Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6124 in VHS
• Released on: 1993-12-06
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Black & White, Colour, PAL
• Original language: English, Latin
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Synopsis
Filmed at the time of the 1968 student uprising in Paris, Lindsay Anderson's IF. . . is one of the seminal films of the era of student revolt. The characters' direct psychological and emotional displays are an allegory for how individuals must either conform to or rebel against the autocratic authority that is imposed upon them in the face of a class-driven society. The microcosm for this allegory in IF... is College House, a typical English boarding school for boys 11-18 years of age. Malcolm McDowell makes a powerful debut in the role of Mick Travis, a student in his junior year who becomes the leader of a student rebellion. The students are rebelling against the system which allows senior prefects to control and discipline younger students--through physical beatings--for infractions of the schools arcane and arbitrary rules. When Mick is disciplined by the Seniors for his "bad attitude" he is punished in a harrowing scene which does not romanticize the violence he endures.


Divided into chapters with on-screen titles, Anderson methodically shows Mick's transition from adolescent rebelliousness--growing a moustache--to more serious revolt. Anderson uses surrealism, in a style similar to that of Bunuel or even Monty Python. For instance, the headmaster keeps the school chaplain in a large drawer in his office. Clearly inspired by Jean Vigo's ZERO FOR CONDUCT, IF. . . manages to give a realistic, unsentimental view of English public school life, while connecting--largely through McDowell's wonderfully sympathetic portrait of anguished youth--to the theme of personal freedom vs. social order.

Customer Reviews

Historical fantasy
Like the other reviewers, I think this is a great film, and I'm astonished it has never come out on DVD. I check the new releases every week, in hope...

The story is great. As someone who went to grammar school in the 60s, I relate to the oppressive, bullying atmosphere of a prefect-patrolled school, with Rugby and CCF used as instruments of power. Fortunately, we didn't board and we didn't have fagging.

We understood why boys MIGHT go crazy and start a revolution, but the system was designed to keep control, so we never did. But you can still imagine, with a degree of pleasure - what if...

seminal film of the 60's
This was a seminal film of the '60s yet no sign of a soundtrack on cd. How many students related to this film. And the music..........Missa Luba........well, absolutely exquisite; what a synthesis of literature, film and music. Amust for anyone interested in British youth culture of the 60's.

Contender for best British film ever made...
If... is the first part in a loose trilogy based around the central character of Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), the subsequent parts being O!Lucky Man & Britannia Hospital. Written by David Sherwin, it was initially titled 'Crusaders' & takes its influence from Jean Vigo's classic surreal short Zero de Conduite (1933). Director Lindsay Anderson was a key figure in the British New Wave- which took it's cue from the Nouvelle Vague & itself would influence directors in the New German Cinema (such as RW Fassbinder). Anderson, as Godard & Truffaut, moved from film criticism to making his own films- such as the brilliant This Sporting Life (1963). Here he moves back to his alma mater, Cheltenham Boys College- though it could be any institution...

The film centres on episodes, which exist sometimes in a form of reality & drift otherwise into a surreal fantasy, each builds towards the denoument which sits well next to the 1968 riots in Paris (If...managed to capture the zeitgeist- see also the Civil Rights riots in the States or the predominantly middle class anti-war protestors both sides of the Atlantic). If... drifts from colour to monochrome- taking its cue from Godard & influencing later works such as Natural Born Killers & Nixon. It was widely reported that this was due to budget considerations, and it is hard to mould a theory of why each colour is used. As in Nixon (1995) it shifts film stock son frequently, there is no definite grammar as to what each represents- I just think it heightens the surreality & reverses what is fantasy & reality (we aren't sure if any of this is occurring- especially if we bear in mind the following films). A classic scene that demonstrates this is the episode where Mick & friend steal a motorbike & go out to a cafe in the middle of nowhere, where they meet the mysterious girl (Christine Noonan)- where we shift between (at least) three different conceptions of this situations (strangers? lovers? friends?) accompanied by the recurrent African music- which just happens to be on the jukebox. The girl recurs later as, perhaps the headmaster's daughter- she is seen gazing out of a window through a telescope. It is unclear- which is the joy of this film...

If... was certainly of great influence- Stanley Kubrick was a big fan & casted Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange as a result (also the 'war face'part here can be seen in Kubrick's later dark masterpiece Full Metal Jacket). The cast are fantastic- made more surreal by the appearance of sitcom regulars like Arthur Lowe, Graham Crowden & Robin Askwith. It is notable that Stephen Frears worked on this in a technical capacity, similar to Nic Roeg's camerawork on films like Fahrenheit 451 that lead to moving towards their own directing films...

If... is a perfect film, it makes complete sense when viewed next to other works of the time that exhibit a blend of Brecht & Kafka- such as Godard's Weekend (also 1968), Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970),Pasolini's Teorema (1968) ,Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (1966) & Costa Gavras' Z (1968)- which all exhibit revolt & end in destruction (and I take a previous review that mentions The Prisoner, The Singing Detective is similarly shifting through the surreal- between fantasy & reality).

If... is one of my favourite films, and a contender for one of the best British films ever made- easily ranking next to A Clockwork Orange, Performance & Blow Up. A timeless allegory that is compounded by the culture surrounding incidents like Columbine & Dunblane. If only British cinema could be this daring again...