Clockwork Clipped

Like its savage anti-hero Alex, A Clockwork Orange will soon be subjected to a tiny taste of the Ludovico Technique--that brain-blowing treatment that was to rid Alex of his sado-sexual violence. At the end of next month the Stanley Kubrick film will be temporarily withdrawn from theaters to allow the censors' scissors to transform it from an X- to an R-rated movie (children under 17 admitted with parent or guardian). After 60 days Clockwork will emerge from the Motion Picture Association of America's purification rite shorn of its scarlet letter, and two "explicit" sex scenes totaling 30 seconds. One is a bedroom romp involving Alex and two willing girls; the other shows soldiers raping a girl. The changes, Warner Bros, hopes, will attract a wider audience. Some theaters refuse to show X movies, and an increasing number of newspapers do not advertise them. Kubrick, who selected the footage to be excised, believes that the change will have scant effect on his chilling exercise in "psychedelic fascism." But the incident points up the damaging practice of lumping artistically valid films with sewer-level skin flicks under the X rating. The decision to yield in this case may encourage the trend.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.