The cruel prank Stanley Kubrick pulled on ‘A Clockwork Orange’
There were plenty of elements that Stanley Kubrick changed when he adapted the book A Clockwork Orange into his notorious 1971 feature film. Kubrick stated that his original intention was to stay faithful to Anthony Burgess’ original novel, but inevitably, some things got switched around from page to screen.
“I was excited by everything about it: the plot, the ideas, the characters, and, of course, the language,” Kubrick told The New York Times in 1972. “The story functions, of course, on several levels: political, sociological, philosophical, and, what’s most important, on a dreamlike psychological-symbolic level. I think whatever Burgess had to say about the story was said in the book, but I did invent a few useful narrative ideas and reshape some of the scenes.”
The most notable divergence from the book is that Kubrick kept Alex DeLarge’s insanity intact in his version. In the book, DeLarge matures out of his sociopathic tendencies, while in the film, his final daydream and lines confirm that he wasn’t actually cured of anything. Kubrick’s change wasn’t intentional: he had read the American reprint of the novel, which omitted the final chapter of the book. However, Kubrick found his ending to be more satisfying.
On the smaller side of changing details from book to screen, Kubrick decided to give DeLarge a pet snake named Basil. No such snake appears in the book, and Kubrick initially claimed that owning a snake would inherently make DeLarge appear more sinister and dangerous. Kubrick hadn’t had a problem making Alex look like a psychopath up to that point, so why was the snake necessary to further that effect?
In reality, the snake was a practical joke constructed against lead actor Malcolm McDowell. McDowell famously had a difficult shoot, scratching his cornea during the brainwashing scene and cracking his ribs during the filming. McDowell certainly didn’t need any more stress during the shoot, but he made the mistake of letting it slip that he was afraid of reptiles.
Kubrick decided to use this newfound knowledge against McDowell when the director decided that DeLarge should own a large snake. Kubrick would swear up and down that the snake served a practical purpose, helping to establish Alex’s character. But the truth was also that Kubrick just wanted to mess with McDowell. Two things can be true at once, and the snake proved to be intimidating for both audiences and actors alike.
