Steven Spielberg on A Clockwork Orange

Steven Spielberg reacts to Stanley Kubrick's 1971 masterpiece A Clockwork Orange.

Sources: American Film Institute, Paul Joyce

[Nate-imsg]

Like several of Kubrick's films, A Clockwork Orange is a tough watch but you'll never forget it.

[TheRealNormanBates]

Spielberg’s interpretation of the ending is interesting. While I never thought Alex would come out of the hospital “good”, I would think that, as the intelligent young man he was, Alex would have become like the politicians and police chiefs he became acquainted with and simply learn to hide his true nature better.

He still would have been a gang leader of a criminal enterprise, only this time he would run for Prime Minister of the biggest criminal gang of that part of the world: the government.

[DelightLovesMovies]

Wow its so cool to hear Steven Spielberg talk about a Kubrick film.

[godfunk]

A great film has a piece of every age that came before it and every age yet to come. Immortal relevance

[alexchernandez]

always enjoy listening to Spielbergs takes on films and storytelling

[M_Faraday]

wow Spielberg completely misses the point about evil and free will. But then I guess he never read the book.

[edwardkent]

100/200 years from now people will still be talking about and analysing Kubrick's they won't about It's like comparing Beethoven and Bruno Mars.

[ThePaulv]

This was a masterpiece of a film that I saw once on the big screen at a revival movie theatre in about 1990. I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. I never want to see it again. For me it was a metaphor of what it's really like in society - and it is like that.

[Jimmietwotimes]

I've been saying for years that Clockwork Orange is every bit as telling as 1984.

[iasimov]

Clockwork Orange is about programming a man to eschew violence. Full Metal Jacket is about programming a man to commit violence, both by the same director.

[cjames]

as a born and bred londoner its scary how very close this mirrors life in london today

[CoolCoyote]

But steven hes holding up a mirror to society and he chose to live behind the bushes because of it and he only made a handful of films. But he left the movie for the audience to choose whether he went on to cause chaos and harm or settle down and behave appropriately, stanley knew it was the best way, let the audience decide what would happen. So yes you could see the twinkle in his eye however there is a tempered response there with alt outcomes.

[johnthecloud]

The ending of the film would have been quite different if it had stayed faithful to the British version of the book, instead of relying on the Ametican version
(where the last chapter is missing).

Kubrick must have been aware of the original ending, and preferred to use the nihilistic ending instead. It does make the film rather pointless.

The delicious irony of the book is that everyone has been trying to use and change Alex, and everyone has completely failed. Then Alex decides to change his ways of his own free will. That omission in the film stops it being a masterpiece in my opinion.

[brucewatford]

A great movie based on a great book. The movie has the "American Ending". In the British version of the book, there's one final chapter where Alex "grows up" and stops committing acts of violence.
Also, the scene where they play "Singing in the Rain" was Malcolm McDowell's idea. After working on the scene for a long time and thinking it still wasn't working, McDowell suggested having Alex sing that song. Kubrick let him do it and they kept it in the movie.

[rpg]

It has one of the best soundtracks ever. (Can’t go wrong with Beethoven and Rossini.)

[YeLizardLords]

I saw the Alex character embracing his roll as the Front man for a cause he didn't truly care about, only that it would allow him to enter the realm of professional exploration the adults around him operated in, the same as the 2 Droogs who became coppers.

[betsyduane]

He's a bit off, the film is from 1971 and they don't play Kelly singing until the end credits.

[Theomite]

I've seen A CLOCKWORK ORANGE many many times. I've always interpreted the ending as a dark comic joke. I never once thought of it as a prelude to a darker, humorless, nihilistic, violent epilogue like Spielberg suggests here. Maybe because I always thought of the UK version where Alex ages out of the whole thing as the likely ending. But holy shit, that's a hell of a take that I'll never be able to unimagine.

[brianvail]

Kubrick resided in the English countryside, hiding from the wrath of Gene Kelly.

[Losrandir]

Wasn't it Malcom McDowell himself who came up with Singing in the rain?