A Clockwork Orange Film Analysis

A dystopian society is one in which the government enforces a certain lifestyle upon its people without giving them a choice to live their lives otherwise. Their main goal is to control everyone and make them conform to these expectations. This type of futuristic society was created by Anthony Burgess in his novel A Clockwork Orange. In the book, the reader can identify one main theme; the importance of free will. The reader is taken through the book by 15-year-old Alex whom along with his friends are described engaging in activities such as rape, violence, and theft until he is subjected to a form of conditioning that “cures” him of this violent nature. In 1971, director Stanley Kubrick adapted the novel into a film under the same title, A Clockwork Orange. Sharing the same theme as the novel, the film addresses the idea that although this character continuously chooses to commit acts of evil he has done so out of his own free will; contrary to when he is conditioned that he no longer has a true choice in what he does. Although Kubrick chose to make minor changes to the original source text, his adaptation of …show more content…
Due to the violence and the sexual content that is shown in the film, it was classified with an X-rating in 1971. Two years after the film received this classification, Kubrick withdrew it from theaters because of an increase in violent crimes in Britain that were said to be influenced by the film. It was then not re-released in British theaters until after his death. In the same year it was banned in Britain, the film was released in the United States but this time under an R rating after Kubrick replaced some of the scenes in the film. The film was shot on location in several metropolitan areas in London. Kubrick’s adaptation uses several cinematic techniques such as, color and close-ups, to bring to life the words written in Burgess’