If....
The Criterion Collection
Lindsay Anderson’s If.... is a daringly anarchic vision of British society, set in a boarding school in late-sixties England. Before Kubrick made his mischief iconic in A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell made a hell of an impression as the insouciant Mick Travis, who, along with his school chums, trumps authority at every turn, finally emerging as violent savior against the draconian games of one-upmanship played by both students and the powers that be. Mixing color and black and white as audaciously as it mixes fantasy and reality, If.... remains one of cinema’s most unforgettable rebel yells.
Member Reviews
An unpleasant way to waste a couple of hours. - movie_goer
I have a feeling I might be in a minority here with my rating below average. Its clear that I watched 'If...' to see the Genius (Malcolm McDowell) at work.
Malcolm McDowell shines through against the rest of the cast here and I'm sure this film helped launch McDowell's career into Clockwork Orange A Very controversial role. However I found the whole film pretty dull and pretty to watch with quite a pointless plot.A great film about school and more. - Superdave
Lindsay Anderson was one of the few directors who could work successfully in such no-no genres as social satire and political allegory and get away with it, and this movie is part one of three, to be followed by O Lucky Man (1973) and Britannia Hospital (1982). Malcolm McDowell plays the viewpoint character (Mick Travis) as an ambitious rebel who finds himself smothering in the repressive atmosphere of an English private school. The school, of course, is both a school with all of its loathsome qualities intact via the memories of the writers (David Sherwin and John Howlett) and an allegory for UK society at large with similarly perverse social traditions and expectations. Cadet training, for instance, is presented as a boring, pointless waste of the students' young lives, while subtly hinting at the societal expectation to one day be called to defend one's country - right or wrong, no questions asked - a key political issue in the Vietnam era. That is one example. Much of what happens in the film resonates in this way, with small happenings and silly traditions within school hinting at a much broader context.
Much has been made of the jarring shifts between color and B&W film - the producers ran short of money and had to shoot some scenes in B&W. Nevertheless, the B&W film gives those scenes an unreal quality and leave the viewer wondering whether they took place at all or existed only in the overworking imagination of Mick. I prefer to think of these bits as a happy accident.If...only a little better... - Asclepias
This is a intriguing movie to see again after about thirty years. It was popular in Britain when it came out [and I saw it as a younger and much less discerning fan of film] , and I think now has a number of features that what may be seen as attempted innovations now have the effect of irritating this particular viewer.
For example, 'If' has an odd top-heavy feel where too much time is spent developing the Mick, the main character's, descent into anarchy and not enough taking you beyond the final shoot-up. I had the feeling that the script-writers ran out of steam.
I grew up in a public school in Britain [where 'public' really means private], and I see If.. as a caricature of life there rather than the real thing, though there were many elements portrayed well that still bring a rueful smile..duplicitous men of religion and odd quirky teachers - watch for Graham Crowden in his much younger years now seen in the Brit TV series in 'Waiting for God'- that often caught the imagination of teenage boys. The homo-erotic vein of life in single-sex schools can be recalled many years later, as can cold showers as a punishment, though I think corporal punishment was largely on its way out in the 1970s, and was forbidden in my particular school by senior boys, and rarely used as a punishment by teachers.
I found the switch back and forth between B+W and colour bemusing at first, and irritating late. I did not buy the explanation given by McDowell in his comments that accompanied the video. It seemed too random to be deemed 'artistic'..almost as if the cameramen had tossed a coin at each shoot to decide which cassette to use!
We found the naked woman scene titillating in the 1970s when we were less used to such events...but I think that's all it was, and it did not add a great deal to the unfolding of the plot.
Like many videos seen twice with several decades in between, an interesting experience but only 3/5 stars this time round.
Member Reviews
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An unpleasant way to waste a couple of hours. - movie_goer
I have a feeling I might be in a minority here with my rating below average. Its clear that I watched 'If...' to see the Genius (Malcolm McDowell) at work.
Malcolm McDowell shines through against the rest of the cast here and I'm sure this film helped ...A great film about school and more. - Superdave
Lindsay Anderson was one of the few directors who could work successfully in such no-no genres as social satire and political allegory and get away with it, and this movie is part one of three, to be followed by O Lucky Man (1973) and Britannia Hospital (1982). ...If...only a little better... - Asclepias
This is a intriguing movie to see again after about thirty years. It was popular in Britain when it came out [and I saw it as a younger and much less discerning fan of film] , and I think now has a number of features that what may be seen as attempted innovations ...