if....
if.... is a 1968 British drama film produced and directed by Lindsay Anderson, and starring Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, and also starring Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, David Wood, and Robert Swann. A satire of English public school life, the film follows a group of pupils who stage a savage insurrection at a boys' boarding school. The film was the subject of controversy at the time of its release, receiving an X certificate for its depictions of violence.
Plot
The film opens at a traditional British public school for boys in the late 1960s, as the pupils return after the summer for a new Michaelmas term. Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) arrives hiding his face, as he has grown a moustache, and quickly shaves it off. He, Wallace (Richard Warwick), and Knightly (David Wood) are three non-conformist boys in the lower sixth form, their penultimate year. They are watched and persecuted by the "Whips", upper sixth-formers given authority as prefects over the other boys. The junior boys are made to act as personal servants for the Whips, who discuss them as sex objects.
Awards
More details
author | David Sherwin |
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award | Palme d'Or |
contentLocation | England |
director | Lindsay Anderson |
editor | David Gladwell |
genre | drama satire |
keywords | act as personal servants anthony nicholls arthur lowe automatic firearm automatic weapons british pub build can change the world combined cadet force fag general geoffrey chater hide michaelmas term mick travis mortar persecute prefect public school reason rebellion revolt school prefect schoolmaster sex object sixth form smoke wrestle |
musicBy | Marc Wilkinson |
producer | Michael Medwin |
productionCompany | Memorial Enterprises |
publisher | Paramount Pictures |
theme | high school lgbt-related satirical surreal teen drama |