This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life (Criterion #417).
1963 Janus Films and The Rank Organisation
Starring: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Vanda Godsell
Produced by Karel Reisz
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Buy This Sporting Life from Amazon.

Lindsay Anderson's feature length debut is an outstanding example of the kitchen sink realism (the "British New Wave") that British cinema was producing between the late 1950s and early '60s. Richard Harris made his film debut here, and he won the Best Actor Award at the 1963 Cannes Film festival for his portrayal as the angry Yorkshire miner Frank Machin, who is recruited into a local rugby club after the team's manager witnesses a drunken fight between Machin and several of his players. Frank takes time to mature into a decent player, but he is signed to the premier team when the owner, Gerald Weaver (Badel) is impressed by Machin's aggressive play. In due time, Frank Machin has wealth and fame, but he finds that it's not enough to win the affections of his landlady, Mrs. Margaret Hammond (Roberts).

Margaret is the struggling mother of two young children, and her husband is recently deceased after an accident at Weaver's engineering firm which was ruled a suicide. At first, she rejects Frank's advances, but does begin a relationship with him that seems doomed from the start. Machin uses Margaret for sex, and she is still grief-stricken enough that she cannot return affection. Margaret, meanwhile, is upset at Frank's lack of social graces during a dinner date at a fancy restaurant. The affair ends, but a reconciliation is not in the cards. Margaret dies following a brain hemorrhage, and Frank finally realizes that his rugby career is probably no better than working all of his life operating machinery in a mine: both choices ultimately feels like an inescapable prison.

This Sporting Life also features William Hartnell as "Dad" Johnson, a rugby scout who is devoted to Frank to an uncomfortable degree even after Machin abandons him after his first taste of success. Hartnell's appearance here gained the attention of the first Doctor Who producer, Verity Lambert, and he would become the first Doctor that same year.

Get this DVD! Highly, highly recommended film.

O Lucky Man!

O Lucky Man! 1973 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Ralph Richardson, Rachel Roberts, Arthur Lowe, Helen Mirren, Graham Crowden, Dandy Nichols
Music: Alan Price
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Available at Amazon (two-disc special edition).

Malcolm McDowell reprises his role as Mick Travis, previously seen in 1968's if...., also directed by Lindsay Anderson. McDowell considers O Lucky Man! his favorite film that he appears in.

Here, Mick Travis progresses from coffee salesman, working for an amoral boss named Mr. Duff (Lowe), to being the personal assistant to the evil industrialist Sir James Burgess (Richardson). As Travis makes his way, we are periodically treated to music by former Animal Alan Price and his band, and their songs serve as a Greek chorus in between Mick's misadventures. Mick finds himself endlessly sidetracked, falling into an upscale swingers' club with live sex shows, finding himself tortured as a spy at a secret military base, stumbling upon an experimental medical compound, and ultimately framed by Burgess and sent to prison for five years for allegedly exporting gold bullion.

A truly bizarre film, with all of the major players playing multiple roles, and some inspired absurdity to keep you guessing about what's going to happen next. It's over three hours long, and curiously split onto two DVDs, so expect to be sitting for a while. Recommended movie, but just don't expect O Lucky Man! to be a true sequel to if....

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.