A Clockwork Orange (film)/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Accidentally Accurate: While mini-cassettes never took off as a music medium, the music store Alex visits almost seems to have anticipated the return of vinyl records some 40 years later. Ditto for Alex's apartment, now that elements of 1970's decor have found their way back into style as well.
  • Creator Backlash: The film was the subject of much media hype linking it to violent crimes. After Stanley Kubrick received death threats, he withdrew the film from screening in the UK, even suing arthouse theaters that tried to show it. The ban was only lifted after Kubrick's death.
  • Dawson Casting: Malcolm McDowell was 27 during filming. Though Alex's age is never given, he's still supposed to be attending school in the beginning of the film. According to the DVD Commentary, Michael Tarn, who played Pete, was the only actor of the four "droogs" who was still a teenager, being 19 at the time of filming.
  • Enforced Method Acting: Malcolm McDowell had actually scratched his Cornea during filming, and thus the man with the Eye drops during the Ludovico Technique was an actual medical practitioner. Malcolm McDowell developed a lasting hatred for eye-drops from filming this scene.
  • The Red Stapler: Sales of Beethoven's 9th Symphony went up after the film. In another version of the trope, a gang sang "Singin' in the Rain" during a rape, arguably as a result of the film's influence. Apparently, it also inspired a murder known as "The Clockwork Orange Murder", where a boy killed his best friend in his backyard.
  • Technology Marches On: Alex scams his way into the cat lady's house by telling her there was a car accident and he needs to use the phone. Nowadays it's 99% certain he would have had a mobile.
    • Micro Compact Cassettes are used by Alex. Nowadays, it would be either a CD or just part of an iPod playlist.
  • Throw It In: The scene with Alex dancing while he sings "Singing In The Rain" was the result of Stanley Kubrick finding the scene too conventional and asking actor Malcolm McDowell to improvise. Additionally, near the end, the man feeding Alex while Alex mocks him about it by 'popping' his mouth open while the man spoke to him came about as a result of Kubrick being in a particularly bad mood and McDowell acting goofy in an attempt to cheer him up. Considering it was used in the film, it's probably safe to say it worked.
  • What Could Have Been: Different people wanted to adapt A Clockwork Orange before Kubrick. This included one version featuring Alex and his droogs as wealthy old men and another version that would have been used as a vehicle for The Rolling Stones.
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