Where to watch A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Trivia & production notes

• Anthony Burgess sold the film rights to his novel for just $500 shortly after its 1962 publication.
• The Rolling Stones and Beatles were both considered at various points to star in the film, with Mick Jagger expressing interest in playing Alex before Kubrick took over the project.
• Malcolm McDowell's cricket whites inspired the iconic look of Alex's gang uniform, which Kubrick then modified by placing the jockstrap on top of the costume rather than underneath.
• Kubrick saw McDowell in the 1968 film "if...." and chose him for Alex, telling him he could "exude intelligence on the screen."
• During filming of the Ludovico technique scene, McDowell scratched his cornea and was temporarily blinded, but a real physician stood by to apply saline solution and protect his eyes from drying.
• The shot of the camera approaching the ground during Alex's suicide attempt window jump was created by dropping a Newman-Sinclair clockwork camera lens-first from the third story of the Corus Hotel, and it survived six takes.
• Kubrick wanted to include Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" in the film, but the band refused.
• The film's main theme is an electronic arrangement of a section from Henry Purcell's "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary."
• Wendy Carlos created a special electronic arrangement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, specifically its Scherzo and other sections, for the soundtrack.
• Despite Alex's obsession with Beethoven in the story, the soundtrack actually contains more music by Rossini than by Beethoven.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article A Clockwork Orange (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.