How Long Is “A Clockwork Orange”?

Adapted from Anthony Burgess' acclaimed novel, A Clockwork Orange has been hailed as one of director Stanley Kubrick's finest works as often as it has been castigated for its brutal violence. Set in a bleak, sterile London in the near future, the story follows Alex (Malcolm McDowell), an intelligent, charismatic young hoodlum, as he leads his "droogs" (modeled after the skinheads who teemed throughout England at the time of filming) in their pursuit of sex, drugs, and "ultra-violence." Eventually the gang breaks into a home and commits a horrifying rape and murder for which Alex alone is caught and detained. Given the choice of prison or "experimental therapy," Alex chooses the rehabilitation program -- a choice he will soon regret, as he undergoes a harrowing regimen of reconditioning via physical and psychological torture. He reenters society a "changed" man with a physical aversion to sex and violence strong enough to induce nausea. He quickly learns, however, that he has not yet begun to pay for his crimes, when he encounters both his former cronies and the husband of the woman he killed. The violence is so graphic that the film was for many years banned in its home country. Yet for many unsqueamish viewers, Kubrick's vision of an anarchic future, an obvious allegory for an anarchic present, creates a grim, unrelenting film whose effects linger long after viewing.