'The Fleet Street clippings of twenty years ago are full of cases of rape, murder and mayhem where it was pointed to that the defendants had seen 'A Clockwork Orange' - as if that explained everything' - Tony Parsons, from Screen Violence

It seems to me that the majority of the furore surrounding the re-release of 'A Clockwork Orange' stems from those wholesome morality campaigners that all too often seem to have a doom-laden vision of a corrupted society that believes all it reads, sees and hears.

Now, I'm the first to admit that I'm not the most well-balanced person residing on this planet, but if I watch Rambo, the probability that I'll go out the next day and wave a shotgun around at innocent people is, though some may disagree, virtually nil. Of course guns and violence on the screen fascinate us, as we only see the diluted, comic book version, and we know that it is NOT REAL. It doesn't mean that we're going to go out and shoot people because we saw a character in a film do it.

Unfortunately, a small proportion of people in this country believe that if we see violence in a film, we will immediately feel the need to copy it. Never mind that we see violence on the television news, in the newspapers, on the radio, and even in places closer to home like pubs and nightclubs. No, these are culturally accepted. Why an individual will only resort to a violent act after watching it in a film, and not after having it shoved in his/her face for most of their lives, I do not know.

'A Clockwork Orange' was withdrawn from exhibition, by Kubrick himself, because of an incident in which a disturbed individual felt the need to copy a scene from the film, in which one of the characters gets raped by Alex as he intones the lyrics to 'Singing In The Rain'. The moral outrage was immense, and there were calls to have it banned even though it had been playing for eighteen months and the BBFC were happy to grant the film an exhibition certificate.

One of the reasons it was withdrawn was because Kubrick had received death threats against himself and his family. Now, I know I'm cynical, but hello? Irony calling?

In doing so, he condemned his film to mythical status and a lifetime of false accusations and over-hyped media attention.

Due to this, the film is now enjoying a second opening and is doubtless going to be seen by at least as many people that saw in back in 1971. Although this time I anticipate the reaction will be somewhat less exaggerated. The new theatrical release has been awaited for nearly twenty years, and I expect half the audience will leave the cinema with the same feeling as when they finished watching 'The Exorcist', one of disappointment, even though it is a fantastic film.

However, the film is not the two-hour exhibition of violence that many expect, and the violence, compared to contemporary films, is not that excessive. Instead, it is the visual and artistic sensibilities of the film that leave the strongest impression.

So if someone watches this film now, and then goes on to commit an act of violence that bears a direct relation to the film, can we really blame the film? I would blame society, but can even society be left accountable for those individuals that act in this way? Realistically, if an individual is fucked up enough to kill or rape someone, then surely they will gain inspiration from any number of sources. You cannot blame cinema for society's evils, no matter what any PC sympathiser might say.

What do the moral campaigners hope to achieve? Do they want all films to be based around happy events with no depiction of what actually happens in real life? Film is art, and art can be expressed in many ways. Sometimes it is necessary to explore the darker side of the soul to discover what is morally correct and what is morally incorrect.

But we need to be allowed to make our own decisions, and morality campaigners advocating censorship doesn't solve anything. I mean, have they seen the film? And if they have, why can't we have the chance to make up our own minds? Why should they decide for us?

Go watch it, and decide for yourself how or if it affected you, and then join me in the campaign against morality campaigners.

Written by Paul Halfpenny

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