In 1972, the release of Clockwork Orange, ignited a serious controversy that penetrated all sections of society in a way that was unprecedented in the history of cinema in Britain. Its portrayal of a young gang of anarchist hooligans raping, mugging and vandalising their way through a futuristic dystopian Britain caused outrage and significant attention. It preoccupied the attention of politicians, the media, the church, the police and local authorities of towns up and down the country, before its own director, Stanley Kubrick, in the face of this pressure, finally banned the film from public exhibition.
John Trevelyan, Chairman of The British Board of Film Classification (1956-71), who passed the film with an "X" certificate said it was "...an important social document of outstanding brilliance and quality". On the other hand according to the spokesperson of the so-called "silent moral majority", Mary Whitehouse, it was "sickening and disgusting...I had to come out after twenty minutes". To MPs such as Maurice Edelman, A Clockwork Orange was an incitement to violent crime -- "...the adventures of the psychotic Alix[sic] rampaging to music, are likely to have a more sinister effect on those who see for the first time see a fantasy realised on the screen. -- a fantasy of exciting violence." But for the young themselves it was "a subversive tribute to the glory of youth"
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0012.html
The British authorities considered the sexual violence extreme, furthermore, there occurred legal claims that the movie A Clockwork Orange had inspired true copycat crimes, as per press cuttings at the British Film Institute. In March 1972, at trial, the prosecutor accusing the fourteen-year-old-boy defendant of the manslaughter of a classmate, referred to A Clockwork Orange, telling the judge that the case had a macabre relevance to the film. The attacker, a Bletchley boy of sixteen, pleaded guilty after telling police that friends had told him of the film "and the beating up of an old boy like this one"; defence counsel told the trial "the link between this crime and sensational literature, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established beyond reasonable doubt".
The press also blamed the film for a rape in which the attackers sang "Singin' in the Rain". Christiane Kubrick, the director's wife, has said that the family received threats and had protesters outside their home.
Subsequently, Kubrick asked Warner Brothers to withdraw the film from British distribution, disliking the allegation that the film was responsible for copycat violence in real life. Quoting Kubrick: "To try and fasten any responsibility on art as the cause of life seems to me to put the case the wrong way around. Art consists of reshaping life but it does not create life, nor cause life. Furthermore, to attribute powerful suggestive qualities to a film is at odds with the scientifically accepted view that, even after deep hypnosis, in a posthypnotic state, people cannot be made to do things which are at odds with their natures." The Scala Cinema Club went into receivership in 1993 after losing a legal battle following an unauthorized screening of the film.
Whatever the reason for the film's withdrawal, for some 27 years, it was difficult to see the film in the United Kingdom. It reappeared in cinemas, and the first VHS and DVD releases followed soon after Kubrick's death. On 4 July 2001, the uncut A Clockwork Orange had its premiere broadcast on Sky TV's Sky Box Office; the run was until mid-September.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(film)#British_withdrawal
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