dr_clarke_2 Review of If....

If.... (1968)

If you only ever watch one Lindsay Anderson film, make sure it's this one

[10/10 · 6 March 2021]

British director Lindsay Anderson rests largely upon a body of feature films that is actually quite small. He is best known for his gritty kitchen sink drama This Sporting Life and the so-called "Mick Travis trilogy" and it is the first of the latter - if.... - which arguably remains his masterpiece. Released in 1968, if.... is based on a screenplay by David Sherwin, in turn based on a script he wrote with John Howlett, and it is a blistering satire of public school life. Based on Sherwin's own experiences of the public school system, it depicts it as a vision of hell, with tyranny, bullying and implied sexual abuse. There's a potent sense of anger here, at the petty officiousness of the entire system, with cruel Whips gleefully enforcing rules and regulations with a fervour that borders on sadism. This is a world that not only institutionalised bullying but prepared the bullies for a life in public office. Significantly, authority figures such as the Headmaster and visiting speaker General Denham espouse the benefits of obedience and tradition over individuality. Pupils at the school are expected to conform, but what they are expected to conform with is stifling bureaucracy. The film follows Mick Travis and his two friends Wallace and Knightly, non-conformists whose small acts of rebellion gradually escalate into full blown insurrection as their transgressions are met with increasingly draconian responses. Sherwin's screenplay condemns a system in which some pupils are awarded power - often physically - over others; the Whips are entitled to mete out punishment on anyone who misbehaves, with the brutal caning of Travis and his friends heavily ritualised; Travis is expected to shake hands with his tormentors after being soundly thrashed. Travis and his comrades' gunning down of their enemies from a school rooftop during the famously bloody climax is undoubtedly Sherwin's metaphorical revenge on his own school. Sherwin tells this story via a screenplay filled with eccentricity and wickedly observed humour, peppering the script with witty dialogue and memorable characters. There's a rich vein of humour running through the film, some of it quite surreal, such as when the Headmaster pulls open a drawer to reveal the Chaplain inside. The teachers - including Peter Jeffries' Headmaster and Arthur Lowe's Housemaster Mr Kemp - are stuffy, pompous bores, but in the midst of them for a single scene we have Graham Crowden's wonderful History master, whose eccentric teaching style leaves his class looking baffled. Given this material to work with, Anderson elevates it to even greater levels. Critics often focus on the fact that parts of the film are shot in black and white rather than colour, which has been hypothesised to be a result of the money running out, but which was actually a stylistic decision by Anderson, which he uses to enhance the occasional surrealism of the film. He brings great beauty and elegance to the screen, for example in scenes such as Wallace performing gymnastics in slow motion. The whole sequence from Travis and Knightly larking about in the town and stealing a motorbike to meeting the girl and riding the bike with her atop their shoulders is mostly free of dialogue and often filmed in long shot, save for the scene in the café in which Travis imagines wrestling naked with the girl. The film is awash with small, significant touches: Travis' room for example is filled with famous revolutionaries, providing a hint of things to come at the end. Title cards divide the film in chapters, each focusing on a specific theme of themes. Anderson coaxes fine performances out of all of his actors, many of them children, and assembles a fine crop of talent from experienced cast members like Jeffries, Lowe (a regular Lindsay collaborator) and Crowden, to new faces like Richard Warwick and David Wood as Wallace and Knightly. But the undoubted star is Malcolm McDowell, an often underrated actor who made his breakthrough with this film as Mick Travis. He brings charisma and a sense of brooding menace to the role, which would stand him in a good stead when A Clockwork Orange followed, Kubrick having been reportedly impressed by his performance here. Anderson and McDowell reunited for the second two films in the "Mick Travis trilogy", O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital, but neither of those films garnered the same praise or subsequent reputation as if.... For all that This Sporting Life is a fine film, if you only ever watch one Lindsay Anderson film, make sure it's this one.