Why were there about 17 direct references to A Clockwork Orange? Some are vague (might be looking to deep at some) but there's loads of them.
Anybody know why Anderson did this?
I know it was released a few years after ACO was released, and Malcolm McDowell was probably still riding high on that success. But for so many?
Any books that mention it?
I have no direct info about the ACO references, but they are certainly there. O Lucky Man! even shares a variety of CO cast members. Could it have to do with the fact that Anderson's film is based, apparently, on an idea by Malcolm McDowell, and that McDowell had recently completed ACO with Kubrick - a long and life-changing process? Philip Stone (also in the Anderson film) used to joke that he was one of the only actors with the sheer stamina to work with Kubrick more than once. McDowell still talks about ACO as a gruelling shoot, and it makes sense that the experience would trickle into his very next movie.
shareWarren Clarke who played Dim in ACO is also in O Lucky Man.
As for other references, Michael Travis is:
*tortured (as was Alex)
*undergoes medical experiments complete with crazy headgear as well.
*jumps out of a window to escape an unimaginable fate.
*incarcerated, after...
*(being)betrayed by his boss (as Alex was by his Droogs)
*beaten by a mob of homeless people when showing goodwill. (as is Alex near the end of ACO)
Those are all I could think of off the top of my head.
Also,
* Just before Mick arrives at the hotel he is looking at his list of sales on the side of the road. The name at the bottom of the page is 'De Large' (no sale). Malcolm's character in ACO was named Alex DeLarge.
A few others -
* the lodger refers to Mick as the "new rabbit" (Alex is the padre's "new rabbit" in the prison.
* One of the assistants at the Millar lab, when he is wired up is called Stanley (Kubrick, geddit?)
* The police in the film are quite similar to the droogs who become police in ACO.
* Mick gets shown films of sex and violence, by Mayor Johnson and Dr Munda (like Alex)
* Mick drinks milk from a woman's breast - the Droogs drink moloko plus from plastic women's breasts.
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Are these references or plagiarisms?
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Here's a definition of plagiarism.
The act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one's own creation.
Here's a definition of (a) reference.
something that refers to or designates something else, or acts as a connection or a link between two things. The objects it links may be concrete, such as books or locations, or abstract, such as data, thought, or memories.
I'm going with the latter, seeing how the entire film is brimming with satire and absurdities...
It seems kind of blurry though, don't you think? There's been successful law-suits over lesser similarities in other films. I mean, that's quite a huge list you've got going there!
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O lucky man was written by McDowell before ACO. I think most from the list above were coincidence. But the actor who played Dim, was probably not. It was, afterall, Mcdowell who suggested that 'this actor who's name I am drawing a blank on' play dim. But, When travis was speaking to a secratary on the phone, he called him mr. burgess (the writer of the novel ACO was based off.) but i dont think there were too* many similarities
shareOh I see. I didn't know those things. Pretty interesting relationship between those two films.
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Nothing to do with ACO, but Malcolm McDowell's character Mick Travis is the same (but older) one as in Lindsay Anderson's earlier film 'If'.
shareGood point. There is certainly a lot of Alex in Mick Travis, but I think Kubrick was attracted to McDowell because of his performance in If... (does anybody know?), so it's quite hard to track down the origin of his evil eye.
There are more actors from ACO in 'O Lucky Man'. The guy who plays Alex' father, for example. Also one more of the droogs, I think.
Some of the references are most certainly not coincidal, but in the end, 'O Lucky Man' is pretty original, so I think it's too harsh to call it a plagiat. I was a huge ACO fan when I was younger and I discovered 'O Lucky Man' not long ago. It was great to see much of the mood and some of the actors from ACO again, without having to undergo the Ludovico Therapy.
actually, he started writing it before ACO but didn't finish it until after. the whole story is supposed to be about his life. so i think all of the references to ACO were on purpose in order to signify that period of his life. that is why he becomes a "star" at the end of the movie.
shareAbsolutely mandrake, I think you hit the nail on the head. At the end it's Lindsay Anderson himself at that casting session, which MT finds himself at after seeing the man with the "Wanna Be a Star?" banner. They pose him with a machine gun just like the iconic shot from "If.....", and also holding the schoolbooks. So I think whatever references to ACO are in the film are by way of a tribute to this part of Malcolm McDowell's life or the blurring between fiction and reality that an actor undergoes.
Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'
I thought the character Malcolm McDowell character was a bit like the one he played in the latter part of Clockwork Orange. Or was that just his smile and willingness to trust in and do. Also some of the same actors in both. I noticed references to "If" and again some of the same actors were in both films.
share"I thought the character Malcolm McDowell character was a bit like the one he played in the latter part of Clockwork Orange."
-- In a way, it's almost if "O Lucky Man!" is about little Alex De Large (also referenced as Alex Burgess in the headline in ACO) after being released from hospital and giving up the government job (which is in the last chapter of the British printing of the novel, but was left out of the American printing that Kubrick read and was left out of his film).
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"Why do people always laugh in the wrong places?"
--Dim
I was noticing during the movie that a couple times i was reminded of ACO.
Thanks for the info everyone. I had no idea M McD wrote it until i read it on here, then shortly after that the movie ended and saw that little line.
There are definite connections between the two films. Even if McDowell had the idea for O Lucky Man! before A Clockwork Orange, there is nothing to stop him from altering the story especially if it is one that reflects his own life experiences.
I first saw O Lucky Man! a few weeks after seeing A Clockwork Orange for the first time. My first impression was that it was a type of attack/criticism of Kubrick’s film. For example, there are clear connections between the storylines of both films (already outlined earlier in this thread). The lead character:
- being strapped down in a ‘chair of torture’
- going to prison and being ‘re-born’ at the end
- being attacked by a group of tramps
Also:
- the use of actors in O Lucky Man! that appeared in A Clockwork Orange, McDowell, Warren Clarke, Philip Stone
- the use of the word ‘brothers’ in the scene where Travis tries to communicate with the tramps, who are dismissive of him calling them ‘brothers’, a direct attack on A Clockwork Orange?
I know that McDowell was unhappy with Kubrick around this time and he had a major influence in the story of O Lucky Man! I can’t help thinking that these are not coincidences.
Does anyone agree/disagree?
Britain has a long history of rich satire and dystopian scifi. Everything from "1984" to "BLADE RUNNER" to "BRAZIL" to "A CLOCKWORK ORANGE", to novels by Welles, Huxley and Burgess, was written or directed here. In this regard, I think Anderson sees "IF", "HOTEL BRITANNIA", "A CLOCKWORK ORANGE" and "O LUCKY MAN" as existing in the same cinematic universe. Malcolm McDowell is like an everyman character, wading from one morbid slice of Britain to the next. They're different films, but the same world.
"Rape is no laughing matter. Unless you're raping a clown."
Just to add to the references to ACO list, I did notice a few other details that could be very subtle references, although I may be reading into it a bit too much:
- At one point near the beginning when Mick is talking to the coffee company boss, being given the replacement job, he says to the guy: "Sir, you can rely on me," in a very similar way to when Alex says in ACO, "You can rely on me, sir." I just found it creepily similar.
- Also, when Mick's talking on the phone to Patricia's dad, he exclaims, "It's a matter of life and death!" just like Alex when he's trying to get victims to open their doors at night.
- Seemingly for no significant reason, there is a short clip of Mick getting out of a car while working for Patricia's dad, and in it he's prominently wearing a bowler hat, just like the one Alex wears in ACO.
Could be nothing, but you never know.
~~~
'I tried to snort a floor.' ~ Iggy Pop
There are far more references to and actors from the film "If..." within O, Lucky Man. Also i remember reading a Kubrick quote about seeing Mcdowell in If... and wanting him to play Alex in much the same way as M.Travis.
This idea of plagarism is clearly ACO fanboys unwilling to accept the ideas, themes, and actors weren't 100% unique.
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Another reference: In prison he wears a red armband just like he does in Clockwork Orange.
shareThe bio says McDowall wrote O Lucky Man after he starred in the movie IF, and BEFORE he starred in ACO.
He probably went back and finished it off and edited it. But it was written before.
As for bowler hats and such, things like that may have just been the style in England at that time or in the era of the movies made.