If....

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed!

If …. (1968), directed by Lindsey Anderson, has as its primary theme that abuse by those in power can initiate a violent reaction against such extreme authority and, ironically, produce the type of chaos the ruling class wants to suppress. The title comes from the Rudyard Kipling poem and its upper-class superior tone of reining in freedom is what the film takes aim at.

The story is set at an English boarding school, and Anderson said he likes stories that are a microcosm of society. A note at the beginning urges the need for knowledge, but the result of what these students learn is the opposite of what the educational establishment desired. The somber words of the school song are sung, and they brim with loyalty and duty. As the credits roll, the music is replaced with disruptive sounds of boys in contrast to the lyrics, showing that there is a desire to fight rigidity and just enjoy their youth. The film breaks the story into chapters with different headings and some begin with religious readings and singing which then contrasts with the actions of those in charge and those that revolt against them.

The seniors, or “Whips,” rule as prefects over others. This oppressive hierarchy is entrenched in British custom. At the beginning of the school year, those returning to the school call the first-year students “scum,” and remind them they have no right to address the older students. One Whip tells a new student to carry the senior’s belongs to his room, and in a very derogatory command tells the youth to warm up his toilet seat. Basically, they treat the first-year students as slaves.

When the rulers are not present, the young boys are loud and fight with each other, showing that attempting to overly contain natural impulses only leads to an equal and opposite reaction. New student Jute (Sean Bury) is taken to the “sweat room,” where he finds his circumscribed cubicle that must contain his belongings. The students must not keep food that does not subscribe to ridiculous rules. The new students must not move slowly. Rowntree (Robert Swann), the Head Whip, tells them to “run in the corridors,” to meet the time restraints of their tasks. Also, haircuts must meet certain requirements. The film was made in the ‘60’s when long hair was considered an act of defiance.

When Mick (Malcolm McDowell in his film debut) arrives, he has a scarf over his mouth and nose. He looks like a bandit, and it fits his outlaw-like personality. He is actually hiding a mustache, a forbidden form of appearance. Stephans (Guy Ross) says, referring to Mick, “God, it’s Guy Fawkes back again.” The reference to the British revolutionary is a foreshadowing here. Mick says he grew the mustache to “hide his sins.” Actually, it seems to reflect his inner lawbreaking self, and when he shaves it now, it may imply that the bare face is a pretense to conformity. He shares what he did during the summer with his friend Johnny (David Wood), telling him he spent time with a girl frequenting pubs. It seems that he enjoys living a rowdy life and when a bell rings, he wants to know when they get “to live,” instead of enduring regimentation.

The students gather in a hall and are told that they should “work,” and “play,” but “don’t mix the two.” I guess these students aren’t supposed to whistle while they work. They are urged to see themselves as a family, which as it turns out is quite dysfunctional. Those in charge believe “discipline” will contribute to helping the entire school which, in turn, will help each individual. Sounds good in a speech, but in practice, the result is not what is hoped for.

Rowntree is a sadist who relishes his power over the others. He threatens them if they repeat the prior year’s slackness, and reminds them that they are restricted from going into the nearby town. Bells sound before each activity, used almost like a Pavlovian type of behavior modification. What follows is a humiliating inspection for venereal disease. The boys must drop their trousers and the matron (Mona Washbourne) inspects their genitals with a flashlight.

The dormitory inspection ranks with what the U. S. Marines must endure. The Whips go to each room and the students must be in their beds. Jute can’t even keep his diary there, but must leave it in the sweat room, such is the absurd strictness of the institution. There is “lights out” ridiculously early and “no talking.” After the Whips leave, Mick sarcastically applauds and tells Stephans what a good job he has done, mimicking the Whip’s compliment. Mick’s pals echo Mick, and one says, “One night we’re gonna massacre you, Stephans. I’ll do it for free.” At the time it sounds like an exaggerated schoolboy threat, but it turns out to be more foreshadowing.

There is more religious singing which is offset by the students complaining about the denial of access to girls at another school. The more the institution denies these youths adequate freedom, the more irreverent they become. The history teacher (Graham Crowden) introduces a bit of unorthodox behavior as he rides his bike into the classroom while singing a traditional song, undermining the lyrics. He also opens the windows as if to let fresh ideas enter the minds of the students as he questions them about their ideas. Perhaps his actions suggest that history offers a basis to question the present. However, the film also depicts the corruption of power by showing the geometry teacher, who is also the chaplain (Geoffrey Chater), as someone who preaches proper behavior while hitting students and otherwise manhandling them. There is a stark contrast as he teaches geometric rules while breaking those of human decency. The Headmaster (Peter Jeffrey), while teaching a class, acknowledges that some of Britain’s rules are “silly,” but necessary, nonetheless. However, he does not provide an adequate defense of the statement. He goes on to say that “Britain today is a powerhouse of ideas, experiment, imagination.” He says that the schools must “meet” the “challenge” of dealing with all the changes that are occurring.

But the Headmaster has an idealistic approach to his job, calling it “exciting.” The school is entrenched in regimented behaviors that are anything but adrenalin inducing. What follows his speech is an indoctrination of Jute to learn, in addition to his regular studies, all the jargon and slang that Rowntree requires. That perversion of education includes misogyny, as the Head Whip wants town girls to be called “tarts.” Brunning (Michael Newport), a fellow student, tells Jute that, “it’s not just a matter of knowing the answers. It’s how you say it.” If he fails then they all “get beaten.” Such is the extreme nature of how power can corrupt a child’s school life.

Mick has pictures of soldiers plastered all over his room, and is cutting out photos of ferocious animals, including lions. IMDb points out that there are also pictures of Che Guevara and Geronimo who represent icons of revolution. Later Mick’s tendency toward violence becomes manifest as the means not only to create revolt against oppression but as an end in itself. Despite the desire of the school to clamp down on unacceptable behavior, or maybe because of it due to modeling or as a need to release their frustration with containment, students act sadistically toward other classmates. For example, a group of boys grab Biles (Brian Pettifer) and dunk his head in a toilet.

Denson (Hugh Thomas) chastises his fellow Whips for their “homosexual” remarks about the scums. Given the power arrangement it is more like sexual abuse. Rowntree calls in the nice-looking blonde underclassman Philips (Rupert Webster) to tempt Denson, trying to show that he isn’t as upright as he pretends. Rowntree is right because when he assigns Philips to be Denson’s servant, the latter does not object. The move is trying to show the falseness of the surface integrity of those in charge.

While with his pals, Mick says, “the world will end very soon.” He adds, “There is no such thing as a wrong war. Violence and revolution are the only pure acts … War is the last possible creative act.” He is an anarchist with an apocalyptic vision that seems to say that society is corrupt beyond redemption and must be purged. Wallace (Richard Warwick) complains about going bald, having bad breath, and concerned about becoming senile before he gets out of the institution. He says that his “body is rotting.” His comments add a sense of urgency to break free of the school’s dominance. Mick’s response to Johnny reading the newspaper headline that a person in Calcutta dies of starvation every eight minutes is that “eight minutes is a long time.” His remark heightens the desire to rush into action. When he is presented a picture of a beautiful naked young woman Mick says the only thing you can do with her is make love in the sea and then die. This is one dark fellow who seems to find joy in the moment followed by oblivion. Later, Mick and his pals do some fencing and Mick is ecstatic as he yells “War” and is almost orgasmic when he sees his own blood on his hand from a wound. (Mick seems to have some qualities of McDowell’s character in the later A Clockwork Orange).

Mick hears someone approaching and the young men hide their vodka (a reference to the Russian revolution?) and pornography, assuming the phony upright appearance of what is expected of them. Denson enters and although he suspects transgressions, he can’t prove anything. He still says they will take cold showers for their long hair. It’s as if he must exert some form of punishment as part of his position. Mick does provide one visible act of nonconformity, wearing a necklace of teeth that Denson notes still have blood on them. The image adds to the animal ferocity bubbling beneath the surface of Mick. Denson makes Mick spend a sustained amount of time in the cold shower the next morning, which, instead of cooling Mick down, only inflames his anger.

Mick and friends sit next to the soft-spoken Mrs. Kemp (Mary Macleod), the wife of the House Master of Mick’s dorm, Mr. Kemp (Arthur Lowe). As the boys ask if she wants anything, such as ketchup, with her meal, Mick adds his element of perverse violence by asking if she wants some “Dead man’s leg.” Mrs. Kemp touches her bare throat and the edge of her clothes in a sort of combination of worrying about modesty and experiencing sensuality.

Mick and Johnny escape to the town in defiance of the prohibition against going there and cavort playfully on the sidewalk as they enjoy their freedom. Mick then steals a motorcycle (a car would be too tame) and he and Johnny ride off into the countryside (a precursor to Easy Rider?). They arrive at a restaurant where they are served coffee by a pretty waitress. Mick, fittingly, stresses that he wants his coffee “black.” Then he contrarily dumps a ton of sugar into the cup just to be extreme. He grabs the girl and kisses her. She responds with a slap. This type of male abusiveness is abhorrent, but Mick has found a connection with this young lady. She touches his shoulder as he plays music on the juke box. She tells him it’s okay to look at her body but also says she’ll “kill” him. She says when she looks in the mirror her eyes get large like a tiger and she says, “I like tigers,” and growls at him. He sniffs at her and they act like snarling animals. This type of ferocity is a call to the wild for Mick. The scene abruptly shifts surrealistically to the two grappling on the ground clawing and baring their teeth, naked and making love. (There is a shift here from color to black and white. IMDb notes that economics and technicalities forced Anderson to sometimes shoot in monochrome. However, he then liked that the shifts added a sense of disorientation and movement back and forth between reality and fantasy. The style is consistent with the feeling that the status quo is being disrupted by Mick. Also, the title of the film is If… which suggest a possibility, not a reality. Usually when a work of art calls attention to itself as not realistic it implies that the art form is presenting a fiction that points to aspects of reality).

Philips watches as Wallace practices his routine on a parallel bar and it is a sweetly erotic scene slowed down slightly that allows the audience to marvel at the interaction between the athlete and the observer. The two become close and they share a prohibited smoke together. They are in the armory room that is filled with rifles, a surrounding full of danger if there ever was one. Philips says he wants to be a criminal lawyer, which shows he wants to argue cases against the establishment and points to his anti-authoritarian stance. He says that it will take him twenty years to reach his goal. Wallace says ominously that they’ll be dead by then. Philips accuses Wallace of having no ambition, and Wallace agrees. He is a follower of Mick, which means living only in the moment. We later find the two of them in bed together, which is consensual and out of caring as opposed to the exploitative way the Whips viewed Philip.

Mick is so obsessed with death that he practices his own demise, putting a bag over his head as Johnny times him to see how long he can last without running out of air. Mick wonders what’s the worse way to die, and he, Johnny, and Wallace suggest different ways. Johnny says cancer is bad because his mother endured six months of suffering before the end came. He seems upset by this fact, but Mick shows morbid fascination about how nasty death can be, which shows how pathologically dangerous he is. He even comments that “the night’s dead,” which indicates how he sees lifelessness in everything.

Led by Rowntree, the Whips control Mr. Kemp and get him to allow them to administer strict discipline to those in his dormitory who they see as trying to rock the boat, even if their brutal actions turn the ship into the Titanic. After singing their religious songs the students can indulge themselves in some dessert. But, the deceptively sedate Mrs. Kemp comes down hard on one lad as she yells that he was trying to pick up another bun. She does not want the boys to indulge their appetites.

The Whips call Mick, Johnny, and Wallace into their office. They say they will be punished for being a “nuisance,” and having an “attitude.” Denson criticizes Mick for his “slouching about,” with his hands in his pockets. These so-called offenses present no real harm. Rowntree says that Mick and his mates “have become a danger to the morale of the whole house.” Talk about the crackpot calling the kettle black. Rowntree wants to make an example of the three to ward off anyone who might follow in Mick’s off-road footsteps. Mick’s sharp retaliation is, “The thing I hate about you, Rowntree, is the way you give Coca Cola to your scum and your best teddy bear to Oxfam and expect the rest of us to lick your frigid fingers the rest of your frigid life.” He is attacking Rowntree, and the other privileged members of society, who give crumbs off their table to those deserving souls who need compassion and then expect to be praised for their minimal generosity.

The Whips take the boys to the gym and administer a “caning” punishment. The Whips live up to their name as Rowntree whacks the boys viciously on the buttocks with a slender cane that cause bleeding. Wallace and Johnny receive four lashes each, which we do not see, but only hear the slamming of the cane. After enduring this vicious infliction, the boys must humiliate themselves by shaking Rowntree’s hand and saying, “thank you.” Mick, however, as the ringleader, gets ten lashes, and we do witness this brutal punishment as Rowntree runs up to the bent over Mick so that he can maximize the impact of the beating. The other boys in the school can hear the punishment. One is looking at germs under a microscope, which seems to symbolize how cruelty is like a dangerous virus that spreads when allowed to exist.

While the other students celebrate the winning of a trophy and cheer College House, Mick, in contrast, is alone in his room as he loads a paint gun and shoots at pictures on the wall of British celebrities and even of the Houses of Parliament. His defacing of all things famously English shows his scorn and violence toward the establishment in power. He takes a blood oath with Johnny and Wallace by saying the words, “Death to the oppressor.” The spilling of blood seems to be what intrigues Mick as it appears to represent to him the ultimate example of nonconformist behavior. He says, “One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place.” Mick presents them with “real bullets.” He is talking about assassination of tyrants. However, negative results, can result from a bullet such as in the killings of Lincoln, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and the Kennedys.

There are scenes which illustrate how people acting pious in public hypocritically indulge in socially inappropriate behavior in private. While Mr. Kemp sings in his bedroom about love and mentions Venus, the goddess of that emotion, and his wife plays the recorder, the school’s matron reacts by becoming sexually aroused. The shot of the bedroom shows husband and wife have separate beds, suggesting an abstinence of sexual activity whose suppression can manifest itself in objectionable ways. Later, Mrs. Kemp walks naked through the student residence as the boys are outside, and touches soap and towels. Again, that sexual suppression finds a way to the surface in an inappropriate manner.

The next section, called “Forth to War,” begins with the chaplain giving an onward Christian soldiers speech, framing devotion to peace-loving Jesus ironically as a call to arms. The students are dressed as soldiers and march as if going off to war. They proceed to engage in war games where they practice “the yell of hate.”  Not quite what Christ intended. This melding of religion and combat gives spiritual justification to violence and sends a message to the students that backfires (gun reference intended). Mick uses real ammunition to fire close to the students and the chaplain, who, despite the call for bravery earlier, now cowers on the ground when he actually faces danger.

The Headmaster tells Mick, Johnny, and Wallace about how the reverend could have been hurt. As he says these words, a bit of surrealism occurs. The Headmaster opens a large drawer in which the chaplain is stretched out as if resting in a coffin. He then rises and shakes the hands of the three students as a sign of accepting their apologies. Again, Anderson is jarring the audience out of the comfort of a standard narrative to show that their status quo is under siege. The Headmaster then says that although he knows that acts of youthful individualism are to be expected, there are limits to that expression. However, he then gets petty about the limitations, focusing on hair length. He spouts the platitude that “Those who are given the most also have the most to give.” However, this statement is not about generosity being disbursed to the needy. Instead, he assigns the boys manual labor as a way of “giving” back to the school and they must clean out the church basement.

Philips joins them, and one object they find during their chore is a stuffed alligator. It could be that the dangerous animal symbolizes what evil can lurk below the surface of a benign exterior. Ditto the deformed fetus they discover in a locked cabinet. The waitress suddenly appears in this scene, another bit of taking us out of the normal course of the narrative. Together they find a large supply of military weapons, including mortars, hand grenades, and various types of guns. The grinning Mick tells us without words what he plans to do with these destructive tools.

The next section is called “Crusaders,” which calls to mind the combatants of the Middle Ages whose wartime exploits were blessed with religious justification. That merging of religion and war is emphasized at a school assembly on Founders Day where parents and dignitaries assemble. General Denson (Anthony Nicolls) and a church bishop are in attendance. The general, most likely the father of the student of the same name, goes on about how some are belittling traditional rules and obedience, and that they must defend those qualities to preserve freedom. What his words imply contradictorily is that one must give up freedom to hold onto it. He then adds the need for warlike actions to preserve liberty. That justification for violence can be used by others who feel that their freedom is being deprived by those in power. That interpretation can encourage insurrection.

Cue the new “crusaders” who start a fire under the auditorium (reminiscent of Guy Fawke’s history) and the smoke causes those assembled to cough and flee from the gathering. As those in attendance emerge outside Mick and his followers open fire from the roof onto the people below. Those on the ground acquire weapons from the school armory and fire back. The Headmaster urges a ceasefire, but it is too late for peace. Mick’s girlfriend takes a pistol and shoots the Headmaster through the forehead.

The film ends with a closeup of Mick firing his machine gun directly at the camera as if telling the audience they better fix things or this story might turn into real life. His image is followed by a dark screen with the word “If …” painted in blood red. The movie has delivered its warning shot.

The next film is Angel Heart.