film

Based on Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name, A Clockwork Orange finds Malcolm McDowell on career-defining form as Alex DeLarge, the charismatic, psychopathic leader of a group of delinquent thugs who roam a dystopian near-future Britain committing acts of rape, theft, and "ultraviolence". The film takes us through the terrible crime spree of DeLarge and his "droogs", their eventual capture and the government's attempt to rehabilitate them using an experimental psychological conditioning technique called the Ludovico Technique: it of the iconic eyes-propped-open scene.

That scene, which temporarily blinded McDowell due to the amount of time his eyes were propped open for, is considered a landmark moment in the relaxation of rules around depiction of violence in films. McDowell also cracked several ribs during the stage brawl scene, further underlining his sheer commitment to a character and a project that have endured artistically while remaining controversial more than half a century on.