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20 comments
37 comments
Rank This Matchup or Comment/Reply Below
on 7/30/2009
Two Kubrick masterpieces. Tough choice. Edge to Clockwork Orange only because The Shining has minor flaws. Damn good match-up.
on 11/16/2009
I agree it's flawed, but The Shining has aged really well..
on 12/22/2009
I'm going with Shining, more memorable by comparison.
on 12/25/2009
I'd have to say A Clockwork Orange. Both films are about the psychological products of your environment but in different ways. Nicholson is really more haunted than McDowell's character. ACO's message is more about the modern age rather than the supernatural. It came first, too. Great match-up, but the more impactful film is ACO.
on 1/17/2010
The Shining has two things going for it. One is its source material. The other is Jack Nicholson. A Clockwork Orange has one thing going against it. That being how unsettling it can be. Most notably during the "Singing in the Rain," scene. Not that such scenes do not add to the overall tone or aren't brilliant in their own right, because they are, but that it is the sort of film I'd be less inclined to watch as I'd have to be in the right headspace for it. For that reason, and that reason alone, The Shining reigns supreme here.
on 2/28/2010
Kubrick at his best... I never liked the clockwork, but it's still a good movie, but Shining is kind of timeless for me...
on 8/3/2010
Both still haunt me, but I have to go with the Shining, just a gut reaction sort of decision. Interesting point: both are purposeful strong deviations from source material and still work brilliantly.
on 8/8/2010
The Shining holds up better to repeated viewings, I feel. Even though Shelley Duvall grates on my nerves, Clockwork falls on that side of the strange line where it has to be an occasion of sharing it with someone new before I want to sit through its uncomfortable parts again.
Turn on eather one i'm there. While the shining is good and you could watch day or night. I still like the thought of staying up late with a beer in hand watching the Clockwork. Two very good movies..
Both films display Kubrick's genius & direction abilities but Clockwork Orange was a masterwork.
on 9/10/2010
I was unmoved by A Clockwork Orange (besides the wtf feeling I had after watching it). The Shining is a great horror film with a great performance from Jack.
on 12/11/2010
Felt like there was better sense of direction in A Clockwork Orange.
on 12/30/2010
great films, i didn't enjoy the shining, and i feel malcolm mcdowell's performance (overall) is better than jack's (he always felt like he was crazy, not that he was descending into madness)... Clockwork
on 1/2/2011
For me, The Shining is better. Both are great movies, but The Shining just edges ahead. I loved the book, and this adaptation works well in film form too.
on 1/25/2011
As iconic as The Shining is for our modern pop culture , A Clockwork Orange is a much better film overall.
on 2/12/2011
I think The Shining is not given enough credit as a piece of art and Clockwork Orange is a little too heralded as a masterpiece, not saying it isn't. They both sit at an equally high place in Kubrick's filmography (next to 2001 and Full Metal Jacket) in my opinion. That said, the decision for me comes down to what film I enjoy more and I love the shining. The Shining gets the win.
The Shining is one of those movies that you will always remember where you were the first time you saw it. Clockwork Orange isn't. Case closed.
on 5/29/2011
Both peculiar films that I absolutely love. Clockwork had Malcolm McDowell in a creepily mesmerizing performance, surrealism, and a message. Shining had atmosphere, story, and creepy children...Shining wins in my book.
on 6/24/2011
Kubrick's two best films. Two of the most macabre films about monsters in human nature. The Shining wins.
on 6/29/2011
The Shining is the only Kubrick film I love, or like, or can even stand to watch, really.
on 7/30/2011
A Clockwork Orange for me is just so much more disturbing, exciting, visually genius. The Shining is probably my #2 Kubrick, but nothing can beat ACO for me.
on 7/31/2011
The Shining is winning this?!?! They're both 5 star films, but come on!
on 8/15/2011
A Clockwork Orange for me.
on 11/23/2011
The Shining was a bit more memorable to me, but A Clockwork Orange was the better movie and that is the question here.
on 1/20/2012
The Shining is great.But A Clockwork Orange was way ahead of its time.
on 2/12/2012
A Clockwork Orange was so much better and more enjoyable. Good rewatch value
on 6/3/2012
Two great films by Kubrick.
on 8/8/2012
The Shining.
It's been a while since I saw both of these movies but my vote goes to The Shining. A Clockwork Orange is in my opinion extremely overrated.
on 8/13/2012
one of the tightest matchups ive come across. the shining by a hair
on 8/30/2012
Oh dear god .......... The Shinning possible the best horror movie ever !
on 12/13/2012
Always felt ACO should have been... smarter? More subtle, at least. "Hey look, it's !!!FREUDIAN IMAGERY!!!" Technically it's a marvel but there's just something unpleasantly cartoonish about it for me.
on 12/25/2012
For me ACO is better in amy point. The acting is better, the story, the originality.
on 2/10/2013
Jacky boy.
on 2/17/2013
Clockwork Orange is a little overrated but I mean...it's still good. The Shining is fantastic!
I can't believe I haven't commented on this yet. Uh. I've seen all of Kubrick's films (short and feature length) and I gotta say that The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, and 2001 are probably his most thought provoking films, at least they were for me. But out of these two, I gotta say that The Shining felt like the more ambiguous title. That whole movie was like an inescapable maze, man. That shit was crazy. Frozen Jack always gives me the creeps.
on 2/22/2013
Such a difficult decision. Two Kubrick masterpieces. Think I'll go with A Clockwork Orange by the slightest of margins.
on 5/26/2013
The Shining is the better Kubrick flick.
on 7/21/2013
Just my opinion. A Clockwork Orange is another one of Stanley Kubrick's masterpieces but I gotta give this one to The Shining. I loved every bit of it and I'm not even a horror movie fan.
on 10/1/2013
A Clockwork Orange is without a doubt in my mind, Kubrick's masterpiece.
on 3/9/2014
Clockwork Orange. A masterpiece
on 4/13/2014
I do not know maybe Clockwork
on 10/2/2014
I love both so much. Both are in my top 20 but A clockwork orange is little bit more important to me. 2001 is a little better than either of these.
The Shining is kind of annoying. Toward the end it's mostly just Shelley Duvall's reaction shots to scary stuff, and I never found anything near as scary as her. A Clockwork Orange stirs my soul. It's funny, twisted and has style up the wazoo. Yeah, I know people like to analyze how complex The Shining is and all that, but the actual content is just so-so. A few memorable images, Jack Nicholson acting crazy and Duvall screaming a lot. The REDRUM bit becomes more grating with each viewing.
on 11/2/2014
Both are amazing films and in my top 20. A Clockwork orange takes it atleast now
on 2/8/2015
I unlike A Clockwork Orange, and Shining is my favorite film...
on 3/10/2015
Easy. Jack wins
on 5/5/2015
Both awesome films but a clockwork orange is my favorite film
on 7/29/2015
Both masterpieces, but The Shining is my favourite Kubrick film and Horror film.
on 10/23/2015
A Clockwork Orange is great in certain ways. It really gets under my skin. It takes me out of my comfort zone. I would call that brilliant filmmaking on Kubrick's part. Having said that, there are many scenes that I find are unnecessary or that could be shorter. I mainly just have mixed feelings about the film overall. On the other hand, I find The Shining to be almost flawless. It's my favorite Kubrick film, of the ones that I've seen. I have yet to see Dr Strangelove and Eyes Wide Shut.
on 11/24/2015
The Shining. A Clockwork Orange is great, but it didn't doe what The Shining does.
on 4/7/2016
This has always been one of my favorite matchups! Talk about two films that have strongly impacted me in their own ways. Both have possibly the greatest atmosphere I've ever witnessed in cinema. While The Shining might be a tad bit stronger in the atmosphere and have Jack Nicholson at his most batshit insane, I'll go with A Clockwork Orange for its thought-provoking ideas and for being such a one-of-a-kind experience. So close, though. Both will always have a welcome spot in my top 10.
on 4/8/2016
These are both bursting with visual storytelling and ambition, but Clockwork is a transcendent experience.
on 3/4/2018
A Clockwork Orange easy, but i still loved The Shining, it's probably my 3rd favorite kubrick film behind 2001 and clockwork orange
on 4/12/2018
My two favorite Kubrick movies. A clockwork orange is a great movie, no contest about it, but there's something in The Shining that th more I watch it, the more I need to re-watch it again, the movie is a masterpiece!
on 8/26/2018
the shining is better than a clockwork forgetange
on 10/1/2018
The Shining is far the best story horror classic, Clockwork Orange is okay but the Shining is much successful..
Anthony Burgess was not a fan of Kubrick's Lolita, and he feared what would happen to his A Clockwork Orange when all the sex and violence had to be visualized on the big screen. "Lolita could not work well," Burgess had written, "because Kubrick had found no cinematic equivalent to Nabokov's literary extravagance." Additionally, Burgess realized he'd been cheated because he wasn't paid anything for A Clockwork Orange. Years earlier, he had sold the film rights for a few hundred dollars, and regardless of how the film version performed at the box office, he would see no profit points. Worse, "Kubrick went on paring his nails in Borehamwood," complained Burgess, leaving the publicity chores to McDowell and the novelist, who was even called upon to attend the New York Film Critics' Circle Awards on Kubrick's behalf. There at Sardi's restaurant, Burgess got his revenge, since he quickly won the hearts and laughter of the assembled film reviewers when he declared, "I have been sent by God – Stanley Kubrick – to accept his award!" Burgess, for his part, grew to hate the film. Or Kubrick. Or both. When he adapted his novel for the stage, he made sure to include the following stage direction: "A man bearded like Stanley Kubrick comes on playing, in exquisite counterpoint, 'Singin' in the Rain' on a trumpet. He is kicked off the stage."
I know King didn't like the film adaptation of his novel either, but he wasn't treated nearly as bad as Burgess, who had to endure a lot more despite being the FAR superior novelist. Add to this what happened to Arthur C Clarke and you realize that Kubrick's record has always been that of an ingrate. Par for the course with people of his ilk.
on 10/12/2018
The Shining is far preeminent on every level of a horror masterpiece..
on 8/19/2019
Sophie's choice essentially.
on 6/18/2020
The Shining gets the nod over ACO
Nothing beats 'The Shining' if you are talking about the whole horror genre.
on 1/12/2021
Kubrick's Weirdest movie vs Kubrick's Scariest movie. As fantastic as Clockwork Orange and Alex DeLarge are, The Shining and Jack Torrance are better in my opinion. But these are definitely in Kubrick's' top three movies along with 2001: A Space Odyssey.
on 4/14/2022
I love both films like the masterpieces they are, but ever since I watched "A Clockwork Orange" it seems so much more than the Shining was, when I saw the Shining for the first time I loved it and it was and it still is the greatest horror film of all time, but there's something about ACO that makes the eperience so much better. The setting to the cast the film is so much more enjoyable.
A Clockwork Orange. The milkbags on the woman with blue hair were awesome.
on 9/6/2022
They are both great movies, won't call them masterpieces but they are definitely great. I am choosing The Shining.
on 7/18/2023
A Clockwork Orange... by a lot.
on 7/19/2023
A Clockwork Orange. Kubrick is a psychopath like Nolan, but I didn't hate either.
on 11/5/2023
Shining for me. I always rewatch this film at least once every couple years, and each rewatch was better than the last. It has the same elements I love in Clockwork Orange and then some. At the end of the day, you can't go wrong with either.
