Why was A Clockwork Orange banned from being shown in the UK?

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  • It wasn’t banned, as such: Kubrick asked the distributors to withdraw it. They respected his wishes until he died…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_%…

    EDIT: Craig, if you must copy and paste from Wikipedia, have the decency to cite the source – or at least do a better job of hiding it by taking the footnote references out.

  • It wasn’t banned in the United States but was withdrawn by Stanley Kubrick from the UK. Here’s the story: British withdrawal The British authorities considered the sexual violence extreme, furthermore, there occurred legal claims that the movie A Clockwork Orange had inspired true copycat behaviour, as per press cuttings at the British Film Institute. In March , at trial, the prosecutor accusing the fourteen-year-old-boy defendant of the manslaughter of a classmate, referred to A Clockwork Orange, telling the judge that the case had a macabre relevance to the film. The attacker, a Bletchley boy of sixteen, pleaded guilty after telling police that friends had told him of the film “and the beating up of an old boy like this one”; defence counsel told the trial “the link between this crime and sensational literature, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established beyond reasonable doubt”. The press also blamed the film for a rape in which the attackers sang “Singin’ in the Rain”. Subsequently, Kubrick asked Warner Brothers to withdraw the film from British distribution. Popular belief was that those copycat attacks led Kubrick to withdraw the film from distribution in the United Kingdom, however, in a television documentary, made after his death, widow Christiane confirmed rumours that he withdrew A Clockwork Orange on police advice, after threats against him and family (the source of those threats are undiscussed). That Warner Bros. acceded to his withdrawal request indicates the good business relations the director had with the studio, especially the executive Terry Semel. The ban was vigorously pursued in Kubrick’s lifetime. One art house cinema that defied the ban in , and was sued and lost, is the Scala cinema at Kings Cross, London; the same premises of present-day Scala nightclub. Unable to meet the cost of the defence, the cinema club was forced into receivership. Whatever the reason for the film’s withdrawal, for some years, it was difficult to see the film in the United Kingdom. It reappeared in cinemas, and the first VHS and DVD releases followed soon after Kubrick’s death. On July , the uncut A Clockwork Orange, had its premiere broadcast on Sky TV’s Sky Box Office; the run was until mid-September. The U.S. situation was much less dramatic: American censorship In the United States, A Clockwork Orange was rated X in its original release form. Kubrick later, voluntarily, replaced some seconds of sexually explicit footage, from two scenes, with less bawdy action, for an R-rated re-release in . Current DVDs present the original X-rated form, and only some of the early ‘s VHS editions are the R-rated form. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office for Film and Broadcasting rated it C (“Condemned”) because of the explicit sex and violence. Conceptually, said rating of condemnation forbade Roman Catholics from seeing A Clockwork Orange. In , the Office abolished the “Condemned” rating; hence, films the Conference of Bishops deem to have unacceptable sex and violence are rated O, “Morally Offensive”.

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  • In the United Kingdom, the sexual violence in the film was considered extreme. Furthermore, it was claimed that the film had inspired copycat behaviour. In March , a prosecutor at a trial of a -year-old boy accused of the manslaughter of one of his classmates referred to A Clockwork Orange, telling the judge that the case had a macabre relevance to the film.[]

    The attacker, a boy age from Bletchley, pleaded guilty after telling police that his friends had told him of the film “and the beating up of an old boy like this one”; defence counsel told the trial “the link between this crime and sensational literature, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established beyond reasonable doubt”.[] The press also blamed the influence of the film for a rape in which the attackers sang “Singin’ in the Rain”. Kubrick subsequently requested that Warner Brothers withdraw the film from UK distribution.

    At the time, it was widely believed that the copycat attacks were what led Kubrick to withdraw the film from distribution in the United Kingdom. However, in a television documentary made after Kubrick’s death, his widow Christiane confirmed rumours that Kubrick had withdrawn A Clockwork Orange on police advice after threats were made against Kubrick and his family (the source of the threats was not discussed). That Warner Bros. acceded to Kubrick’s request to withdraw the film is an indication of the remarkable relationship Kubrick had with the studio, particularly the executive Terry Semel.

    The ban was vigorously pursued during Kubrick’s lifetime. One art house cinema that defied the ban in , and was sued and lost, was the Scala cinema at Kings Cross, London, on the same premises as the present-day Scala nightclub. Unable to meet the cost of the defence, the cinema club was forced into receivership. []

    Whatever the reason for the film’s withdrawal, it could not easily be seen in the United Kingdom for some years. The first VHS and DVD releases followed shortly after Kubrick’s death. It was also shown in many UK cinemas.

  • what utter nonsense you people speak,clockwork orange was never banned in england and in fact was based on the public school system that we have had in england for over years,their was no nudity whatsoever,i think you people make up stories as you go along no wonder america produces the most trolling,it first came out in the -s and staring our english mr,Mc dowel in fact the film made him,he played a year old school boy rebel,and eventually started shooting at every body at the schools open day while all the parents were their ok

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  • It was never banned, but with drawn at the request of Stanley Kubrick, as other people have said and as for “chick b” you have never seen “A Clockwork Orange” ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt/ ) or are loosing it, as the film you are describing is “IF” ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt/ )

    Source(s): Life, Don’t talk to me about life.

  • The content of it. Got lots disturbing stuff, rape ect. But it’s on sometimes on itv .

    Source(s): Studied for English Alevel

  • Mary shitehouse.

  • Either due to the copious amount of nudity and disturbing images or the fact that it was just a horrible film … probably the worst I’ve ever tried to watch come to think of it. I got about minutes in and couldn’t finish.

  • what that other guy said

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