In the film A Clockwork Orange directed by Stanley Kubrick there are many reason to why it’s a controversial film. It’s important to take into consideration on the time in history that it was made. It was released in 1971, during this time in history, specifically Great Britain; there were many social reforms that were occurring. This time in history was an exciting time to be considering the fact that this was the time of growing wealth, widening horizons and personal liberation. People of this time had the chance to become liberal. There was a relaxed attitude towards sexuality brought in part by the widespread availability of birth control for young girls. There was also the banning of capital punishment and they had to put restrictions on drugs since it became a big issue. The film made such a big impact on audiences because it showed the main character, Alex and his friends, going about town raping, hurting others and doing drugs, basically acting out their every desire and its save to say they are psychopaths. It resonates with people because it’s a scary thought to think of having these kind of people our society.
Now in the film, there are many explicit sexual scenes throughout the film that conjugate sex and violence. To me it represented the sexual freedom of that time from young adults. The group of young boys that go around town and steal, rape and create havoc, have undertones of juvenile delinquency. The film is packed with savageness and grim acts that really works well as a shock value. It gets the audience to react intensely to what they have just seen. Also, by watching this sort of film their mind conjure up ideas and think about their society and their social issues. Social control is a topic that is relevant in any time, past, present and future. The film touches the topic of social control from the government and the idea that the government is trying to oppress people and have total and complete control over them. This is a continual worriment that we face and I feel this movie perfectly portrays that to audiences now in this day and age as well as back then. The film successfully makes the audiences question authority and an individual’s moral conduct. Along with painting American law enforcement as hopelessly corrupt and violent.
i agree that this movie would be really controversial at the time it was made. Just like how the movie “The Birth of a Nation” showed many racist aspect at the time it was created, this movie shows the many bad aspects that can happen during that time period. For people being able to freely roam around and go rape, rob people and create havoc just gives bad impression of what people can try to do and get away with. Just like how the “The Birth of a Nation” was bad this movie can be even worst since it will give those who watch the movie the impression that they can also do what they did and get away with it. Movies like this can be a double edge sword by either giving a good influence to society by telling them not to do this type of action or they can influence certain viewers to do this type of action.
Clockwork Orange was definitely a controversial film. Many scenes in this movie are viewed as disturbing since it is just a bunch of teenage boys running around and creating chaos, raping, and killing innocent people. I feel many people did not like this movie because in the movie, they believe that Alex isn’t responsible for his actions, but is a victim of society and society made him that way. Others will say he was just a psychopath who couldn’t control his impulses. It is very controversial because it evokes disturbing images and thoughts to viewers.