if....

if.... (Criterion #391). 1969 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, Robert Swann
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Buy if.... at Amazon.

This was the first film released as part of The Criterion Collection's deal with Paramount, who has licensed several of their films for DVD release by Criterion.

Malcolm McDowell, in his first film role, plays Mick Travis, who is one of three non-conformist students among the returning class. The "Whips" are senior boys who relish their role of treating the younger students horribly, and they have their eyes on Travis and his two friends.

The first portion of the film depicts the school's customs and traditions, but most of it focuses on Mick's group and their clashes with the school authorities. Mick steals a motorcycle and has an affair with a local waitress, while Wallace (Warwick) finds romance with a younger student. The movie ends with a bizarre segment, where Mick, his girl (Noonan) Johnny (Wood), and Wallace discover some automatic weapons, and launch a Founders' Day attack. The staff and other students find weapons of their own, and start fighting back. Mick's girl ultimately shoots the headmaster to death, and the film ends with a closeup of Mick's face as he continues firing his weapon. Since the character of Mick Travis was featured in two more of Anderson's films, we can presume that he survived the attack unharmed (if it even happened).

My curiousity for if.... started when I saw a parody of the gun battle scene on an episode of Monty Python. However, I was never able to find a copy of the movie for years, so I was pretty excited to hear about Criterion's plans to release it on DVD for the first time in America. What can I say, it was definitely worth the wait when I finally saw it.

Highly recommended, unless you find incidents of school violence upsetting. If that's the case, skip the final chapter.