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Clockwork Orange, A
Warner Bros.

Clockwork Orange, A reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 78 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.5 out of 10
based on 10 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 59 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke, John Clive, Adrienne Corri, Miriam Karlin, and Carl Duering

Kubrick makes of Anthony Burgess' celebrated novel a savage and satiric morality play centering on Alex (McDowell), who fights, robs, rapes and kills like any concsienceless predator. Captured and imprisoned, he undergoes treatment to condition him "safe", a "clockwork orange" healthy and whole on the outside - but crippled within by reflex mechanisms beyond his control. (Warner Bros.)


GENRE(S): Sci-fi  
WRITTEN BY: Anthony Burgess (novel)
Stanley Kubrick
 
DIRECTED BY: Stanley Kubrick  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: November 6, 2001 
Video: June 12, 2001 
Theatrical: December 20, 1971 
RUNNING TIME: 137 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

The film was nominated for four 1972 Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Picture, Best Film Editing, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A chilling classic, the movie is a scabrous satire about human deviance, brutality, and social conditioning that has remained a visible part of the ongoing public debate about violence and the movies.
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100
TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
Kubrick's liberal, anti-authoritarian reading of Anthony Burgess's very Catholic allegorical novel is morally confused but tremendously powerful... No serious moviegoer can afford to ignore it.
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100
ReelViews James Berardinelli
It demands thought, compels the attention, and refuses to be dismissed. And, for that reason, A Clockwork Orange must be considered a landmark of modern cinema.
Read Full Review
100
Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel
Kubrick's contributions are his wit and his eye. The wit, too much at times, is as biting as in "Dr. Strangelove," and the production, while of another order, is as spectacular as in "2001." [11 Feb 1972]
100
Empire Kim Newman
A much-maligned and misunderstood classic, this is one of Kubrick's finest movies.
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90
The New York Times Vincent Canby
It seems to me that by describing horror with such elegance and beauty, Kubrick has created a very disorienting but human comedy, not warm and lovable, but a terrible sum- up of where the world is at... Because it refuses to use the emotions conventionally, demanding instead that we keep a constant, intellectual grip on things, it's a most unusual--and disorienting--movie experience.
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80
Variety Staff (Not Credited)
A brilliant nightmare... The film employs outrageous vulgarity, stark brutality and some sophisticated comedy to make an opaque argument for the preservation of respect for man's free will - even to do wrong.
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80
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
The first punk tragicomedy, a chain-whipped cartoon meditation on Good, Evil, and Free Will that is as seductive as it is tasteless. That Kubrick misjudged the distance between comedy and cruelty seems to be unarguable.
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50
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It is just plain talky and boring. You know there's something wrong with a movie when the last third feels like the last half.
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20
Chicago Reader Dave Kehr
A very bad film--snide, barely competent, and overdrawn--that enjoys a perennial popularity, perhaps because its confused moral position appeals to the secret Nietzscheans within us.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 59 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jose C gave it a10:
Ted K, im sorry about you, this is one of the greatest movies ever made, a classic, im not saying you are stupid or something like that, im just saying you have to admit it was a good movie, a really good movie, at least you gave it a 2, not like the morons who give it a 0. it surprises me that it was made in the 70's, i watched it in the school while i was studying about the "super man" of Niietzche and i felt in love of it. sorry if my english is not good.

Kieran F gave it a10:
An essential classic.

Kenny gave it a10:
One of the greatest movies of all time. Its completely mesmerizing from beginning to end.

Davud gave it a10:
An absolutely brilliant film. Funny, disturbing, visually superb, well-acted. Above all, a film with a timeless message only second in its satirical glory to Dr. Strangelove.

Jack T. gave it a10:
One of Kubrick's finest movies.

Ted K. gave it a2:
A very poor movie. Incredibly boring in addition to being loathsome. It would be 0 out of 10 if not for Wendy Carlos' soundtrack.

Paul M. gave it a10:
Quite simply THE GREATEST FILM EVER MADE.A masterpiece in every sense of the word,I cannot by any stretch of the imagination see this film being bettered or even arguably equaled.This film is stunning ,awesome ,and jaw droopingly brilliant in every aspect. Genius

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