Themes: Class Differences, Boarding School Life, Teachers and Students
Main Cast: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, Robert Swann
Release Year: 1968
Country: UK
Run Time: 111 minutes
Plot
Rebellious students at an English private school plan a violent revolt against their repressive environment in director Lindsay Anderson's highly acclaimed but extremely controversial drama. Centering on a small group of non-conformists led by Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), the film paints a distinctly negative picture of the British school system and, by extension, English society. Seeing the powers-that-be as humorless, bureaucratic, and needlessly restrictive, Mick and his cohorts indulge in small acts of rebellion, including sneaking into town to romance a local waitress. Their actions are discovered and punished with harsh beatings, leading the students to plot revenge. This effort culminates in the film's most famous sequence, a surrealistic depiction of a bloody uprising by the students against the adult world. Daring and unpredictable in content and form, If... mixes color and black-and-white cinematography as easily as it mingles satire with dark fantasy. The film's ambiguous attitude toward violence caused controversy at the time, as many commentators saw the film as a potential incitement to violence. It became a great success among younger, counter-culture audiences who appreciated the audacious shock tactics and embraced the satirical, anti-establishment message. Often compared to Jean Vigo's French classic Zéro de conduite, which also featured surrealistic boarding-school rebellion, If... has become a high point in the cinema of youth rebellion. Anderson and McDowell later collaborated on O Lucky Man! (1973), Look Back in Anger (1980), and Britannia Hospital (1982). ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Review
Surreal and satiric, If... is both a withering critique of British society and a fantasy rooted in the spirit of schoolboy anarchy. Fairly controversial when it was released in Britain in 1968, the film still has the power to shock, not so much because of its sex and violence (fairly tame by today's standards) but because of the manner in which they are presented. Resembling a landlocked Lord of the Flies, If... remains most startling for its depiction of savagery, on the part of both society (represented by the school and its authorities) and the young men it produces. It is a casual, offhand savagery, seemingly as much a part of British society as tea and scones. Lindsay Anderson's ambiguous approach to the film's violence is consistent with the film's blackly satirical tone, mirroring the aim being taken at societies across the world at the time by their dissatisfied youth. If... can be seen as Anderson's metaphor for the changes occurring across the world in 1968, but it goes further than mere protest, culminating in a show of all-out rebellion that remains one of the high points of the cinema of youthful discontent. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Peter Jeffrey - Headmaster; Arthur Lowe - Housemaster; Mona Washbourne - Matron; Ben Aris - John Thomas, Undermaster; Robin Askwith - Keating; Sean Bury - Jute; Geoffrey Chater - Chaplain; Graham Crowden - History Master; Ellis Dale - Motorcycle Salesman; Richard Everett - Pussy Graves; Tommy Godfrey - School Porter; David Griffin - Willens; Charles Lloyd Pack - Classics Master; Mary McLeod - Mrs. Kemp, Housemaster's Wife; Michael Newport - Brunning; Anthony Nicholls - Gen. Denson; Brian Pettifer - Biles; Peter Sproule - Barnes; Hugh Thomas - Denson; Simon Ward; Rupert Webster - Bobby Philips; Philip Bagenal - Peanuts; Richard Davies - Machin; Charles Sturridge - Markland; Martin Beaumont - Hunter; John Garrie - Music Master
Credit
Brian Eatwell - Art Director, Miriam Brickman - Casting, Lindsay Anderson - Director, David Gladwell - Editor, Marc Wilkinson - Composer (Music Score), Marc Wilkinson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Betty Blattner - Makeup, David Gladwell - Production Designer, Jocelyn Herbert - Production Designer, Miroslav Ondrícek - Cinematographer, Gavrik Losey - Production Manager, Albert Finney - Producer, Michael Medwin - Producer, Lindsay Anderson - Producer, Roy Baird - Producer, Christian Wangler - Sound/Sound Designer, John Howlett - Screen Story, David Sherwin - Screenwriter, Zelda Barron - Production Supervisor
