Sure, Alex and his street gang enjoy brutal acts of senseless, sadistic violence in rapid succession as the film kicks off, but the tables turn on our “faithful narrator” quite quickly. Yet for all of the film’s reputation of depicting raunchy sex and despicable violence, it is nearly void of these elements after the 43-minute mark. removing the film from theaters and home media in the country until the director’s death in 1999. Yet upon the film’s release-particularly in England-it was seen as nothing more than an irresponsible glorification of brutish violence, and death threats and copycat crimes eventually convinced Kubrick to self-censor, resulting in Warner Bros. Arguably brought into the mainstream through Stanley Kubrick’s faithful adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ novel with an immaculate performance from Malcolm McDowell as Alex, A Clockwork Orange is a clearly cautionary tale about the fascism inherent to controlling free will through psychological intervention.

Of course, the titular clockwork orange is Alex, a sadistic youth who spends his days engaging in drug-induced acts of violence with his droog lackies, with rape and home invasion among his favorite pastimes-that is, until he undergoes the Ludovico technique while two years into a 14-year prison sentence for murder, which successfully conditions him to feel sick at the thought of committing violence. A troubling paradox, the image is disturbing in its implication of unnecessary scientific interference in the world’s natural order.

Though the inspiration for A Clockwork Orange’s title is oft-contested, it’s agreed that the surrealist juxtaposition of words symbolizes a seemingly organic entity concealing a mechanical make-up within.

A clockwork book