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Film If... (1968)

  • If_event_full

If… channels the anarchic current of 1968 with its bold switches between color and black-and-white, pillorying of authority, and violent climax. Director Lindsay Anderson marries kitchen-sink drama with flamboyant revolution posturing; while the latter hasn't aged particularly well, the film's shrill partisanship is undeniably forceful. At the center of the storm is Malcolm McDowell, glowering and dangerous in his premiere film role as Mick Travis. Fans of 1971's A Clockwork Orange may be surprised to see how much this boarding-school drama presages McDowell's iconic performance in Stanley Kubrick's "ultra-violent" symphony.

– Max Goldberg