A classic, a movie of real authority.
Comment
05/09/07
If... (1969)
96 %
Reviews Counted: 27 Fresh: 26 Rotten:1 Average Rating: 7.9/10
Rated: 15
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Theatrical Release: 01-03-2002
Synopsis: Filmed at the time of the 1968 student uprising in Paris, Lindsay Anderson's IF. . . is one of the seminal films of the era of student revolt. The characters' direct psychological and emotional displays are an allegory for how individuals must either conform to or rebel against the autocratic... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Christine Noonan, Richard Warwick, David Wood
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Reviews
A modern classic in which Anderson minutely captures both the particular ethos of a public school and the general flavour of any structured community.
06/24/06
Top Critic
To describe it in text makes it sound like an obliquely hardcore art movie. But it speaks for itself, as a sensory and emotional experience.
08/17/03
Top Critic
I have to say I find the surrealist ending rather flabby and undermining, but this is still a terrific film made with incredible brio.
03/03/02
Top Critic
Lindsay Anderson's boldly allegorical drama If... features a sly script that very slowly reveals just how strongly it is protesting against authority.
01/17/08
McDowell is part of the reason the film works so well. In his first movie role, he has a James Dean-type physicality, fearless and entrancing.
01/10/08
Anyone who was a disaffected teenager can relate to this still-controversial (it looks fairly eerie post-Columbine), never less than fascinating satire.
09/24/07
However we choose to read it, there is an undeniable nod to the imagination, and that is where true horror is created.
07/16/07
The film finally succumbs to its own abstraction with an ending that satisfies neither symbolism nor wish fulfillment.
05/09/07
A film of tremendous resonance, coming when it did in 1968 with the force of a grenade.
05/09/07
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