Classic 60s Movie: If….
January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Will Leitch.
Movie Title: If….
Year: 1968
Writers: Screenplay by David Sherwin (from the original script ‘Crusaders’ by David Sherwin and John Howlett)
Lead Actors: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick
Director: Lindsay Anderson
IMDB Plot Summary: In this allegorical story, a revolution led by pupil Mick Travis takes place at an old established private school in England.
Why I Think This Is A Classic 60s Movie: If…. Is an echo and reflection of the turbulence of the late 60’s. It is lyrical but also features darkening clouds and is part of the same world as ‘Street Fighting Man’, ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ and ‘The White Album’. It features a rebel named Mick (after Jagger?) played by Malcolm McDowell in an incredibly charismatic performance who longs for escape from the rigid conformity of an English public school by drinking, listening to music and meeting up with two like-minded friends.
When we first meet Mick he has grown a Sgt. Pepper style moustache during the school break and has to shave it off on the first day of the new term. This small act of rebellion, and the establishment’s reaction to it, sets the tone for the film. It leads to an escalation in rebellion, beatings at the hands of the school’s favored pupils, and finally shocking violence.
If… began as a script named ‘Crusaders’ after the term given to Mick and his friends by writers David Sherwin and John Howlett. They wrote the screenplay before they’d reached the age of 20, documenting their experiences in English public schools. The script was considered too edgy to make, and due to years of rejections and false starts, John Howlett had to drop out of the project’s development.
Persistence paid off however, as the script found it’s way to the hands of Lindsay Anderson, a maverick director who’s ‘This Sporting Life’ is one of the finest British Kitchen Sink dramas of the earlier 60’s — black and white and pre-Beatles. Anderson and Sherwin were motivated to create ‘something’, what exactly they couldn’t pin down, but it was about expressing their feelings and getting something back via art that the British Establishment had ground down out of them.
The key to If…. as a classic 60’s movie is timing. Having been delayed so long (Sherwin had been pitching the script on and off for 7 years by the time production finally began), it reflected it’s moment perfectly. There are scenes in the film where the Crusaders are on the school roof tops with machine guns. During filming and editing of the sequence, news coverage ran footage of the Paris and Prague student riots, with the footage looking similar to what had been filmed for If…. Anderson and Sherwin mixed realism with surrealism, black and white film stock with color film stock, reflecting the daring popular culture of the time and what the youth culture admired. The film rode this wave to be awarded the Palm d’Or at Cannes in 1969.
If… is an essential watch, it is the darkening mood at the tail end of the 60’s. In the Crusaders study where the friends hang out, are walls covered in photographs of Vietnam, mixed in with pin-ups, celebrities and revolutionaries. The friends talk naively of the purity of war, bullets and blood with a naively that is disconcerting watching the film with a modern perspective. But it captures that exact moment of the counterculture and youth culture on film. There is also exhilaration — incredible performances, dialogue, music and editing that keeps the surprises coming. This is why If…. is just as exciting and unexpected now as it was in 1968.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: My favorite moment in the film is the ending, and in particular, the final shot which leaves me stunned every time I see it. It’s still shocking and ambiguous on how much of the events are real and how much is in the character’s heads.
But to avoid spoilers, I’ll choose the moment where the movie escapes the confines of the public school. Mick and fellow ‘Crusader’ Johnny leave the school for the local town. Stealing a Motorcycle, they speed through the countryside, stopping at a roadside café. Mick has a fantasy (?) wrestle/sexual encounter with the Girl working in the café. The music, editing and narrative jumps combine to create a memorable burst of freedom, energy and passion that contrasts sharply with the rigid and cruel school. The character of the girl is interesting as she gives as good as McDowell gives in the rebel stakes — he’s met his equal.
My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie:
The “Whips”, 4 upper-sixth formers led by Rowntree and Denson, have called the 3 “Crusaders” (Mick, Johnny and Wallace) into their study. Rowntree explains that Mick, Johnny and Wallace are to be beaten for insubordination. Mick starts to grin, which leads to the dialogue below:
DENSON: You can take that cheap little grin off your mouth! I serve the nation. You haven’t the slightest idea what it means, have you? To you it’s just one bloody joke.
MICK: You mean that bit of wool on your tit?
ROWNTREE: You must be punished. Well, have you anything to say? Any of you?
MICK: (measured) Yes. I have. The thing I hate about you, Rowntree… is the way you give Coca-Cola to your scum…and your best teddy bear to Oxfam… and expect us to lick your frigid fingers…for the rest of your frigid life.
ROWNTREE: Go down to the gym. Wait outside.
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie:
The documentary-like detail that anchors the surreal passages, screenwriter David Sherwin and director Lindsay Anderson had both attended schools such as the one in the script and captured rituals, slang and behavior that rings true. Quirks such as a teacher cycling through the school right into the classroom, while singing loudly as the class sit gathered.
Malcolm McDowell’s performance is a forerunner to his iconic performance in ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Stanley Kubrick was a fan of the film and Lindsay Anderson offered McDowell advice on how to play Alex DeLarge.
The pace of the movie is impressive for the time and gives the movie a modern feel, Sherwin and Anderson’s aim with to immerse the viewer within a world with a distinctive code of rules and environment while also speaking to the viewer’s personal experiences, having the school stand as a metaphor for wider society. The film’s Czech cinematographer identified with the film’s scriptwriting about the brutality of authority, not in an English public school, but in what was ongoing in Czechslovakia at the time. He returned to his home country after the shoot to the aftermath of an aggressive invasion by Russia.
Thanks, Will! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
Twitter: @will_leitch.
We already have a set of classic 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 60s Movies.
We have 31 volunteers. I have put in bold those who have already sent their guest post to me.
Ipsita Barik — Rosemary’s Baby
Ipsita Barik — Bonnie and Clyde
Mike Dobbins — The Sound of Music
Brandnewusedcar — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Markham Cook — Jules et Jim
Steve Cook — The Blue Max
JasperLamarCrab — 2001: A Space Odyssey
N D — Lonely are the Brave
Drew Dorenfest — Easy Rider
Rick Dyke — Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Rick Dyke — Fail Safe
Felicity Flesher — The Music Man
PaulG — Lawrence of Arabia
D.L. Gill — Zulu
Jeff Guenther — Cool Hand Luke
Kate Hagen — Repulsion
John Henderson — Night of the Living Dead
John Henderson — The Odd Couple
John Hörnschemeyer — The Graduate
Zach Jansen — They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
Will King — The Pink Panther
William Leitch — If…
Lisaisfunny — Blow Up
Jack McDonald — Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Nick — Lonely are the Brave
Daryl Powell — The Apartment
jprichard — Persona
Ally Shina — The Jungle Book
Mark Twain — The Loved One
Liz Warner — The Manchurian Candidate
Michael Waters — Dr. No
For those who have signed up, but have yet to email me your post, please do so ASAP.
Thanks in advance!
For the original post explaining the series, go here.