‘One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place...’
As I become older and older with every passing moment, I have begun developing a worrying fascination with lists. I want to watch every Best Picture winner. I want to watch every Palme d’Or winner. If… is quite significant in this respect appearing in Steven Schneider 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the BFI’s top 10 films of all time and the Criterion Collection. It is also considered an important cinematic symbol of the ’60s counter culture, but does Lindsay Anderson’s film deserve all these plaudits?
Three insubordinate students in a prestigious private school begin to rebel against the establishment’s strict rules and traditions. Led by Mick (Malcolm McDowell), this rebellion threatens to explode into violence.
If… has a pleasingly eccentric mix of British character and comedic actors. Joining McDowell are Robin Askwith (later to become a C5 staple with repeats of the Confessions of a… films), Arthur Lowe (forever known as Captain Mainwaring from Dad’s Army) and various other actors that would go on to grace soapland for decades to come, as well as a fair number of cast members who would never act again, notably Guy Ross, who plays one of McDowell’s many antagonists, and who seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth the second that filming wrapped on this project.
As well as acting as a springboard for a number of careers (it was McDowell’s performance here that earned him the lead role in A Clockwork Orange), If… is an imaginative, funny take down of high society that mixes gritty realism with almost Pythonesque surrealism to wonderful effect. Quite unlike any other film in this genre, If…. somehow manages to be light hearted and deeply serious all at once, a rare feat for Graham and his talented cast.
If…. is a film that seems to have become a little forgotten in its dotage. Why this has happened is a mystery as it remains shocking and provocative even today. Well worth seeking out.