A Clockwork Orange

[loukr]

Is there any difference between the book by Anthony Burgees and the 1971 film?? Story-wise? thanks x

[warpig1]

No loukr, the film sticks pretty rigidly to the film, I read the book first and enjoyed it although it scared the pants off me in places, then decided to get the film out, wish I hadn't as it was very graphic and 100 times more graphic than my imagination could have been by just reading the book.

[warpig1]

sorry, the film sticks pretty rigidly to the 'book'. d'oh!

[loukr]

aah cheers warpig, it's because I'm thinking of making my uncle a collage for christmas, of ripped pages from the book (his favourite film... but obviously can't do it with pages of a film can i..??), and stencil.. is it Alex...? over the top...(it will look good!!), I saw a piece of work that inspired me to do this :D thanks x

[warpig1]

Sounds excellent, go for it, I am sure your uncle will love it if it is his favourite film!

[scoobysoo]

There's 2 versions of the book. One ends with Alex going right back to his old ways, and the 2nd one ends with him decided for himself to be "good" and sorts his life out and gets a wife. I think Burgess added the happy ending version to sell the book in America. If I remember correctly, the film is the same as the original version of the book. Your collage sounds great. There are a lot of references to Beethoven in the book, so maybe you could incorporate this somehow.

[loukr]

yes when I was researching I found that Alex likes beetehoven's 9th. I was thinking about using sheet music as well as the pages to give it more meaning :D

[warpig1]

Interesting scoobysoo, didn't know there were two endings, I obviously have only read the one where he goes back to his old ways, must keep an eye out for the other one.

[Homer J Fong]

Actually it was the other way around: Greene's original novel contained the 'happy' ending, and it was the US publishers who removed it. Kubrick's movie was faithful to the US version of the novel, and in fact when made aware of the original British publication he was rather dismissive of the ending. Burgess makes it clear, however, that he regards the original 'happy' ending as in fact somewhat more depressing, as Alex reaches awareness that his own offspring (and their offspring, ad nauseam) will probably make the same mistakes as he has, and that he will be powerless to stop them, perpetuating the violence for far longer than Alex himself would be able to continue it.