A Clockwork Orange

Key Facts

full title · A Clockwork Orange

director · Stanley Kubrick

leading actor · Malcolm McDowell

supporting actors/actresses · Michael Bates, Warren Clarke, Carl Duerring, Paul Farrell, Clive Francis, Michael Gover, Miriam Karlin, Patrick Magee, James Marcus, Aubrey Morris, Sheila Raynor, Godfrey Quigley, Anthony Sharp, Philip Stone

type of work · Feature film

genre · Science Fiction/Fantasy

language · English/Slang

time and place produced · England, 1960s

awards

date of release ·  1971

producer · Warner Brothers

setting (time) · The future

setting (place) · A major English city

protagonist · Alex

major conflict · Society’s desire for order and control conflicts with society’s values of individualism and individual choice

rising action · The first half of the film shows Alex wreaking havoc on society, getting arrested, and then being physically reconditioned against his own violent impulses as a condition of his release.

climax · Alex is released from prison and finds he is too weak to survive in human society. He has gone from victimizer to victim.

falling action · While Alex is in a coma, doctors condition him back to his true nature. During his recovery, the minister of the interior visits Alex in the hospital and they agree to become accomplices in sharing power.

themes · Order in society vs. freedom of choice; the necessity of evil in human nature; the interdependence of life and art

motifs · Sexual aggression; music; slang

symbols · The Korova Milk Bar; sex and the body in art; Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

foreshadowing · The events in the first half of A Clockwork Orange foreshadow the events in the second half. The characters Alex victimizes in the first half all come back to victimize him. As the second half of the film starts and we see this pattern occurring, we begin to predict the sequence of events that follow.