4. A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange was released in 1971, an adaptation of Anthony Burgess' novella of the same name which revolved around Alex DeLarge and his droogs whose interests include murder, rape and on Alex's part, Classical Music and Beethoven. The film was, as you can imagine, notorious for its gruesome depiction of violence which was heavily criticized for all the wrong reasons. The film has been likened to a study on contemporary issues such as violence and politics. It was banned in many places and following its release its reputation was tarnished by a string of crimes which were apparently influenced by scenes in the film. Due to increased public anger, arrests and protests outside his mansion in England, Kubrick ordered Warner Brothers to withdraw the film from British cinemas, which they did. Firstly I should note that I disagreed with Kubrick's cowardly choice to remove the film: an artist should always stand by his art and secondly it is a testament to the power and respect Kubrick held that he could simply stop all showings of a film in a major market such as Britain which was bringing Warner Brother's massive amounts of money from the increased controversy and then desire of more people to see it. Despite all of the controversy it is still a highly regarded film and widely seen as one of Kubrick's greatest contributions to cinema. A sad point about this film is that it both started and ended the career of Malcolm McDowell, who is an extremely talented actor. In one way it drew him to the attention of other filmmakers but in another way it made him "that guy from A Clockwork Orange".