Over time, the unsettling shots of chaos and insanity have brought the film to cult classic status, with Stanley Kubrick’s creative and boundary-breaking direction having influenced many directors thereafter. The majority of people understood that Kubrick’s exhibition of violence and crime in the film was a critique of existing social structures, but after the film’s release, some thought Kubrick encouraged, and even incited violence (via Far Out Magazine). One such violent scene shows Alex DeLarge and his gang of Droogs invading a rich writer’s home before they sexually abuse his wife, as The Great Courses Daily notes. It’s scenes like these, and many more, which brought a judicial glare down upon Kubrick’s now-lauded film.
“A Clockwork Orange” wasn’t the only film that critics blamed for allegedly inciting violence, either. Around the same time, the 1976 film “Taxi Driver” was linked to John Hinckley Jr.’s assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981, according to The Take. “A Clockwork Orange” was particularly gruesome in some of its violent depictions.
