If... (The Criterion Collection)
|
List Price: Our Price: $23.08 You Save: $16.87 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $16.75 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of If... (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: Questioning authority.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Violence and revolution are the only pure acts."
Before his unforgettable performance in 1971 as Alex DeLarge, the psychopathic delinquent in Stanley Kubrick's classic, A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell made his first appearance in British director Lindsay Anderson's 1968 film, If. . . ., a cult film about a student rebellion at a British a boarding school. (The film was in production at the time of the student uprisings in Paris in May, 1968.) McDowell plays Mick Travis, a character Anderson used in two sequels, O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital. Mick represents a non-conformist student at odds with a public school system which denies his individual freedoms. He arrives for a new school term wearing a black hat and a black scarf to hide his moustache, and the film then follows Mick and his mates as they clash daily with the school authorities, ending in a total revolt against the establishment. If. . . ., A Clockwork Orange, and O Lucky Man! are considered McDowell's best films.
The double-disc Criterion edition includes a newly restored high-definition digital transfer, audio commentary featuring film critic and historian David Robinson and actor Malcolm McDowell, "Cast and Crew" (2003), an episode from the Scottish TV series featuring interviews with McDowell, Ondricek, Rakoff, director's assistant Stephen Frears, producer Michael Medwin, and screenwriter David Sherwin, a new video interview with actor Graham Crowden, "Thursday's Children" (1954), an Academy Award-winning documentary about a school for deaf children, directed by Anderson and Guy Brenton and narrated by Richard Burton, and a booklet featuring pieces by critic David Ehrenstein, screenwriter David Sherwin, and director Lindsay Anderson.
Highly recommended.
G. Merritt
Movie Review: Watch the film before reading about it
Summary: 5 Stars
It seems that everyone who's seen this film has quite alot to say about it, most of it brilliant, however this is a film that needs to be watched with all preview and review blinders on. Granted, it can be seen as surreal and may need a bit of explanation about the fact that Anderson liked absurdity to tip toe throughout his films, particularly the loosely connected "Mick trilogy"( if, O' Lucky Man, Britannia Hospital = school, work + death respectively). The Color & b/w filming was because of a tight budget and to accidentally/on purpose enhance the message of this film to the eyes of many, such as myself; as I can't help but notice that the switch in lenses doesn't seem arbitrary, does it? Please approach this film as the "forgotten main character", Jute, approaches the school so you can fully take in the experience as he does.
Can life lessons be learned? Well, often those in power are cruel, boring, out of touch, thoughtless and lost in their world of accomplishment. The whips under them are violent, arrogant and ambitious to take the place of the headmasters or the CEOs of any corporation when those in power meet their ends. The rebels are misguided reactions to the whips, and to those in power, often hedonistic and ultimately raging beyond any anarchy to their own brand of tyranny, and therefore are, by no means, a solution to the problem. Funny how some rebels share a bonding for some of the most mass-murdering fascists the world has ever known. They become nothing more than romantic pawns in the endless cycle of violence that is part of our nature. Lindsey Anderson and Malcom Macdowell allow you to experience this first hand as the 1st form students by not reading any further about this movie. This film was meant for anyone who had gone through schooling and survived. The final scenes are meant to be addressed to those in the theater and not just the characters on screen. That's really all that should be said. This is a must see. For anyone who takes sides, this movie might make you realize that no side can be absolute, or even, right.
Movie Review: Truth as Metaphor
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this film when it came out in Britain, having only left a British public school three years before. At the time it seemed almost like a blend of documentary and wish-fulfillment fantasy. As a more of less contemporaneous movie to The Graduate and Last Summer, it is amazing how all serious British movies at the time had a melancholy and cynicism which was lacking in US ones. At that time, Britain had not yet fully recovered from either World War (even today in Britain, mention of WWI or WWII conjures up images in people's minds far stronger than for Americans). This movie was, I believe shot at Cheltenham Boys College, a school I considered going to in the town where I was born, and which my school played at Rugby and Cricket. There were two Britains at the time - the Upper-Middle class one of single-sex boarding schools, with twice a day church services, Rugby, and cold showers. We called Rugby "football," and the other kind was "Soccer." Inhabitants were securely confident that they would rule the world (Frederic Raphael's "The Glittering Prizes" offers another look at the privileged at Cambridge University in 1956). The other world was a blue collar world where the education system even had different exams, attending soccer games and going down to the pub was typical.
If is a metaphor of sorts, but only because the real environment of the British public school was so applicable to real life. Abu Graib becomes explainable when you see what happens when you give older boys so much power over slightly younger ones. Discipline of this kind was maintained by older boys, much as NCOs in an army maintain it.
I believe that the boarding school of today has changed a lot. I am glad, as how can anyone feel nostalgic over something which was hated so much. However, the film is quite amazing. I do think you will get more out of it if you know something about the environment. Reading "Tom Brown's Schooldays," set in a public school in the 1830s is good preparation.
Movie Review: "Don't forget boy Look over your shoulder 'Cause there's always someone coming after you",
Summary: 5 Stars
The first entry to the Mick Travis trilogy ("If...", 1968, O Lucky Man, 1973, and "Britannia Hospital", 1982), "If.." is a surreal black comedy about an English private boys' school and a student rebellion. In his three films, Anderson had covered all aspects, politics, and institutions of British Society from 1968 to 1982 with its complex system of class differences and privileges. "If..." which was released in 1968 at the peak of youthful rebellion in Europe and USA, received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations and won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival where it competed with 27 films from all over the world.
Anderson was in part inspired by Jean Vigo's 41 minutes long "Zero for conduct" (1933) about the similar to "If..." subject. Like in Vigo's film, Anderson inserts some surrealistic episodes shot in black-and-white and according to him, it was driven by budget rather than style. Malcolm McDowell in his first big screen role and the first of three Mick Travis' movies is a charismatic leader of the rebel students who call themselves the Crusaders and like to break the rules. The cruel corporal punishments from the faculty and the older students provoked a bloody uprising against the school system.
Made almost 40 years ago, "If.." still has a power to shock as well as to entertain and it remains an outstanding and controversial depiction of the problems that have not disappear from the English public school system or from any school system as well as from society in general.
I am sure that Stanley Kubrick saw "If..." and was impressed by McDowell's debut performance, by his charisma that shines through his close-ups and especially in the final shot of "If...", and by his face that strangely combines innocence and youthful openness with cynical scornful almost reptilian contempt for humanity. I believe that "If..." was the reason Kubrick offered the part of charming psychopath Alex to the young actor.
Movie Review: Schoolboys In Disgrace
Summary: 5 Stars
The exclusive private school portrayed in "If.." serves as a scathing metaphor of class and privilege in the United Kingdom. What makes the statement that director Lindsay Anderson is trying to convey more stinging is that he treats his subject matter as dark comedy. What I also found interesting is that Anderson doesn't direct most of his criticism at the school administrators, whose crimes are allowing such a stifling atmosphere to perpetuate. Rather, the worst criticism is directed at the Whips, the sniveling fascist students who are given free reign to terrorize and subjugate their fellow students to the worst kind of torment. It's easy to criticize authority but our worst enemies are our peers who will later become the leaders of our world because that's the way it is. The film is anchored by a mesmerizing performance by Malcolm McDowell who portrays rebel iconoclast Mick Travis. Travis belongs in this stifling environment as much as he needs a hole in the head. Travis serves as everyman and reacts to the inanity around him with a knowing smirk. In one memorably hilarious exchange with a Whip Travis accuses him of serving Coca-Cola to the underclassmen while expecting them to lick his fingers for the rest of their lives. What gives this scene more power is that Travis says it knowing it will subject him to a more severe beating. If you could best describe "If..." I would say it's a dark comedy with dramatic and surreal elements. It would serve as a good double bill with another indictment of English classism, Peter Medak's "The Ruling Class". On a final note will somebody, Criterion or Warner Brothers, release "O Lucky Man" on disc.