User Reviews

You're not likely to adventitiously run across this half-hour British TV talk show from 1972, so if you want to see it you'd better type "Open Culture" into the Google search box and then root around at the site it takes you to.

This being a British talk show about a high-brow matter, it's all very decorous. Three men -- Malcom McDowell who starred in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange", Anthony Burgess who wrote the book that was adapted for the screen, and host/critic William Everson -- sit immobile around a plain glass table and each gets about equal time for comments. The decoration is scant. No fanfares, no electronic glitz, no elaborate set dressing. Just three guys talking -- two of them smoking away unselfconsciously.

Near the beginning, I wondered for a moment if the discussion might devolve into the kind of exchange that William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal had during their joint coverage of the 1968 election on Public Broadcasting Service here in the US. Buckley calls Vidal "the Madame Pompadour of the left" and threatens to "punch you so you'll stay plastered." The reason the thought came to me was that at the very opening Everson describes Kubrick as being "hard to work with" and McDowell disagrees completely. "I don't know where that came from." Everson responds, "Correct me if I'm wrong," and McDowell replies firmly, "Well, I'll have to because you're wrong." However, this being a British program, it's all done with an abundance of politesse. People may be firm in their contentions but never subject to amygdala hijacking.

Everson looks and speaks like a grade school teacher. McDowell has fashionably styled 1972 hair and looks very handsome without being effete. Anthony Burgess is marvelous. He sits there puffing on a long thin cigar, looking out from under his brows, his hair an unsightly and asymmetrical mop of waves. He's the most articulate of the three, which is expectable, I guess. The guy is a genius in managing language. He invented a new teen-age slang for "A Clockwork Orange" after having visited Russia. He didn't want to base it on existing slang because it would be so dated before publication that it would "smell of lavender." There are two or three rather lengthy clips from the film. The guests comment on the music, Kubrick's directorial style, the title's meaning, and a few of the minor differences between the script that Burgess worked on (it was rejected) and the film as it appeared.

If it's not exactly exciting -- there is no swordplay and there are no wardrobe malfunctions -- I kind of enjoyed it and learned more about the movie that I'd known before.

An Examination of Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' is a thirty minute American television edition of something called Camera One hosted by James McAndrew in which a guy named William Everson interviews Anthony Burgess who wrote the original novel the film A Clcokwork Orange (1971) is based on & the films star Malcolm McDowell while giving his own opinions & interpretation of the film himself.

Despite it's lengthy duration little information of interest is discussed or imparted here, the language of the film & author Burgess' inspiration's are talked about, Stanley Kubrick's notorious reputation as a hard man to work for are brought up & promptly dismissed by McDowell while the music is also mentioned but surprisingly little else of note.

Made & broadcast a year after A Clockwork Orange was originally released into theatres there are a couple of lengthy clips shown & it's odd seeing both Burgess & McDowell smoke while being interviewed, you wouldn't see that now on a talk show would you? I mean the two main guest's smoking away like a chimney...

I really didn't come away from this with any greater knowledge or understanding of A Clockwork Orange (they don't even mention the violence or McDowell's scene when he has his eyes forced open with metal hooks), to be brutally honest it's more like Everson reviewing the film & occasionally asking Burgess or McDowell a question who get very little speaking time. For A Clockwork Orange fans only.