The VHS release of the Lindsay Anderson sprawling classic.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9600 in VHS
• Released on: 1993-09-06
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 169 minutes

Synopsis
Lindsay Anderson, working again with Malcolm McDowell and Robert Sherwin, continues his comic comment on corruption in British society when Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), the school boy from IF. . ., sets out, like a modern Candide, to make his way in the business world. Anderson stretches the boundaries of cinema with an eclectic use of movies within movies, silent-film-style title cards, surreal fantasies, actors playing multiple parts, and a live soundtrack. Alan Price appears on screen singing several songs. In the lyrics to one song he sings, 'Someone has to win in the human race, if it isn't you, then it has to be me', which is thematically linked to Mick's rise and fall in his career journey from lowly coffee salesman to assistant to Sir James Burgess (Ralph Richardson), the most evil man in the world.
This is a very fast-paced, wildly creative, cinematic tour-de-force that set the standard for expanding the boundaries of British cinema in the early 1970s. McDowell, who is on screen in almost every scene, keeps the bizarre situations from overwhelming the human emotions with a marvellously expressive performance. In the end, with a sly Zen message, Anderson tells us that in a crazy world we can only look within ourselves for a reason to smile.

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Customer Reviews

A labyrinthine odyssey!
'O Lucky Man!', despite its three hours plus duration, is a marvellously entertaining, episodic odyssey in a (lucky! ) young man's career as a coffee salesman. Loosely a follow-up to director Lindsay Anderson's 'If', 'O Lucky Man' is a flawed, but extremely involving movie that features several stellar performances. Malcolm McDowall is at his wide-eyed best as the innocent abroad, whilst English character actor Arthur Lowe (Captain Mainwaring in 'Dad's Army') excels in several different roles - most notably in blackface drag as 'Doctor Munda'. There's also a great score by Alan Price, who contributes the classic 'Poor People' - an underrated act in himself. Stick with it, and 'O Lucky Man' is intensely rewarding.

Brilliant, when is the DVD coming?
This film is, in some ways, a follow up to 'If' and even shares the same lead character, Mick Travis. It's easily my favourite Anderson film and in my all time Top Ten.

O Lucky Man is a surreal, sprawling odyssey of a movie which is based on one man's journey into the real world. It's funny, frightening, dramatic, and sad(sometimes simultaneously).

A striking aspect of the film is that an actor sometimes plays more than one part: Arthur Lowe and Sir Ralph Richardson, for example, play several roles. Rachel Roberts, Helen Mirren and Alan Price are terrific, but it's Malcolm McDowell who really makes the movie.

The soundtrack, performed as an integral part of the film, is superb and worth a purchase on its own.

Please bring out the DVD, my video copy has just about had it.

Excellent film, completing the availability of the trilogy on DVD
Posting this because I think the other comment is misleading. Do not be put off by the comment that it is is cut, it is definitely not cut - this is the 178 minute uncut version - the print is split over the two discs, disc 1 having the first 87 mins and disc 2 having a further 90 mins. In all it's an excellent presentation of the film and if/when it's released on R2 I would expect the presentation to be similar if not the same.