if....


For other uses, see If.
if....

1969 original film poster
Directed by Lindsay Anderson
Produced by Lindsay Anderson
Michael Medwin
Written by David Sherwin
John Howlett (screenplay)
Starring Malcolm McDowell
David Wood
Philip Bagenal
Richard Warwick
Christine Noonan
Robert Swann
Music by Marc Wilkinson
Cinematography Miroslav Ondrícek
Editing by David Gladwell
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) 19 December 1968 (UK)
9 March 1969 (US, New York only)
Running time 111 min. (approx.)
Country  United Kingdom
Language English
Followed by O Lucky Man!

if.... is a 1968 award-winning feature film by British director Lindsay Anderson satirising English public school life. Famous for its depiction of a savage insurrection at a public school, the film is associated with the 1960s counterculture movement because it was filmed by a long-standing counter-culture director at the time of the student uprisings in Paris in May 1968. It includes controversial statements, such as: "There's no such thing as a wrong war. Violence and revolution are the only pure acts". It features surrealist sequences throughout the film. Upon release in the UK, it received an X certificate.

The film stars Malcolm McDowell in his first screen role and his first appearance as Anderson's "everyman" character, Mick Travis. Philip Bagenal, Arthur Lowe, Peter Jeffrey, Richard Warwick, David Wood, Christine Noonan, and Rupert Webster (as the young boy Bobby Phillips) also took starring roles.

It won the Grand Prix at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.[1] In 2004, the magazine Total Film named it the sixteenth greatest British film of all time.

The Criterion Collection released the DVD on 19 June 2007.

Contents

Synopsis

The film is set in an English public school (several scenes were in fact filmed at Cheltenham College, though other schools were also used). Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) is one of three non-conformist boys among the returning class. They are watched and persecuted by the "Whips", senior boys given authority as prefects over juniors. The prefects are entitled to the services of "Scum", who are first-year boys assigned to run errands, make tea and generally act as unpaid servants. The film makes reference to the tradition of "fagging" in English public schools during the 1960s and before. Among the duties given to Scum in this film is the job of warming up a toilet seat for a Whip.

The early part of the film shows scenes in the school as the pupils return at the start of a new term. Mick Travis, the protagonist, arrives with a suitcase on his shoulder, wearing a black hat, and with a black scarf across his face to hide his moustache. Stephans comments, "God, it's Guy Fawkes back again" hinting at the conclusion of the film. Rowntree is the Head Whip (Robert Swann), and he revels in his power, ordering the junior boys to "Run! Run in the corridor!".

After the first evening meal, the Whips conduct some of the more mundane business of the school, signing up boys for "Confirmation class" and "VD clinic". Each boy has to lower his pants so the school nurse can inspect his genitals, as was typical at 1960s public schools.

original lobbycard

These early scenes show the school's customs and traditions. The Headmaster, played by Peter Jeffrey, is somewhat remote from the boys and the House Masters. Arthur Lowe, as Mick's House Master Mr. Kemp, is told "I'll have to get back to you on that" when he brings things to the Headmaster's attention. Kemp himself is easily manipulated by the Whips into giving them a free hand in enforcing discipline.

Mick steals a motorbike from a showroom floor and has an affair with a local waitress; and Wallace finds adolescent romance with Bobby Philips, a junior boy, whom he takes to bed. They indulge in self-inflicted ordeals, such as seeing how long they can hold a plastic bag over their faces.

As the film progresses it concentrates on Mick's group and their clashes with the school authorities. Mick and his friends are subject to punishments, and eventually they are sentenced to corporal punishment in the form of a severe "beating" (caning) by the Whips. The caning is administered by Rowntree in the gym with a long run-up (this scene is said to be based on traditional practice at Tonbridge School). The three boys are left with bleeding buttocks. Mick's punishment is especially brutal (10 strokes), yet tradition demands that he shake hands with Rowntree when it is over and say, "Thank you, Rowntree".

Scenes are shot through with surreal elements, such as some scenes being shot with sepia tones. This was not for dramatic emphasis, as people presumed, but simply because the huge windows at the college gave off obstructing light that affected the camera lenses. Another explanation given later by Lindsay Anderson is simply that the production was running out of money.

At the end, in a surreal sequence, they discover a cache of automatic weapons, and revolt against the establishment. On Founders' Day when parents are visiting the school, they start a fire under the hall, smoke out the parents, staff and boys, and open fire on them from a rooftop. Led by the visiting General who was giving the speech, the staff and boys break open the Combined Cadet Force armoury and fire back.

The Headmaster tries to stop the firefight and calls for peace. Mick's girl, who is on the roof with them, produces a revolver from her belt and shoots the Headmaster through the forehead. The battle continues, and the camera closes in on Mick's face as he keeps firing, ending the movie with a blackout and an echo of gunfire with the film's title "if...." emblazoned in red on the screen.

Production and locations

David Sherwin's original title for the screenplay was Crusaders, during the writing of which he drew heavily from his experiences at Tonbridge School in Kent. In 1960, he and his friend and co-writer John Howlett took it to Seth Holt, a veteran Ealing Comedy film editor who at the time was breaking into direction with Hammer Studios, for which he would go on to direct several classics. Holt felt unqualified to direct but offered to produce Crusaders. They also took it to Sherwin's hero, Rebel Without a Cause director Nicholas Ray, who liked it but had a nervous breakdown before anything came of it. Holt introduced Sherwin to Anderson in a Soho pub.[2]

The school was Lindsay's old alma mater Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire, but this was not revealed as part of the agreement needed to shoot there. The then Headmaster David Ashcroft persuaded the school Governors to agree that the film could be made. As a result, shooting started in mid-March 1968 and lasted for 3 weeks during term-time. The boys who appeared in the film were actual students at the school who had time off lessons to take part. In one scene, Peter Jeffrey (as Headmaster) gives a series of speeches to the actual school prefects. The College received a facility fee of £1000 per day over the 20 days.

Aldenham School in Elstree, Hertfordshire was used for later scenes filmed after previous summer commitments prevented further shooting at Cheltenham.

The J&H Packhorse Cafe no longer exists. It was originally on the A5 just south of Dunstable in Bedfordshire (near the village of Markyate) and not in the Cheltenham area as originally thought.

The sweat room scenes were filmed at Aldenham School (though they were redesigned for the film).

The painting in the dining hall is Aldenham School's founder, Richard Platt. The Hall scene was an amalgamation of both school halls at Cheltenham and Aldenham.

Anderson originally approached Charterhouse School and later Cranleigh School for permission to shoot the film; negotiations were going well until the schools discovered the content of the film and pulled out.

The outside shots of the school including the final showdown on the roof were that of Cheltenham College. This was filmed after term ended.

The Speech Day interior was filmed inside St John's Church on Albion Street, Cheltenham. The church was eventually demolished.

The motorbike shop was in Shepherd's Bush, London.

Much is said of the film's use of black and white sequences. In the audio commentary to the 2007 DVD release, Malcolm McDowell confirmed that lighting the chapel scenes for colour filming would take much longer than they would if they were lit for black and white.[3] The time they could use the school chapel was limited, so Anderson opted to shoot those scenes not in colour. Liking the effect this gave, he then decided to shoot other sequences in black and white to improve the 'texture' of the film. As a child, he was impressed watching a gangster film which started in black and white and then turned to colour.[4]

The other disputed reason for the mixed use of black/white and colour was due to the film's limited budget, therefore requiring shots towards the end of filming to be done in black and white.

Sources and influence

The film's surrealist sequences have been compared to Jean Vigo's French classic Zéro de conduite (1933). Anderson acknowledged an influence, and described how he arranged a viewing of the film with his screenwriters, David Sherwin and John Howlett at an early stage in production planning, though in his view the Vigo film's influence on "if..." was structural rather than merely cosmetic. "Seeing Vigo's film gave us the idea and also the confidence to proceed with the kind of scene-structure that we devised for the first part of the film particularly."[5]

A single piece of music recurs in the film, the "Sanctus" from the Missa Luba. This version of the Latin Mass in African style, sung by a choir of Congolese children, had been on the UK Singles Chart in the 1960s.

The final gun battle was parodied in a 1970 episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus entitled "It's A Living (or: School Prizes)." The parody is presented as "If" - a film by Mr Dibley", in which Dibley is played by Terry Jones.

Martin Scorsese revealed that Robert De Niro's character in Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle, was named after McDowell's character in if.....

The 1994 Japanese video game Shin Megami Tensei if... was named after the movie. The game is about a school that is drawn in a realm of demons, and the game uses the same font as the movie for the "if..." part of its title[citation needed].

Cast

Sequels

References

  • Lambert, Gavin (September 2000). Mainly About Lindsay Anderson (1st ed.). Knopf. pp. 384. ISBN 0-679-44598-6. 
  • Sherwin, David (1969). If.... A film by Lindsay Anderson and David Sherwin. [Screenplay by David Sherwin]. Simon and Schuster. pp. 167. ISBN 0-671-20451-3. 
  • Anderson, Lindsay (September 2004). Paul Ryan. ed. Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson. Plexus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-85965-317-X. 
  • Anderson, Lindsay (August 2004). Paul Sutton. ed. Lindsay Anderson: Diaries. Methuen Pub Ltd. ISBN 0-413-77397-3. 
  • Sinker, Mark (November 2004). if..... British Film Institute. ISBN 1-84457-040-1. 
  • Sutton, Paul (October 2005). If...: Turner Classic Movies British Film Guide (Turner Classic Movies British Film Guides). London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-85043-672-X. 

Notes

  1. ^ "Festival de Cannes: If....". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2527/year/1969.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-06. 
  2. ^ DVD review, Total Film
  3. ^ If...., (1968), Lindsay Andersen, notes from: DVD audio commentary to the film. Paramount Home Entertainment, Los Angeles, California:PHE 9395, (2007).
  4. ^ Sutton, Paul. If...: Turner Classic Movies British Film Guide
  5. ^ Extract from letter written in 1976 by Lindsay Anderson to Jack Landman in which he discusses the parallels between If.. and Jean Vigo's Zéro de Conduite (LA 1/6/3/8), The Anderson Collection, University of Stirling, accessed 14 February, 2008

Further reading

  • Ali Catterall and Simon Wells, Your Face Here: British Cult Movies Since The Sixties (Fourth Estate, 2001) ISBN 0-00-714554-3

External links

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