Year: Day to Day Men: December 19
The Green Door
On the 19th of December in 1971, Stanley Kubrick’s X-rated film “A Clockwork Orange” premiered in New York City. Based on author Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel of the same name, the film commented on juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, psychiatry and other social issues in a dystopian near-future England. The film received mixed reviews and had notable detractors including film critics Stanley Kauffman, Leslie Halliwell and Roger Ebert. In 1972, “A Clockwork Orange” won the New York Film Critics Award.
“A Clockwork Orange” was released a month later in the United Kingdom on the 13th of January in 1972. The film was passed in an uncut version for the UK cinemas despite British authorities considering the film’s sexual violence to be extreme. After reports of copycat acts of violence linked to the movie, Warner Brothers at the request of Kubrick withdrew the film from British release. As a result, it was difficult to see “A Clockwork Orange” in the United Kingdom for a period of twenty-seven years. After Kubrick’s death in 1999, the film was finally re-released in theaters.
In Ireland, “A Clockwork Orange” was banned on the 10th of April in 1973; Warner Brothers did not appeal the decision. Eventually, the film was passed uncut for cinema in December of 1999 and released in theaters in March of 2000. In Singapore, the film was banned for over thirty years and was finally shown uncut with an R21 rating on the 28th of October as part of the 2011 Perspectives Film Festival.
Under apartheid, the South African government banned it for thirteen years, finally releasing the film with one cut scene to people over the age of twenty-one. Brazil’s military dictatorship banned the film until 1978; it was released in a version with black dots covering the breasts and genitals of the actors in the nude scenes. In Spain, the film debuted at the 1975 Valladolid International Film Festival after students protested and closed the University of Valladolid for two months. Long queues of students formed at the festival and later commercial theaters and arthouses.
Author Anthony Burgess had mixed opinions about the film. He loved the acting of Malcolm McDowell and Michael Bates and Kubrick’s use of music. He was concerned though that the novel’s final redemptive chapter was missing, a fact he blamed on the American publisher who had omitted the chapter in all US editions prior to 1986. In fact, Kubrick claimed he had not read that chapter until he finished the screenplay; he felt it was unconvincing and inconsistent with the book.
“A Clockwork Orange” was nominated for numerous awards including four Academy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, and a Director Guild of America Award, among others. It won two New York Film Critics Circle Awards, and the Online Film & Television Association Award (Hall of Fame-Motion Picture).
Notes: Film collector Mark E. Phillips wrote an extensive article on “A Clockwork Orange” for his “NYC in Film” site. The article offers a concise list, in chronological order, of each filming location in London for Kubrick’s masterpiece. Each location, from the Korova Milk Bar to the final scene at Princess Alexandra Hospital, is illustrated by film stills and current photos. Phillips’ article is located at: https://nycinfilm.com/2023/06/04/clockwork/
Director Pedro González Bermúdez made a 2021 documentary entitled “A Forbidden Orange” which examines Spain’s Franco government’s banning of “A Clockwork Orange” and the efforts of a long-running religious film festival, the Seminci in Valladolid, to premiere the film. Produced in collaboration with actor Malcolm McDowell as narrator, this documentary is worth seeing if you are interested in the history of Kubrick’s film.