Tuesday, May 6, 2008

If...


Directed by Lindsay Anderson
with Malcolm McDowell (1968)


Lindsay Anderson’s If... is a daringly anarchic vision of British society, set in a boarding school in late-sixties England. Before Kubrick made his mischief iconic in A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell made a hell of an impression as the insouciant Mick Travis, who, along with his school chums, trumps authority at every turn, finally emerging as violent savior against the draconian games of one-upmanship played by both students and the powers that be. Mixing color and black and white as audaciously as it mixes fantasy and reality, If. . . . remains one of cinema’s most unforgettable rebel yells.


"It was dead cool, pretty weird and no film gets the spirit of sulky school rebellion quite like it."

- Robert Gore-Langton -

No comments: