A Clockwork Orange

A closer look at the story

A Clockwork Orange is set in a Britain of the near future. Young Alex sleeps through the day, and by night he and his gang roam the streets and break into homes, attacking innocent people with savage cruelty. When he is not wrecking other lives, he loses himself in the music of Beethoven. Eventually the police catch him and he is sent to prison. Keen to clamp down on crime among the young, the state presents him with a choice: to undergo an intrusive treatment designed to suppress his urges, one that would strip him of his own free will. The rehabilitation turns into an ordeal even more disturbing than the violence he once inflicted. In a world where conscience itself has become something to bargain with, the film asks whether a person like Alex can truly change. Because of its violence it is intended for adult audiences. Stanley Kubrick wrote and directed this 137-minute crime and science-fiction film from 1971, a British-American production adapted from Anthony Burgess's novel. Malcolm McDowell plays Alex, with Patrick Magee, Carl Duering, Michael Bates and Warren Clarke in the cast.