When "If..." came out, it was the right sort of film at the right time. However, when seen today, the movie looks terribly choppy, lacks focus and especially humor. Like a gallon of milk, this film does not get better with age! Roughly first half of the film is like a documentary--a recreation of the horrid life in a British public college (to translate into American, a 'private high school'). It appears to be a fascist system where there are many rules just for the sake of rules, abuse of arbitrary power the norm and a rather homo-erotically charged atmosphere predominates--and it was both interesting and a bit said. However, when it came to the actual story, this is where the film really let me down. Despite setting up a horrid atmosphere where the plot should have been easy to construct, the plot just seemed, at times, irrelevant and very episodic....and often incoherent and meandering. I know many consider this a classic and it's achieved a level of respectability now that it's part of the Criterion Collection, but the movie just seemed cheaply made and incomplete---and not just because random portions of the movie are in black & white. While controversial and counter-culture back in the 60s, now it just seems bad.
Who was Malcolm McDowell's character and who were his very nameless and faceless friends? We never know anything other than very superficial things about them--like Malcolm's character steals a motorcycle. But WHY did he do this? And, why wasn't there any follow up on this? And what about the naked lady towards the end the film who walks through the dorms?! What's all this about--what is going on and why? It just seemed random and pointless. And why did a few scenes seem funny and surreal...and yet NOTHING was done with this and it was never exploited!?! For example, I loved seeing the minister in the drawer---but with nothing preceding or following it, what was this?! And, with 95% of the film very serious, this seemed out of place and irrelevant. And, for that matter, the entire ending was that way. While having the four problem students (though at times they are only three--did you notice that one appeared and disappeared in scenes?!) destroy the big ceremony was potentially a great idea (like the ending of "Animal House"), it was a lost opportunity for me because instead of ruining things, they started killing people. Killing people in a mass murder like the Columbine Massacre didn't seem funny...just awful. Nothing's funny about mass murder (I know, I know...I am quite a prude in this department).
Had this film appeared in 2010, critics would have rightfully torn it apart for being incomplete and incoherent. Yet, oddly, it's a classic!
Who was Malcolm McDowell's character and who were his very nameless and faceless friends? We never know anything other than very superficial things about them--like Malcolm's character steals a motorcycle. But WHY did he do this? And, why wasn't there any follow up on this? And what about the naked lady towards the end the film who walks through the dorms?! What's all this about--what is going on and why? It just seemed random and pointless. And why did a few scenes seem funny and surreal...and yet NOTHING was done with this and it was never exploited!?! For example, I loved seeing the minister in the drawer---but with nothing preceding or following it, what was this?! And, with 95% of the film very serious, this seemed out of place and irrelevant. And, for that matter, the entire ending was that way. While having the four problem students (though at times they are only three--did you notice that one appeared and disappeared in scenes?!) destroy the big ceremony was potentially a great idea (like the ending of "Animal House"), it was a lost opportunity for me because instead of ruining things, they started killing people. Killing people in a mass murder like the Columbine Massacre didn't seem funny...just awful. Nothing's funny about mass murder (I know, I know...I am quite a prude in this department).
Had this film appeared in 2010, critics would have rightfully torn it apart for being incomplete and incoherent. Yet, oddly, it's a classic!