A Clockwork Orange (film) A Clockwork Orange (film) A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It employs disturbing, violent images to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian near-future Britain. Alex (Malcolm McDowell), the central character, is a charismatic, antisocial delinquent whose interests include classical music (including Beethoven), committing rape, and what is termed "ultra-violence". He leads a small gang of thugs, Pete (Michael Tarn), Georgie (James Marcus), and Dim (Warren Clarke), whom he calls
A Clockwork Orange (novel) However, each of these instances came after the release of Stanley Kubrick's popular 1971 film adaptation of "A Clockwork Orange", itself the subject of much controversy. "The Sunday Telegraph" review was positive, and described the book as "entertaining ... even profound". "The Sunday Times" review was negative, and described the book as "a very ordinary, brutal and psychologically shallow story". "The Times" also reviewed the book negatively, describing it as "a somewhat clumsy experiment with science fiction [with] clumsy cliches about juvenile delinquency". The violence was criticised as "unconvincing in detail". Burgess dismissed "A Clockwork Orange" as "too didactic to