If... [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Rebellious students at an English private school plan a violent revolt against their repressive environment in director Lindsay Anderson's highly acclaimed but extremely controversial drama. Centering on a small group of non-conformists led by Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), the film paints a distinctly negative picture of the British school system and, by extension, English society. Seeing the powers-that-be as humorless, bureaucratic, and needlessly restrictive, Mick and his cohorts indulge in small acts of rebellion, including sneaking into town to romance a local waitress. Their actions are discovered and punished with harsh beatings, leading the students to plot revenge. This effort culminates in the film's most famous sequence, a surrealistic depiction of a bloody uprising by the students against the adult world. Daring and unpredictable in content and form, If... mixes color and black-and-white cinematography as easily as it mingles satire with dark fantasy. The film's ambiguous attitude toward violence caused controversy at the time, as many commentators saw the film as a potential incitement to violence. It became a great success among younger, counter-culture audiences who appreciated the audacious shock tactics and embraced the satirical, anti-establishment message. Often compared to Jean Vigo's French classic Zero de conduite, which also featured surrealistic boarding-school rebellion, If... has become a high point in the cinema of youth rebellion. Anderson and McDowell later collaborated on O Lucky Man! (1973), Look Back in Anger (1980), and Britannia Hospital (1982). ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director of photography Miroslav Ondricek and assistant editor Ian Rakoff
  • Audio commentary featuring film critic and historian David Robinson and actor Malcolm McDowell
  • A 2003 episode from the Scottish TV series Cast and Crew, featuring McDowell, Rakoff, director's assistant Stephen Frears, producer Michael Medwin, and screenwriter David Sherwin
  • 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
  • A booklet featuring pieces by critic David Ehrenstein, screenwriter David Sherwin, and director Lindsay Anderson

AWARDS

• Cannes Film Festival

•     Won International Grand Prix - 1969

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - English Language - 1969

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Malcolm McDowell - Mick
       David Wood - Johnny
       Richard Warwick - Wallace
       Christine Noonan - Girl
       Robert Swann - Rowntree
       Peter Jeffrey - Headmaster
       Arthur Lowe - Housemaster
       Mona Washbourne - Matron
       Anthony Nicholls - Gen. Denson

• Director:

  Lindsay Anderson

• Producer:

  Albert Finney, Michael Medwin, Lindsay Anderson

• Screenwriter:

  David Sherwin

• Screen Story:

  John Howlett

• Cinematographer:

  Miroslav Ondrícek

• Composer (Music Score):

  Marc Wilkinson

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Marc Wilkinson

• Editor:

  David Gladwell

• Production Designer:

  David Gladwell, Jocelyn Herbert

• Art Director:

  Brian Eatwell

• Executive Producer:

  Roy Baird

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Christian Wangler

• Makeup:

  Betty Blattner

• Production Manager:

  Gavrik Losey

• Casting:

  Miriam Brickman

• Production Supervisor:

  Zelda Barron

REVIEW:

• Surreal and satiric, If... is both a withering critique of British society and a fantasy rooted in the spirit of schoolboy anarchy. Fairly controversial when it was released in Britain in 1968, the film still has the power to shock, not so much because of its sex and violence (fairly tame by today's standards) but because of the manner in which they are presented. Resembling a landlocked Lord of the Flies, If... remains most startling for its depiction of savagery, on the part of both society (represented by the school and its authorities) and the young men it produces. It is a casual, offhand savagery, seemingly as much a part of British society as tea and scones. Lindsay Anderson's ambiguous approach to the film's violence is consistent with the film's blackly satirical tone, mirroring the aim being taken at societies across the world at the time by their dissatisfied youth. If... can be seen as Anderson's metaphor for the changes occurring across the world in 1968, but it goes further than mere protest, culminating in a show of all-out rebellion that remains one of the high points of the cinema of youthful discontent. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi