{"id":923,"date":"2008-07-24T23:49:35","date_gmt":"2008-07-25T04:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=923"},"modified":"2022-10-22T18:49:41","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T22:49:41","slug":"malcolm-mcdowell-plays-public-school-war-games-in-lindsay-andersons-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/malcolm-mcdowell-plays-public-school-war-games-in-lindsay-andersons-if\/","title":{"rendered":"Malcolm McDowell plays public school war-games in Lindsay Anderson’s If…."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If….<\/em> is the first in director Lindsay Anderson’s trilogy of films featuring Malcolm McDowell as the Mick Travis<\/a>, whose misadventures continue in O Lucky Man!<\/a><\/em> and Britannia Hospital<\/a><\/em>. Everything I read about the trilogy repeats the same word to descibe Travis: “everyman.” On the evidence, I take this instance particular of “everyman” to mean Travis is a blank slate, a shapeless person pushed and molded by the forces of society about him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If….<\/em> begins with the epigram “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding” from The Book of Proverbs<\/a>, but an even better statement of the film’s themes is spoken my Travis himself: “When do we live? That’s what I want to know.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Malcolm
“When do we live? That’s what I want to know.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The initially realistic portrayal of life at a British public school, filmed at Cheltenham College but referred to simply as “College”, includes frank depictions of the corporal punishment and homosexuality (mostly repressed, save for in one case, genuine young love). The pupils’ lives are so regimented and ordered that even virtuous activities such as studying are forbidden if not conducted at the proper time and place. Most of the rampant cruelty and capriciousness comes from Whips (the senior class, with privileges) and is sanctioned, or rather, willfully ignored by the aloof adult faculty. It becomes clear the school is satirical microcosm of the British class society: a self-perpetuating system in which the young underclassmen “Scum” eventually grow into the roles of the oppressors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Malcolm
I think I’ll call you Mini-Malcolm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Much of the students’ time is preoccupied with paramilitary war games couched in religion. As the school chaplain admonishes them, “Jesus is your commanding officer.” The sermon also instructs that desertion is the worst wartime crime, and as all Christians are born with original sin, all are likewise deserters. During one war game, Travis and friends deliberately shoot live rounds at their own comrades. Curiously, the headmaster mildly scolds them as if they had committed an infraction as naughty as nipping at the communal wine. But the first irrefutable instance of the film’s turn towards surreality is when the headmaster produces a faculty member from within a cupboard drawer for whom Travis to apologize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this point on, it is clear at least some of Travis’ experiences are fantasy. And what do teenage boys fantasize about but hooking up with hot girls and violently lashing out at enemies? He beds a beautiful waitress (Christine Noonan) in a violently animalistic coupling, who might very well be another figment of his imagination. Together they uncover a cache of weapons and pickled medical anomalies in the school basement (his subconscious?), including a grotesque human fetus. Travis’ anarchic adolescent fantasies climax with a massive school shooting during a nauseatingly patriotic festival honoring The Crusades. Unlike the considerably more tragic school shootings typical to films made in an era of actual teen massacres like Columbine (in films as diverse as Elephant<\/em>, Empire Falls<\/em>, and The Basketball Diaries<\/em>), Travis’ war is a comically carnivalesque affair and the consequences fall offscreen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Malcolm
Mmmf mmmmf mmff mmmmfff….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miscellany:<\/p>\n\n\n\n