clockwork orange

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (Kubrick, 1971)General introductory questions

1) Should films be banned? Who should decide? What type of content would you consider to be unacceptable? What content would your grandparents consider unacceptable?

2) The Hypodermic Model and Cultivation Model suggest that audiences’ behaviour and attitudes are influenced by media content. Is there convincing evidence in favour of this argument? Is there convincing evidence against? Think about other forms of media persuasion – propaganda, advertising.

3) Have a look at the BBFC website. Is the BBFC a producer or a regulator?Give examples of criteria used by the BBFC to give a film a) a 15 certificate b) an 18 certificate. See if you can find any advice from the BBFC given to film-makers on content. Look at the BBFC’s justification for banning ‘Human Centipede 2’ http://www.bbfc.co.uk/BVV278459/

Tim Dirks (http://www.filmsite.org/cloc.html) writes:

The frightening, chilling and tantalizing film (a morality play) raises many thematic questions and presents a thought-provoking parable:

How can evil be eradicated in modern society? If the state can deprive an individual of his free will, making him 'a clockwork orange,'

what does this say about the nightmarish, behavioral modification technologies of punishment and crime? Do we lose our humanity if

we are deprived of the free-will choice between good and evil?

Representation

Representation How are women represented?

Representation How are women represented?How are authority figures represented?

Representation How are women represented?How are authority figures represented?How are young males and masculinity represented?

Representation How are women represented?How are authority figures represented?How are young males and masculinity represented?

The film show young males as aimless, rootless and unfulfilled; perhaps needing to fill a role which was once provided for by war - how far do you agree with this statement?

Audience

Audience

Audience

Who is the film’s target audience? What aspects have made it a cult film? Was Kubrick right to withdraw the film?

Audience

Who is the film’s target audience? What aspects have made it a cult film? Was Kubrick right to withdraw the film? Effects of violence on audiences?

Audience

Who is the film’s target audience? What aspects have made it a cult film? Was Kubrick right to withdraw the film? Effects of violence on audiences?Effects of abuse of women?

Audience

Who is the film’s target audience? What aspects have made it a cult film? Was Kubrick right to withdraw the film? Effects of violence on audiences?Effects of abuse of women? To what extent is this an art-house , auteur film?

IdeologyIs it a film about violence? Growing up? Masculinity? Common Kubrick themes: The individual and the state? What is free-will? What happens when individuals become institutionalized? Apart from the behaviour of the Alex and his gang, what other aspects are dystopian? List and examine binary oppositions. How are the state and its institutions represented?

Language

Language How graphic (vivid, realistic, shocking) is the actual violence?

Language How graphic (vivid, realistic, shocking) is the actual violence?How is non-diegetic sound used? Why is classical music so prominent?

Language How graphic (vivid, realistic, shocking) is the actual violence?How is non-diegetic sound used? Why is classical music so prominent?

In what ways is the film stylized? ( = unrealistic, artificial; draws attention to its own style)

Language How graphic (vivid, realistic, shocking) is the actual violence?How is non-diegetic sound used? Why is classical music so prominent?

In what ways is the film stylized? ( = unrealistic, artificial; draws attention to its own style)

What is the effect of the language? The dialogue sounds archaic (old-fashioned) with bizarre, evocative slang (Nadsat- a language used in Burgess’s original novel with some words invented, some old English and some based on Romany & Russian)

Language How graphic (vivid, realistic, shocking) is the actual violence?How is non-diegetic sound used? Why is classical music so prominent?

In what ways is the film stylized? ( = unrealistic, artificial; draws attention to its own style)

What is the effect of the language? The dialogue sounds archaic (old-fashioned) with bizarre, evocative slang (Nadsat- a language used in Burgess’s original novel with some words invented, some old English and some based on Romany & Russian)

What is evidence is there that Kubrick only uses moving camera shots very sparingly?

Institution

Why do you think the film was withdrawn for 30 years ?

Why was the book written in 1966 by Anthony Burgess not banned?

Narrative How is the story told? Whose viewpoint? Is the narrative linear or does it use flashbacks and flash-forwards? Single-strand or multi-strand? Can we apply Todorov’s three part structure? Propp’s narrative archetypes?

GenreSci-fi? Fantasy? Futurist dystopia? Comedy? Social critique? Zeitgeist movie? Hybrid aspects? Does it conform to or subvert generic conventions?