what age did you watch this?

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I first saw it in 1973, a few weeks before I turned 17. I was relieved that I didn't get carded at the box office. I had been very eager to see it since reading the book at the very appropriate age of "still only fifteen".

16 the first time I saw it.

What have I become...

I think I was 14. I'm not really sure, but I think that's accurate.

15

29. it just seemed too old/stupid for my tastes back then. young me was stupid. probably what i'll say in 10 years too. pretzel sandstorm.

I was about 11. This was almost 10 years ago, right when video stores not named Blockbuster were about to begin bowing out gracefully, like video stores named Blockbuster should (WHOOPS, forgot they did...). It was after church (I was an alter boy at the time), my parents got a pizza and then took me to the video store because I said there was something I wanted to rent, which was of course this movie, because I had heard how scandalous it was over 20 years before I was born. I remember my curiosity was peaked when my uncle and I were at the mall and wandered through FYE, where he pointed out Clockwork Orange and asked me if I had heard of it; I said no and he said "It's a great movie, but it's definitely not a kids' movie."

BLEH WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?! I HATED BEING TOLD WHAT I COULDN'T WATCH. I WEREN'T NO KID. NOW I HAD TO SEE IT. I asked my mom if it was any good and she said "It's ridiculous. It makes Napoleon Dynamite look like a Rhodes Scholar film."

That discouraged me. But, the promise of boobies and sex meant I HAD TO SEE IT.

So I chomped on pizza (Little Caesar's, excellent pizza...God I wish they delivered.) and watched the 80s\early 90s Warner VHS that my local Movie Gallery had rented out. (My parents never asked questions about what I was renting, strangely, probably because they figured I wasn't 5 anymore, like parents should.)

My reaction was something like "Hmm...interesting...oh hey there's the gravedigger from The Wicker Man*, coolio...not bad...cute boobies...I like the ones feeding him the grapes...good movie...what the Hell was the point of all this?" It was the first movie I encountered where I figured it's one of those you have to just enjoy for its visual artistry. The motifs never held much point to me, and I have to agree with Anthony Burgess that the removal of the final chapter removed the meaning from the story.

Of course on subsequent revisits (I haven't seen the whole thing too many times, oddly enough) I enjoyed it more, and registered the themes better, and the performances and dialogue are top notch. Probably my second favorite Kubrick besides Barry Lyndon.

*Saw that one when I was 8. 8 freaking years old. Changed my life and view of movies, as you can imagine. (That was one that I was hands down NOT allowed to watch, so I snuck it into my room and saw way more boobs than I had ever seen, and my first female butt courtesy of Britt Ekland['s body double], who had a different, less movie-oriented impact on me. [Seriously, MAJOR obsession with her when I was a kid])

WARNING: Some posts were written on my iPad. And some were dictated to Siri... >.>

19. I bought a used copy from Hollywood Video.