Finally, 29 years after it was first released around the world, the late Stanley Kubrick's controversial A Clockwork Orange will have its belated Irish opening next Friday. Based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, the film features Malcolm McDowell as the amoral Alex who is the leader of the violent Droogs gang and is imprisoned and subjected to aversion therapy.
Even though it opened in Britain in 1971, the film was not submitted to the Irish film censor until two years later, by which time it was steeped in controversy, and it was rejected by the censor.
Given the furore surrounding the film by then, Warner Bros did not see any point in submitting it to the Film Appeals Board. The film was re-submitted last year after Kubrick's death and it has been passed without cuts and with an 18 certificate by the present censor, Sheamus Smith.