Kino. Must watch for any young man.

This need to be a must watch film

One of those movies that really sees people as they are. Most remember the brutality of the ending but few remark on its enigmatic nature.

At first we were confused looking for its real meaning. The meaning I attach to the film is that the system became so oppressive that it brought about its own downfall. This goes far beyond a British school, it's no wonder that each chapter of this film can be attributed to various moments in human history.

I didn't really get it. I understand this is about how bad public schools can be in the uk. It's also about being rebellious but then it trips into some American school shoot up disturbing fantasy stuff. I'm not sure how it all came together. Bit weird. That's the point but also not just weird, a bit unenjoyable.

strange film title and a strange film. it starts off looking very dated, but once you go with it you don't notice the age after a short while. I would be interested to know who this was reviewed at the time as it is a curious film. I think I liked it? you could always see the direction it was going, so no surprises as such, but mostly well executed.

A film whose themes and even lead are closely related to Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), the film varies underneath these surfaced level similarities. If.... makes for a film with many layers and is truly deserving of its reputation as one of British counterculture's greatest achievements in film. Not as brutal or blunt as A Clockwork Orange (1971) the film is still no cake walk and you must be prepared accordingly. If you are, you will be in for quite a viewing. It's another student against teachers and what society deems appropriate but one that deals with this issue in a much more violent and surreal experience than other works, most notably Zero de Conduite (1933) by the legendary Jean Vigo. This too was a surreal look at student rebellion but one that is much less violent and not as angst filled as If.... Now almost a half century later it is still considered one of the greatest of youth rebellion and anti-establishment films of all time.

A surreal, absorbing, subversive, gripping and darkly humorous examination of anarchism and rebellion that, thanks to its expert filmmaking and excellent cast, particularly Malcolm McDowell, it becomes one of the landmark films of 60s British counterculture, as it paved the way for the cultural phenomenon that was A Clockwork Orange.

Lindsay Anderson, never one to shy away from social commentary, takes a swipe to British aristocracy in If…, the first part of his Mick Travis trilogy, which also included O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital. In the initial instalment, set in an English boys' school, the students in the lower grades find themselves to be tormented by the prefects and school administration via whippings, verbal abuse and sexual objectification. Malcolm McDowell, in his debut performance, is, not surprisingly, excellent as Travis, playing the part with a quiet but burning intensity. The film is an excellent depiction of life in an environment that thrives on oppression, but is hindered by the distracting use of both color and black and white, alternating between the two. Whether it was done for technical reasons, budget issues or artistic license, it does distract from the impact of the film.

I found this supposedly great critique of the English public school to be pedantic. I'm not British, maybe that's the problem.

You can appreciate its feeling of transgressions, but it does not get to catch me far away than the first half an hour.

Slow, slow, slow...prepare to fast forward through many of the scenes. Rather absurd plot....as if tried very hard to make a point but fell off the stage along the way.

If film has chosen to impart one particular opinion to me, it is that the English public school life is practically akin to hell on earth. If... certainly echoes that sentiment, but goes about it in a particularly distinctive manner, incorporating teenage individualism that borders on Ayn Rand-esque libertarian anarchy and unexpected, distinctive surrealism. What could have been a simple (but powerful) satire on the experience in the literal sense only rapidly becomes far more radical and shocking, first in small hints, before seeing the finale radically raise the stakes. Its humor is intermittent, but delivers some great moments, like a quaint grandmotherly figure whipping out a machine gun to return fire with a raucous, "Bastards! Bastards!" Daring and complex, and more than a little dense, this is one I'll have to come back to at least a couple more times to get a full understanding of. (4/5)

One of the greatest British films ever made, Lindsay Anderson's 1968 film has violence, philosophy, and homosexual subtext. This is one of the most metaphorical movies and is an underrated masterpiece of cinema. Malcolm McDowell gives an Oscar worthy performance as Mick Travers, a teen rebel. Hugh Thomas gives a great performance as Denson, the main antagonist. Richard Warwick, David Wood, and Rupert Webster also give great performances, this film should be taught in film schools. 5/5

Landmark or not, "If..." its amazingly slow, boring and meaningless. Despite other reviews, I found no humour nor poetry in it. It's like if the message the film want to convey is half said, and I am not even sure what that message was.

Maybe you need to put your "back in the day" glasses to appreciated this at it's full. 40 minutes could have been cut, and the black and white doesn't add anything.

Blobbo saw when came out, at show. Was good, remembers Blobbo vaguely.

A commanding work of poetic anarchy that pulls no punches---in fact, it adds some---in its brutal pummeling of the British upper crust and the disciplinary society of boarding school. Somewhere between satire and surrealism, the film vacillates between black-and-white scenes of rigid, lifeless authority and those of youthful rebellion filmed in full hue. Color is used subversively throughout the movie to signify the vitality the students lack: McDowell and his crusaders fill their hidden enclave with a photo collage of people of color, the red feathers of a dart indicate both blood and cocktail cherries, and so on. The call of the wild resounds loudly to these young cubs defying their domestication, their animal natures set against the backdrop of high society's stiffness, the roar of a lion replacing puberty's vocal change, and African tribal music drowning out religious hymns. Filmed at the height of the Sixties counter culture that sought a break with classical disciplinary capitalism's alienation, in the shadow of the May '68 student protests in France, the movie amounts to a dream: "What if it were to happen here..." --- of course, that ending sequence, once absurd and impossible, is a nightmare now happening here in the US far, far too often, youthful rebellion giving way to the violent symptoms of early onset adulthood under the banner of late capitalism's control society.

i liked this film but i thought it was pretty dry and real long

Malcolm McDowell excels in this darkly amusing black comedy.