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 · 1971 Academy Awards:
· Nominated, Best Picture (Stanley Kubrick)
· Nominated, Best Director (Stanley Kubrick)
· Nominated, Best Screenplay (Stanley Kubrick)
· Nominated, Best Film Editing (Bill Butler)
· 1971 New York Film Critics’
Circle:
· Winner, Best Picture (Stanley Kubrick)
· Winner, Best Director (Stanley Kubrick)
· Nominated, Best Screenplay (Stanley Kubrick)
· 1971 Golden Globes
· Nominated, Best Director (Stanley Kubrick)
· 1971 Directors Guild of America
· Nominated, Best Director (Stanley Kubrick)
· 1972 British Academy Awards
· Winner, Best Director (Stanley Kubrick)
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.
