Surprising Facts You Didn’t Know About These Iconic ’70s Stars

During the filming of A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell’s eyes were held open with metal clamps for the Ludovico Technique scene. A malfunction caused physical injury to his cornea, leaving him temporarily blind and in severe pain during production.

Kubrick pushed forward regardless. The scene became iconic, but the damage was real. McDowell’s suffering was folded into the film’s mythology, another example of ’70s cinema valuing endurance over safety and treating harm as an acceptable byproduct of transgression.