Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Clockwork Orange

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Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 02-14-2003, 01:15 AM:

Clockwork Orange
2/13/03, 7pm , Chapman University , Orange Calif.

We all know the film, so this is purely a presentation review.

The venue: classroom/auditorium with stadium style seats, approx 80 seats. Screen is a perforated, motorized roll up. Screen has a “flat” ratio, no adjustable masking. Unfortunately, the walls are painted glossy off white, as well as the metal panels hanging from the ceiling.

The film : generally good condition I’d say. Reel 1 had very light emulsion scratches going in a diagnol manner, that would appear at regular intervals on the left hand side of the screen. At the reel changes, dialog was often cut off of the incoming reel due to people hacking off frames, and opaque splicing tape was used! YUCK!!!!!! Other than that, there were no mid-reel splices or emulsion lines.

BUT, there was one huge problem. The print was very dirty!!!! Any venue showing repertory prints needs to have and use a Kelmar cleaner, or something similar. [puke]

After the show, Malcolm McDowell appeared for Q&A. He asked the audience how the print was, the crowd groaned and told him it “sucked”. Very unfortunate,if only they booth had a way to clean it, I feel that that reaction would have not happened .

Danny

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 02-14-2003, 01:30 AM:

Post deleted

Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 02-14-2003, 01:47 AM:

Sounds good Paul, I'm editing my post!

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 02-14-2003, 01:59 AM:

This is probably the print that played the Nuart in the fall of 1996.

Some history of the film. The original X-rated version played uncut in the United States upon its initial releases for more than a year (a fact that seems to be forgotten today). It then lost a few seconds to get an R rating to allow for more bookings through middle America. The cuts were restored for the home video version and laserdisc. Then the original x-rated version was re-released in 1996, although with an 'R' rating. An art house in Bakersfield got to show it at a midnight showing months before the Nuart's showing. Legend goes this film was banned in Britain, although some sources say it was Kubrick himself who had the film voluntarily removed from theatrical distribution following a copycat killing.

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 02-14-2003, 02:56 PM:

It`s not just a legend, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE was taken out of release and not shown in GB for almost 30 years.

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 02-14-2003, 03:41 PM:

I wasn't really questioning that is was out of distribution; rather the reason why (I've heard both stories, government ban, Kubrick requesting it) [Smile]

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 02-14-2003, 05:04 PM:

The film received some very harsh reviews when it was first released in the uk, I believe that one of them was from a very well-known critic, who I think is still working, he certainly was quite recently, he is very conservative, with a small'c', (i.e. not meaning a member or supporter of the political party by that name), and does have a tendency to regard any film which he doesn't like as almost evil.

There were reports in certain newspapers which suggested links between the events portrayed in the film, and some real-life events, whether the film really did have this influence on anyone, I don't know; I've never seen any real evidence. It was said that Kubrick was disturbed by the claims which were made about his film, while others claimed that Kubrick received threats against himself, and possibly his family, if the film was not withdrawn. As far as I am aware, Kubrick never commented publically on these claims. We may never know the full truth.

The film was withdrawn from distribution in the uk by, or at the request of Kubrick, it was not banned by the BBFC, indeed, it was passed without cuts, and given an 'X' certificate, which I think at that time open to 16 year olds and over; the '18' certificate came later.

A few years ago a television company wanted to show some clips from the film as part of a programme. This ended in court, I think it was brought to court as a copyright issue. The television people argued that thay should be able to show extracts as part of a process of criticism or review of the work, the owners thought othewise, the television people won, and eventually the programme was transmitted. I don't know where they obtained the material which they screened. This was the first time that I had seen any of the film.

There were rumors that the film was to be re-released a few years ago, but this did not happen during Kubrik's lifeime. Shortly after his death the NFT ran a tribute season, and wanted to screen the film, I don't think they were able to, but I'm not certain about that. Shortly afterwards the film was re-released, both theatrically, and on video, and most beople, like myself, watching it for the first time, wondered what all the fuss had been about. I wouldn't say it was a great film, or his best work, but I can't see anything wrong with it, and it's certainly less violent than many of todays films. I have now seen the film three times, all on DVD, and it has seemed better with each viewing. Quite a good, but not great, film, I would say.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-15-2003, 11:52 AM:

Amazing story. The film played here often when I was a small kid, and became quite notorious but was never pulled from theaters. When I saw it for the first time, I also thought, why all the fuss. I think I will want to rewatch some time. You can see Darth Vader - David Prowse - without the mask in this movie.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-15-2003, 06:01 PM:

There were some beautiful new prints of this made for the WB 75th Anniversary fest in 1998. I ran print #110 at that time and it was in great shape (in sharp contrast to the beat-to-hell Kit Parker print that was in circulation before that time.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 02-16-2003, 12:43 PM:

Paul wrote:

quote:

It then lost a few seconds to get an R rating to allow for more bookings through middle America. The cuts were restored for the home video version and laserdisc.

Do you know exactly what material was cut?

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 02-16-2003, 01:01 PM:

quote:
Do you know exactly what material was cut?

I honestly don't have a clue. I've seen what I thought were both versions (the R in 1975, the "new" R (ex-X version) in 1996, and can't tell the difference between the two. For all I know, the film may have just been re-rated without cuts back in the early 70's, but press info put out for the 90's version claimed otherwise.