If... (film)
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| if.... | |
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 1969 original film poster |
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| Directed by | Lindsay Anderson |
| Produced by | Lindsay Anderson Michael Medwin |
| Written by | David Sherwin John Howlett (screenplay) |
| Starring | Malcolm McDowell David Wood Richard Warwick Christine Noonan Robert Swann |
| Music by | Marc Wilkinson |
| Cinematography | Miroslav Ondrícek |
| Editing by | David Gladwell |
| Distributed by | Paramount |
| Release date(s) |  19 December, 1968 (premiere) 9 March 1969 (NYC only) |
| Running time | 111 min. |
| Country | U.K. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
if.... is a 1968 cult film by British director Lindsay Anderson about an armed rebellion at a British public school. The film is associated with the 1960s counterculture movement: it was filmed at the time of the student uprisings in Paris in May 1968, it includes controversial statements such as "There's no such thing as a wrong war. Violence and revolution are the only pure acts"; and features surrealist sequences throughout.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis (a character Anderson used in two sequels). Arthur Lowe, Peter Jeffrey, Richard Warwick, David Wood, Christine Noonan, and Rupert Webster (as the pretty young boy Bobby Phillips) also take starring roles.
It won the 1969 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2004 the magazine Total Film named it the sixteenth greatest British film of all time.
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[edit] Synopsis
The film is set in an English public school. Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) is one of three non-conformist boys among the returning class. They are watched and persecuted by the "Whips", senior boys given authority over their juniors. Seniors are also entitled to the services of "Scum", who are first-year boys assigned to run errands, make tea for them, and generally act as unpaid servants. In reality, schools of this kind did appoint seniors as Prefects, and there was a tradition of "fagging", which had the new boys serving the seniors. Among the duties given to Scum in this film is the job of warming up a toilet seat for a Whip.
Our first glimpse of Mick Travis has him arriving in a black hat, a black scarf across his face, with a suitcase on his shoulder, a scene lifted from Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger. Meanwhile Rowntree, the Head Whip (Robert Swann), revels in his power, ordering the junior boys to "Run!! Run in the corridor!!", the opposite of the usual requirement.
The film is a study of rebellion against an autocracy that denies individual freedom, a rebellion symbolized by Travis asking "When do we live?" They begin by discovering erotic freedom in Mick's affair with a local waitress and Wallace's romance with a junior boy. They indulge in self-inflicted ordeals, such as seeing how long they can hold a plastic bag over their faces.
The early part of the film shows fairly realistic scenes in the school as the pupils return at the start of a new term. However, these scenes are shot through with surreal elements. After the first evening meal the Whips conduct some of the more mundane business of the school, signing up boys for "Confirmation class", and "V.D. Clinic" (i.e. Sexually transmitted disease clinic). Each boy has to lower his pants so the school nurse can inspect his genitals. Such exams were more typical of intake into British prisons, which seems to be the reference here. In fact Malcolm McDowell, as Alex DeLarge, undergoes just such an exam in A Clockwork Orange.
At first this is a rather disjointed collection of scenes of school life and does not have a clear narrative thread, although it serves to show the school in a negative light with its strange customs and traditions. The Headmaster, played by Peter Jeffrey, is somewhat remote from the boys and the House Masters. Arthur Lowe, as Mick's House Master Mr. Kemp, is told "I'll have to get back to you on that" when he brings things to the Headmaster's attention. Kemp himself is easily manipulated by the Whips into giving them a free hand in enforcing discipline.
Eventually the film develops a clearer narrative thread, with the action concentrating on Mick's group and their clashes with the school authorities. Mick and his friends are subject to ever-escalating punishments, until one by one they are given a beating with a cane by Rowntree. Mick's beating is especially severe, yet tradition demands that he shake hands with Rowntree and say "Thank you, Rowntree".
At the end, having discovered a cache of automatic weapons, they revolt bloodily against the establishment around them. From the rooftop they engage in a firefight with the teachers and students, who are armed with non-automatic rifles used for the Army Cadet Training exercises the school runs. The Headmaster, representing the benign face of modern tyranny, tries to stop the fight and call for peace. Mick's Girl, who is on the roof with them, shoots him between the eyes. The fight continues, and the camera closes in on Mick's desperate face as he keeps firing, ending the movie with a blackout and an echo of gunfire.
[edit] Production and locations
David Sherwin's original title for the screenplay was Crusaders.
The school was Lindsay's old Alma Mater Cheltenham College, Cheltenhem, Gloucestershire, but this was not revealed as part of the agreement needed to shoot there. The students who appeared in the film were actual students from the school, who were not paid, but just fed and given a class by the film crew.
Aldenham School in Elstree, Hertfordshire was used for later scenes filmed after previous summer commitments prevented further shooting at Cheltenham.
The J&H Packhorse Cafe doesn't exist anymore. It was on the Tewkesbury Road about four miles outside Cheltenham. The road in the film is lined with Elm trees and most of them vanished in the mid-70s because of an outbreak of Dutch elm disease, they've been replaced by another type of tree.
The Sweat Room scenes were filmed at Aldenham School (though Jocelyn redesigned them).
The painting in the dining hall is Richard Platt from Aldenham School. The Hall scene was an amalgamation of both school halls at Cheltenham and Aldenham.
The speech day interior was filmed inside St John's Church, Albion Street, Cheltenham. The church was eventually demolished.
The motorbike shop was in Shepherd's Bush, London.
It is sometimes stated that the film's black and white sequences are the result of budget problems. However, according to interviews with Malcolm McDowell, Lindsay Anderson and the cameraman, Miroslav Ondricek, this was an artistic decision: the scenes in the school chapel were shot in black and white because they wanted to use natural light that came in through the big stained-glass window. This required high-speed film, but the high-speed colour stock they tested was very grainy and the constantly-shifting colour values, caused by the angle of the light through the stained glass, made it impossible to colour-correct. Therefore, they decided to shoot the scenes in monochrome, and, when he saw the dailies, Anderson liked the way that it "broke up the surface of the film", and decided to insert other monochrome scenes more or less at random, to disorient the viewer as the film slipped from realism to fantasy.[citation needed]
[edit] Sources and influence
The film's surrealist sequences have been compared to Jean Vigo's French classic Zéro de conduite.
A single piece of music recurs in the film, the "Sanctus" from the Missa Luba. This version of the Latin Mass in the style of African chant, sung by a choir of Congolese children, had been on the UK singles chart in the 1960s.
The final gun battle was parodied in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1970.
The film is a favorite of Television Personalities lead singer Dan Treacy, and is quoted in many of their songs.
[edit] Quotes
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- "The thing I hate about you, Rowntree, is the way you give Coca-Cola to your scum, and your best teddy bear to Oxfam, and expect us to lick your frigid fingers for the rest of your frigid life" - Mick Travis, when told he is to be beaten.
- "One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place." - Mick Travis.
- "Blood, real blood!" - Mick Travis.
- "Shag off, you creeps." - Biles.
- "Run! Run in the corridor!" - Rowntree.
- "Boys, boys, I understand you." - The Headmaster
- "What difference does the speed make?!" - Johnny
[edit] Cast
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[edit] Trivia
- In one important sequence, Mick Travis fires rubber darts at a number of photos he has on his wall, including Harold Wilson, the then-Prime Minister. Although most people will not recognise it, one photo, not used as a target, is of Vladimir Lenin in disguise.
- The motorcycle stolen by Mick is a 1968 BSA A65L Lightning (654cc parallel twin), and that BSA/Triumph dealership (defunct) was located in Shepherds Bush, London.
[edit] Sequels
[edit] References
- Lambert, Gavin (September 2000). Mainly About Lindsay Anderson, 1st, Knopf, 384. ISBN 0-679-44598-6.
- Sherwin, David (1969). If.... A film by Lindsay Anderson and David Sherwin. [Screenplay by David Sherwin]. Simon and Schuster, 167. ISBN 0-671-20451-3.
- Anderson, Lindsay (September 2004). in Paul Ryan: Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson. Plexus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-85965-317-X.
- Anderson, Lindsay (August 2004). in Paul Sutton: Lindsay Anderson: Diaries. Methuen Pub Ltd. ISBN 0-413-77397-3.
- Sinker, Mark (November 2004). if..... British Film Institute. ISBN 1-84457-040-1.
- Sutton, Paul (October 2005). If...: Turner Classic Movies British Film Guide (Turner Classic Movies British Film Guides). London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-85043-672-X.
[edit] See also
- List of counterculture films
- Ali Catterall and Simon Wells, Your Face Here: British Cult Movies Since The Sixties (Fourth Estate, 2001) ISBN 0-00-714554-3
[edit] External links
- If.... at the Internet Movie Database
- Covering every aspect of the film
- Guardian Review
- UK Critic review
- BBC article
- Lindsay Anderson Archive, Stirling University
- Lindsay Anderson Memorial Foundation
| Preceded by Blowup |
Palme d'Or 1969 |
Succeeded by MASH |
