if....
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Year Released: 1968
Rating: 3.5
Surreal look at an all-boys school in England and the discontent that forms in several Young Turks (led by Malcolm McDowell) due to the oppression at the hands of the "Whips" who dominate the students by force. Told in vignette form - with the lines between fantasy and reality blurred - it's a pointed depiction of the master/slave relationship present not only in schools but in political and social life, and even touching on such things as fascist ideation, life without 'available' women, homosexuality (the 'shower scene' is like something from the Greeks; two men - one a "Whip," one a friend of McDowell's - covet the same long-haired boy) and military force (the 'brave, noble' leaders turn cowardly when they find out that the Young Turks have acquired actual bullets and use them during 'war games'). Though obviously a product of the 60's, the disgust the students feel towards the administration and each other still (obviously) exists today.
