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For Stanley Kubrick fans: Malcolm Macdowell tells how 'A Clockwork Orange' was made

JacksinPA

JacksinPA

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How we made A Clockwork Orange – by Malcolm McDowell | Film | The Guardian

How we made A Clockwork Orange – by Malcolm McDowell

‘The eyelid clamps kept slipping off and scratching my corneas. I was in so much pain I was banging my head against a wall’
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Malcolm McDowell, actor
Stanley Kubrick had put aside his adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s novel because he couldn’t find the right actor to play Alex, the violent thug. Then he saw Lindsay Anderson’s If …, in which I played another victim of institutionalisation. He turned to his wife and said: “We’ve found our Alex.”

I spent nine months with Stanley before we started shooting, watching violent movies every day. They were the most horrendous films: concentration camps, bodies stacked up. He was thinking of using them in the treatment sequence, where Alex is given aversion therapy.
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There are a lot of Stanley Kubrick fans, myself included. Here is a first hand account of how they made this memorable movie.
 
To this very day, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is a film that disturbs me to watch and that is intentionally so. But it is a truly amazing film and one of my favorite Kubrick films. Perhaps it is only second to his amazing PATHS OF GLORY.
 
haymarket said:
To this very day, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is a film that disturbs me to watch and that is intentionally so. But it is a truly amazing film and one of my favorite Kubrick films. Perhaps it is only second to his amazing PATHS OF GLORY.
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All of his: Paths, Clockwork, 2001, Full Metal Jacket - all brilliant.
 
JacksinPA said:
All of his: Paths, Clockwork, 2001, Full Metal Jacket - all brilliant.
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FULL METAL JACKET is half of a great film which lessens as they make the shift from basic training to Viet Nam and no longer have the excellent character of Vincent D'Onofrio to abuse. In that respect, it is like lots of films that fall apart as they get to the finish. Its almost as if you can listen into the initial conference around the table when the film was given the green light.... they had a great opening - and a solid finish - but the middle was expected to care of itself on inertia. Sometimes it does and sometimes not so much.
 
haymarket said:
FULL METAL JACKET is half of a great film which lessens as they make the shift from basic training to Viet Nam and no longer have the excellent character of Vincent D'Onofrio to abuse. In that respect, it is like lots of films that fall apart as they get to the finish. Its almost as if you can listen into the initial conference around the table when the film was given the green light.... they had a great opening - and a solid finish - but the middle was expected to care of itself on inertia. Sometimes it does and sometimes not so much.
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I agree with you. After the grisly climactical scene in the head the movie loses most of its style & creativeness. D'Onofrio had to put on something like 70 pounds in order to play Private Joker. Superb actor.
 
haymarket said:
To this very day, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is a film that disturbs me to watch and that is intentionally so. But it is a truly amazing film and one of my favorite Kubrick films. Perhaps it is only second to his amazing PATHS OF GLORY.
Click to expand...

Yep. Lifelong Paths of Glory fan since I first saw it. So subtle. So outrageous. Paths of Glory (1957) - Trivia - IMDb
 
Tanngrisnir said:
Yep. Lifelong Paths of Glory fan since I first saw it. So subtle. So outrageous. Paths of Glory (1957) - Trivia - IMDb
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And so true & so French. The movie is based on historical fact.

Paths of Glory is based loosely on the true story of four French soldiers, executed in 1915 during World War I under General Géraud Réveilhac for failure to follow orders. The soldiers were exonerated in 1934. The novel is about the French execution of innocent men to strengthen others' resolve to fight.
 
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