If...

UPC: 715515024426

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children]

Summary: Rebellious students at an English private school plan a violent revolt against their repressive environment in director Lindsay Anderson's highly acclaimed but extremely controversial drama. Centering on a small group of non-conformists led by Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), the film paints a distinctly negative picture of the British school system and, by extension, English society. Seeing the powers-that-be as humorless, bureaucratic, and needlessly restrictive, Mick and his cohorts indulge in small acts of rebellion, including sneaking into town to romance a local waitress. Their actions are discovered and punished with harsh beatings, leading the students to plot revenge. This effort culminates in the film's most famous sequence, a surrealistic depiction of a bloody uprising by the students against the adult world. Daring and unpredictable in content and form, If... mixes color and black-and-white cinematography as easily as it mingles satire with dark fantasy. The film's ambiguous attitude toward violence caused controversy at the time, as many commentators saw the film as a potential incitement to violence. It became a great success among younger, counter-culture audiences who appreciated the audacious shock tactics and embraced the satirical, anti-establishment message. Often compared to Jean Vigo's French classic Z?ro de conduite, which also featured surrealistic boarding-school rebellion, If... has become a high point in the cinema of youth rebellion. Anderson and McDowell later collaborated on O Lucky Man! (1973), Look Back in Anger (1980), and Britannia Hospital (1982). ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Foreign Film - English Language – null International Grand Prix – Cannes Film Festival Best Foreign Film - English Language – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director of photography Miroslav Ondricek and assistant editor Ian Rakoff
Audio commentary featuring film critic and historian David Robinson and actor Malcolm McDowell
A 2003 episode from the Scottish TV series Cast and Crew, featuring McDowell, Rakoff, director's assistant Stephen Frears, producer Michael Medwin, and screenwriter David Sherwin
New video interview with actor Graham Crowden
Thursday's Children (1954), an Academy Award-winning documentary about a school for deaf children, directed by Anderson and Guy Brenton and narrated by Richard Burton
A booklet featuring pieces by critic David Ehrenstein, screenwriter David Sherwin, and director Lindsay Anderson

If...

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 06/19/2007

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Vistavision

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 112 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- If.... - The Film
1. College House [20:13]
2. College [13:29]
3. Term Time [10:17]
4. Ritual and Romance [16:59]
5. Discipline [16:43]
6. Resistance [8:05]
7. Forth to War [14:52]
8. Crusaders [9:27]
9. Closing Credits [1:28]
1. Casting [20:13]
2. Power and Privilege [13:29]
3. Bobby Philips [10:17]
4. Full of Surprises [16:59]
5. Not Naturalistic [16:43]
6. Targets [8:05]
7. About Freedom [14:52]
8. A Contradictory Person [9:27]
9. The Last Word [1:28]
Disc #2 -- If.... - The Supplements
1. Introductions [10:40]
2. Anarchist Element [15:43]
3. Actors [3:13]
4. Fantasy and Reality [5:58]
5. Reaction [6:28]

Rebecca Flint Marx

Surreal and satiric, If... is both a withering critique of British society and a fantasy rooted in the spirit of schoolboy anarchy. Fairly controversial when it was released in Britain in 1968, the film still has the power to shock, not so much because of its sex and violence (fairly tame by today's standards) but because of the manner in which they are presented. Resembling a landlocked Lord of the Flies, If... remains most startling for its depiction of savagery, on the part of both society (represented by the school and its authorities) and the young men it produces. It is a casual, offhand savagery, seemingly as much a part of British society as tea and scones. Lindsay Anderson's ambiguous approach to the film's violence is consistent with the film's blackly satirical tone, mirroring the aim being taken at societies across the world at the time by their dissatisfied youth. If... can be seen as Anderson's metaphor for the changes occurring across the world in 1968, but it goes further than mere protest, culminating in a show of all-out rebellion that remains one of the high points of the cinema of youthful discontent. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Robin Askwith  Actor 
Brian Pettifer  Actor 
Philip Bagenal  Actor 
Tommy Godfrey  Actor 
Anthony Nicholls  Actor 
Rupert Webster  Actor 
Geoffrey Chater  Actor 
Hugh Thomas  Actor 
Charles Sturridge  Actor 
Ellis Dale  Actor 
John Garrie  Actor 
Graham Crowden  Actor 
Mary McLeod  Actor 
Simon Ward  Actor 
Martin Beaumont  Actor 
Richard Everett  Actor 
Michael Newport  Actor 
Sean Bury  Actor 
Charles Lloyd Pack  Actor 
Peter Sproule  Actor 
Richard Davies  Actor 
Ben Aris  Actor 
David Griffin  Actor 
Albert Finney  Producer 
Michael Medwin  Producer 
Lindsay Anderson  Director 
Lindsay Anderson  Producer 
David Sherwin  Screenwriter 
Marc Wilkinson  Composer (Music Score) 
Roy Baird  Executive Producer 
Malcolm McDowell  Actor 
David Wood  Actor 
Richard Warwick  Actor 
Christine Noonan  Actor 
Robert Swann  Actor 
Peter Jeffrey  Actor 
Arthur Lowe  Actor 
Mona Washbourne  Actor 

Country: UK