Stanley Kubrick: Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Anthony Burgess: Book Author
John Alcott: Cinematographer
Gioachino Antonio Rossini: Featured Music
Henry Purcell: Featured Music
Ludwig van Beethoven: Featured Music
Walter Carlos: Composer (Music Score)
Bill Butler: Editor
John Barry: Production Designer
Peter Shields: Art Director
Russell Hagg: Art Director
Bernard Williams: Associate Producer
Max Raab: Executive Producer
Si Litvinoff: Executive Producer
Milena Canonero: Costume Designer
John Jordan: Sound/Sound Designer
Derek Cracknell: First Assistant Director
Dusty Symonds: First Assistant Director
Roy Scammell: Stunts
Barbara Daly: Makeup
Freddie Williamson: Makeup
George Partleton: Makeup