A CLOCKWORK ORANGE TURNS 40

  When it was released 40 years ago Stanley Kubrick’s violently sadistic A Clockwork Orange was so controversial that the director had to go into hiding after receiving a stack of death threats. At his insistence the film was pulled from U.K. cinemas and wasn’t shown there for another 28 years. 
    Now to commemorate the anniversary a two-disc Blu-ray edition is being released featuring Malcolm McDowell, now 67, who starred as the Beethoven-loving sociopath Alex, quoting some of the film’s most memorable lines.

   The scene that particularly infuriated and agitated critics was the one in which Alex sexually assaults a woman while tap-dancing and belting out Singing in the Rain.

   It is a good time to remember the genius of Kubrick, who, with A Clockwork Orange, managed to leave audiences both entertained and disgusted.