If... (The Criterion Collection)
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Movie Reviews of If... (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: A fantasy without consequences
Summary: 5 Stars
I was one of the thousands who signed up to the Internet campaign to get this classic movie released on DVD. Was it worth the wait? Yes, certainly, although I must confess to have watched only the movie itself, not the extras. (The exclusive screenplay, by the way, is just that: 53 pages of script, without any introduction or critique, bound into a paperback which carries no ISBN.)
Seeing it again, I realise what a schoolboy fantasy it is: the boys (not the teachers) are really in charge, the sexually repressed matron wanders naked around the dorms while the boys are out, you can kill teachers and you don't really get punished (and what's more, the teachers recover), you can steal motorbikes without negative consequences, and there's a forgotten arsenal of weapons beneath the school stage.
I saw this in the early 1970s while at a public school not so different from the regime depicted here. There seemed nothing odd to me at the time about the levels of bullying etc, although seeing it today, I find it harder to take the beating scene in the gym and the ridiculous speeches from masters and prefects alike about the necessity of the house having the right attitude.
But I think it was a little dangerous to show us schoolboys this film, not because we all ran riot afterwards, but because it illustrated the sheer damned sexiness of being a rebel. I saw this film with Bruce Dickinson -- the one who got expelled from our school and went on to front Iron Maiden -- and I can't help feeling we were all a little inspired. (The much-bullied Bruce even went on to become a star fencer and passionate army cadet!)
Movie Review: Just one of the Greatest Unknown Films of the 20th Century
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw "If..." during its original release in the late 1960s in a theater in Pittsburgh. I saw it several times then ...which was not the easiest thing to do as a grad student. Maybe it had something to do with having attended a New England prep school and my brother about to start one.
I have owned a copy on VHS, I own a book with the script and commentary by Lindsay Anderson, and I am ordering a copy of this DVD.
Most reviewers talk about the theme of rebellion due to repressive conditions and such. The concern ... I want to say fear ... that it will trigger more school tragedies is misplaced. What Lindsay Anderson has done is help us explore the challenges that are faced by young men coming of age so that as a society we can learn how to respond to those challenges. Why today do schools still tolerate bullies?
When I saw the movie "Animal House" a few years later, my immediate reaction was that it was an Americanized version of "If..." but with more humor. I am amazed that no other reviewer has spoken of the parallels. I have never read that Landis or the writers of Animal House were even aware of the film. Maybe that speaks to the timeless theme of the film.
This may not be an easy movie for many to watch, but the Missa Lubba soundtrack is unforgetable and continually brings you back into the film.
Enjoy.
Movie Review: Mick Travis: "One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place."
Summary: 5 Stars
The original script of IF.... (1968) was entitled "Crusaders," which is also the name of the eighth and last chapter of this movie.
It's an arty film done in both Eastmancolor and b&w that's probably considered very un-PC in these post-Columbine (and other school tragedy) days.
The boys' college depicted, with its corporal punishment, poor food, multiple strict rules and sharply defined hierarchy, seems more suited to 1868 than a century later. The character played by Malcolm McDowell, who came to prominence with his maverick role here, is labeled "Guy Fawkes" by a classmate; a peg that fits the boy well, for anarchy is what Mick Travis "majors" in.
It all seems so wrong. The parents of these children of wealth pay £623 per annum to have their sons harrassed, cold-showered, humiliated, whipped and browbeat into the sort of men who will one day send their own progeny to such a backward thinking institution.
Traditions are set in stone. It's a miserable life for otherwise privileged kids, but rebellious Mick has his own agenda, a way to fight back that's ironically foretold in a Bible passage heard during a Sunday sermon. He and three other "Crusaders" set off a smoke bomb under the floorboards of their venerable school chapel, and await from rooftop perches a panicked exiting crowd of mostly elders....if....
Movie Review: Thank Goodness for the Folks at Criterion
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine the unsuspecting British theatergoers watching this film back in 1968/69. While Mike Nichols was gently tweaking the establishment here in the States with "The Graduate," director Lindsay Anderson was giving it a hearty middle finger on the other side of the Atlantic. Three years before his more celebrated performance as Alex in Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange," Malcolm McDowell led a similar rebellion as Mick Travis, chieftain of a small tribe of noncomfortist students at a British prep school.
The repressive nature of England's boarding schools is now a familiar theme, but at the time it was a bit of a revelation, and the film's scholastic setting allows for a perfect microcosmic statement on the cultural revolts of the 60's: Those who wield power are shown to be almost entirely debauched and out of touch, and the seemingly benign insubordination of Mick and his cohorts escalates to an unexpected and astonishing conclusion. There is something senseless and yet inextricably linked about the entire dynamic.
Despite some heavy-handed stylistic touches, "If..." is a brilliantly subtle social commentary, and Criterion wins kudos again for bringing us another long overdue DVD release, in a pristine print, with a nice collection of extra features. Worth every penny.
Movie Review: IF only I could decide...
Summary: 5 Stars
In high school in the middle 1970s we never could get to see this movie but we all owned a copy of the screenplay. Finally I saw the film at a university showing in 1978 or 1979. I hadn't seen it since. From the reviews since 2000 it appears some people in the US had it on VHS or DVD but I don't know how that was possible. I never could find it. I assumed it was being surpressed out of political fear. Anyway, all these years later, I'm still not sure I like how the movie slips the bounds of reality to the point where you're not sure this isn't supposed to be just a fantasy (the vicar in the drawer, the main characters not speaking the last 15 minutes of the movie, the charage across the clean quad that in the previous shot was battle strewn). This shift to fantasy is jarring because up to the last half hour of the movie it is as brutally naturalistic as This Sporting Life (except for the fantasy sex sequence - clearly meant to be fantasy - in the cafe). Am I wrong to find this shift to fantasy an artistic capitulation? Am I the only one who thought the lads burning the stuffed crocodile meant this was all to be seen as something like the collages with pictures from Africa? Nevertheless, I know I'll be watching this DVD many times.