# Women: Can you watch A Clockwork Orange? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2007, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385 "2007-04-24T00:06:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/61 "2007-04-25T08:10:52Z")
I was twelve when I saw A Clockwork Orange. My dad said I’d like it. He said he liked it. I did not like it. I understood that it was very famous and often referenced, but my dad didn’t tell me before we got it what it was about. I sat through the whole thing, but found it… just sort of icky. The sex and violence was a little overwhelming. I kind of… decided my dog was really interesting and in need of attention during the rape scenes. Plus, I was watching it with my _dad_… who wants to watch a movie with that much sex in it with a parent? I did appreciate the story, though. I thought it was interesting and I liked that I understood all the references after I saw it. I’ll have to see if I can get my dad to rent it again now that I’m older. It might still be too much and it might be too much in different ways now, but… well, I can always become suddenly very interested in the dogs every time something comes on that I’d rather tune out. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/62 "2007-04-25T13:59:36Z")
Female, watched in college, have a vague recollection of liking it. (To be honest, I’ve never in my life found any movie disturbing, ever – and I kind of wish I did, because this means I don’t get the point of horror movies at all. It’s on a screen, it’s imaginary, it’s distant – I don’t even have the sort of visceral reaction I get when reading a really good piece of fiction.) ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/63 "2007-04-25T15:30:40Z")
I’m female and I love _ACO_. I understand why a lot of people wouldn’t want to watch it though. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/64 "2007-04-25T16:18:19Z")
[QUOTE=amelioration] Not really responding to the OP, but the topic reminded me of it: I have only seen one scene from ACO, and that is the scene where a man and two women have sex in a room, in fast motion, to the tune of the William Tell overture. I walked in on my dad watching it a while ago; I asked him, “What is that?” and he responded with something like “A Clockwork Orange. This is the porn scene. Watch this, look at this great film technique they use here…” _Weird._ Doubly weird when watching with a parent. [/QUOTE] That’s the one scene where I think Burgess was completely right in his criticism of the movie. I the book, it’s a really ugly scene, and the girls are 13 or 14. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/65 "2007-04-25T17:13:22Z")
Contrary to the rules of the SDMB, I have not read the previous posts. I refuse to watch it. I attempted to almost 20 years ago and the extreme distaste repels me to this day. I’m not sure what I saw that caused it, but it certainly left a strong enough impression that I absolutely refuse to watch it, or even read discussions about it. No other movie has done that. Well, Showgirls, but I’m pretty sure for other reasons. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/66 "2007-04-25T17:19:18Z")
Mom? ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/67 "2007-04-25T18:48:33Z")
I tried, but at the first (apparently there’s another one) rape scene, I was out. ---
**Author:** ![tippytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90ced4/32.png) [@tippytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tippytop)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/68 "2014-12-14T08:36:41Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I can’t stand the film because it is such a bastardization of Burgess’ exceptional novel. It turns the horror of the novel–a young, bright kid with nothing better to do than terrorize innocent people and rape women–into a pop-culture entertainment. McDowell’s smirking performance was impressive, but I still couldn’t find myself sympathizing with him at any point; even after his conditioning and the subsequent beating/torture I pretty much felt that he had it coming, whereas in the novel you’re encouraged to be sympathetic toward this reformed criminal as he’s used by both parties to support their particular stances. And Kubrick left out any reference to the final chapter, which is odd because although the chapter was removed from U.S. editions for decades it should have been in the U.K. printings he presumably used for reference. It is also perhaps one of the most dated looking films Kubrick made, with the garish styles stuck firmly in the ugly early Seventies. > > Stranger I agree very much, especially on the “not sympathizing with the protagonist” part and that last sentence. On the bastardization of the novel I don’t really know, because I haven’t read the whole book and also only a translation of it. I’m a male, and I can watch the film, but I’m not a fan of it. Not because of the rape scene, which isn’t even a rape scene in a technical sense, but because of the dated style of the film. I also feel there’s an unhealthy amount of over acting on Malcolm McDowell’s part with all those silly facial expressions. Burgess also apparently grew to hate the film, or at least Kubrick, according to [this piece](http://www.thewrap.com/clockwork-orange-anthony-burgess-stanley-kubrick-robert-hofler-sexplosion/). He also hadn’t liked Kubrick’s adaptation of Lolita since he felt “Kubrick had found no cinematic equivalent to Nabokov’s literary extravagance”. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/69 "2014-12-14T14:06:48Z")
> [@fessie](#): > > Actually I didn’t leave a theater - it was at a friend’s house, we were all in college. It wasn’t just the fact of violence, it was the specific way he slapped her – as if she was a meaningless piece of trash. That was 20 years ago and I haven’t seen it since, but I can still picture it. > > And it was also the fact that none of my male friends (I was the only female present) were affected by it as I had been. That made me feel _very_ unsafe. > > I absolutely cannot watch _The Hitcher_ either. > > Couldn’t handle the ear scene in _Reservoir Dogs_, but _Pulp Fiction_ was fine. > OTOH, I loved _Requiem for a Dream_. I can’t watch The Hitcher, myself. LOVED ACWO. Saw it in 1982 Behavior Disorders Psych class. Laughed hystically. Best female friend despised it & everything Malcolm McDowellish (except his H.G. Wells in Time After Time, which she did not recognize as him) from that time onward… and wasn’t too fond of the Glorious Ninth of Ludwig Van afterwards either. That movie practically worked a Ludovico Technique on her. I’ve had other female friends who didn’t mind it a bit. Oh, and also Mom. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/70 "2014-12-14T14:27:47Z")
> [@tippytop](#): > > Not because of the rape scene, which isn’t even a rape scene in a technical sense, What’s the technical sense you have in mind? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/71 "2014-12-14T14:28:28Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I can’t watch The Hitcher, myself. LOVED ACWO. > > Saw it in 1982 Behavior Disorders Psych class. Laughed hystically. I better explain this- I laughed AT… the fight with the rival droogs to “The Thieving Magpie” the William Tell Overture orgy (in the movie, there is no suggestion the girls are pre-teen or that Alex is supposed to be only 16) the fight with the older lady UNTIL he slams the phallus down the Ludivico Technique & public demonstration afterwards F. Alexander’s revenge the finale’ - “I was cured all right” NOT the rape scene. ---
**Author:** ![tippytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90ced4/32.png) [@tippytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tippytop)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/72 "2014-12-14T14:48:05Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > What’s the technical sense you have in mind? I have no technical sense in my mind. It is a rape scene, but the actual raping isn’t showed. If we’re talking about that scene at the writers house? ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/73 "2014-12-14T15:23:29Z")
Watched it when it came out, didn’t bother me. Now I cannot watch any sexual violence or coercion in films. (for example, in Blindness). ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/74 "2014-12-14T17:16:24Z")
I watched it last in my mid-twenties and liked it- the violence bothered me but it felt necessary for the story. I’m not a woman that gets more bothered by violence against a man vs. woman vs. kid vs. adorable dog, etc more so than any other kind of violence. It’s all bad to me but if it’s necessary to the point of the story- I can stand it. I usually look away at any graphic bloody scenes if I look away at anything. I liked the movie for it’s style, the language/dialogue (though can’t remember much except some goofy words) and the moral of the story which I only vaguely remember almost twenty years later. I’d watch it again but I do think I don’t look back on it as one of my favorites- just a movie I appreciated at a time when I was exploring watching more than mainstream fare. I read the book as well but only know I liked it well enough. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/75 "2014-12-14T17:38:10Z")
There are few movies Mrs. B. loathes the very mention of more, specifically because of the rape scene. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/76 "2014-12-14T17:54:40Z")
I watched in college with the understanding that it was supposed to be a work of genius, and was thoroughly unimpressed. It seemed more like gratuitous violence and exploitation to me than making some important Moral Point, not in the pearl-clutching sense but in the roll-eyes sense. I mean, it was so over the top, and I was watching it in 2001 so the 70s vibe was totally dated. It began my lifetime love affair with hating Kubrick. It didn’t trigger any running away screaming reactions, though. Just a lot of ''oh God is this movie over yet?" Sexual violence in films for some reason is not as triggering to me as torture in films. I refuse to watch _Reservoir Dogs_. I had to leave the theater twice during _Pan’s Labyrinth_ just because somebody was _about_ to get tortured. The only sexual thing that really freaked me out is the end of _Oldboy_. The main character is set up for this elaborate incest-based revenge plot in which he ends up falling in love with his (unbeknownst to him) daughter and taking her virginity. When the villain reveals to him his paramour’s true identity, he freaks out and cuts out his own tongue, and in the end he chooses to suppress his memory somehow and he and his daughter live as lovers. It’s pretty messed up, and, at least for me, it’s a ‘‘twist’’ I never saw coming in a film that was otherwise just an extraordinarily violent action/mystery… so I was completely unprepared for dealing with all that. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/77 "2014-12-15T00:39:52Z")
I saw it back in the day, when it was a must-see at the local ‘art film theater’. Didn’t bother me that much, but then I’m not a typical finicky sensitive female going ‘ew ew ew’ at unpleasantness and waving my long-fingernailed hands in the air. I’ve seen it several times over the years, and I do still find scenes disturbing to watch, but not inordinately so. The music is just heavenly, and I think Malcolm McDowell is mesmerizing. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/78 "2014-12-15T01:57:23Z")
I actually bought it on DVD because it was a Kubrick and was suppose to be iconic. I didn’t like the way women were treated one bit. Other than now getting the toothpick references to the movie I could have done without seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/79 "2014-12-15T03:36:39Z")
I saw it in a college, as part of a Kubrick film series. It’s the only Kubrick film in the series that I remember nothing about, so I was either completely horrified or utterly bored. I think I was bored. You want ultraviolence, watch The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover. ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385/80 "2014-12-15T16:32:55Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I didn’t like the way women were treated one bit. Other than now getting the toothpick references to the movie I could have done without seeing it. Toothpick references? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-can-you-watch-a-clockwork-orange/401385.md?page=5)