Parasite

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Parasite (2019), was the first foreign-language film to win the Best Picture Oscar. Writer-director Bong Goon Ho here again explores the class divisions between the privileged and the poor, as he did in other films such as Snowpiercer and Mickey 17.

The first shot is that of the view from a basement apartment, stressing the subterranean life of the poor. Mr. Kim (Song Hang Ho) and his family live there. He is an out-of-work driver. Phones are shut off and they have been stealing the internet from a neighbor, who recently changed her password, cutting off the family members crowded together in the cramped dwelling. There is a picture and medal that was won in a track and field event, which shows that there is talent here, but it has not been able to sustain itself in the poverty surrounding it. They have stink bugs in the place. When an exterminator comes by outside, they leave the window open to kill the insects, but it is they who may be the target in this society.

They make money by folding pizza boxes to get by. The son, Ki-Woo (Choi Woo-Shik) has a friend, Min-Hyuk (Park Seo-Joon), who brings them what is known as a Scholar’s Rock that presages good fortune. The mother, Choong Sook (Jang Hye-Jin) says he should have brought food, which is what this deprived family really needs, not a lucky charm.

Ki-Woo is to take over tutoring English from the leaving Min-Hyuk of the daughter, Da-Hye (Jung Ji-So), of the rich Park family. Min-Hyuk doesn’t want some college student putting the moves on Da-Hye, who he likes and sees his friend as a faithful protector. Ki-Woo excelled in school in English, but the family couldn’t afford an education for him, or his sister, Ki-Jeong (Park So-Dam), who is an excellent artist. The only way the lower-class family can attain employment is through fraud (Are they parasites? The title of the film works on different levels). So, Ki-Woo pretends to be a college student, named Kevin, and his sister creates fake documents for him. As the father humorously says if there was a major at Oxford University for forgery, his daughter would excel there. Ki-Woo says he will go to the university and the document is just a bit premature because he will get the diploma, which shows his inner drive, but is it impossible for his dreams to come true?

In contrast, the Park house is luxurious. The first shot of Mrs. Park has her snoozing with her head down on a table. It’s a picture of the idle rich. Min-Hyuk called her “simple,” and her Ki-Wook’s family exploit this lack of shrewdness. (Is Mrs. Park in her own way a parasite living off society as a noncontributing member?) Ki-Woo tells Da-Hye that she needs “vigor” to do well on her tests, slashing through her studies as if clearing a jungle. His advice contrasts with the example of the sleeping mother, and the lax attitude of the entitled wealthy. The Park’s young son, Da-Song (Jung Hyeon Jun), likes to draw, so Ki-Woo sees this fact as an opportunity to insert his sister as an art teacher named Jessica.

Da-Hye already knows that her brother is a phony who pretends to be inspired to paint. Ki-Woo, being insightful, already knows this fact. So, it is not just Ki-Woo’s family that are pretenders. It is interesting that Ki-Woo and his sister are ambitious people, while the children of the rich are dependent on their parents, like parasites. Da Hye is attracted to Ki-Woo and they kiss, which subverts Min-Hyuk’s plan, and entwines Ki-Woo even more with the Park family.

Ki-Jeong is a better parent for Da-Song than is Mrs. Park. She is strong-willed and gets the boy to act properly quickly. She says that Da-Song needs “art therapy” because he exhibits a psychological pathology in his paintings (she just looked the term up to initiate the scam). She says it was due to a previous trauma, which apparently did happen to the boy. Of course, she must charge Mrs. Park exorbitant fees for such in-depth treatment.

While getting a ride home in the Park family limo, Ji-Jeong gets the idea of leaving her underwear in the car to entrap the driver so that her father can become the new Park’s chauffeur. Mr. Park says that his driver dared to “cross the line,” to have sex in the back seat of the limo, where he sits. The idea of line crossing is a metaphor for the divider between the classes.

Kim, who has tried several businesses in the past but could not become successful, satisfies Mr. Park with his driving. His family then plans on getting rid of the housekeeper, Moon-Kwang (Lee Jung-Eun), who is not as easily duped. She was the housekeeper of the architect who built the house that now is owned by the Parks (It is an interesting fact that becomes important later). Ki-Woo discovers from Da-Hye that the housekeeper is very allergic to peaches and the fruit can’t be in the house. Ki-Jeong sprinkles peach fuzz onto the housekeeper’s neck. Kim then makes a video of the housekeeper going to the hospital. He says he was there for a physical and saw the woman coughing. He tells Mrs. Park he overheard that she may have TB. When Kim shakes Mrs. Kim’s hand, she asks if he washed his hands. It shows a repulsion toward the lower classes, and Mrs. Kim may see the handshake as another crossing of the line. The family rehearses Kim’s performance to recruit the mother, and it may be that director Ho is commenting on the filmmaking process, even adding ketchup to the kitchen trashcan to make it appear as if blood was on the housekeeper’s tissues as sort of a special effect. Mrs. Park fires the housekeeper and now Kim’s wife, Choong Sook, is hired to replace her. Mr. Park notes that his wife can’t do anything around the house, stressing her parasitic nature.

While talking about the Kim family’s good fortune, Kim sees a man again urinating outside their basement apartment. Ki-Woo throws water on the man to chase him away. This act and the fact that the chauffeur and the housekeeper lost their jobs implies that when some members move up in the class system it may be at the expense of others since society does not provide for the welfare of all its citizens.

The Parks go away on a camping trip and the Kims indulge themselves by taking over the mansion, eating, bathing, and drinking. It is there moment where they can pretend to be rich, “pretend” being the operative word. Ki-Woo says he wants to be able to ask Da-Hye out, maybe marry her, and the house will become their home for real. His family laugh at this daydream knowing that they will never be able to rise into the upper class. Ki-Jeong has been hired to act like a guest at some weddings to catch the bouquet, and her acting has become quite good, as she has already shown. Performance is necessary to acquire some benefits given their lower-class status, since that is the closest they will get to being among the rich. Kim says even though Mrs. Park is rich she is nice, but Choong Sook says she is “nice because she is rich,” which means she can afford to be nice, not worrying about scraping by each day to get ahead. All the worries of the rich are “ironed out,” they are “smoothed out by money.” It reminds one of The Great Gatsby, where F. Scott Fitzgerald says that the rich can be careless because they can fall back into the comfort of their money.

The family is drunk now, and Ki-Woo says that his sister seems to fit in well in the extravagant house. Choong Sook says that her husband could never fit in, and would scurry like the cockroaches in their apartment if Mr. Park came in now. Kim seems angry at the insect comparison and he grabs his wife by her shirt. He and his wife then laugh, and Kim says to his son that they were acting. Was he? They have become so used to conning others that they can’t tell if they are acting or not, being genuine or pretending.

The old housekeeper, Moon-Kwang, shows up and says she left something in the basement. She is there to rescue her husband, Geun-Sae (Park Myung-Hoon) who has been living underground for over four years trying to escape debtors. He is staying behind a secret wall, which became jammed and he could not escape. It is a place where the rich can hide if things go bad for them. The Parks did not know of this secret place. The wealthy can afford an escape plan, like a golden parachute. We again have the film’s metaphor that the poor must live below the privileged.

Choong Sook is ready to call the police, not feeling sympathy for one of her fellow impoverished. But Moon-Kwang discovers that the whole Kim family has conned their way into the house and threatens to expose them with a phone video. She and her husband also begin to enjoy the richness of the house, their only chance at the good life together.

The two families fight over the phone. Their struggle shows how the poor are forced to battle each other for what the wealthy have left them. The Parks were washed out of their camping trip by a storm, so the Kims must clean things up so as not to get caught. The Kims now become the captors of their own class in the subterranean compartment. Choong Sook causes Moon-Kwang to fall down the basement stairs and she sustains a severe head injury, and dies after freeing her husband of his bonds.

Mrs. Park tells Choong Sook of the traumatic experience that her son, Da-Song, experienced. He woke up when he was younger in the middle of the night to have more birthday cake and saw Geun-Sae come out of the basement. The child thought he was a ghost. Symbolically, this event may mean that the uncaring wealthy are haunted by the memories of their class victims.

The rich being superior is again displayed metaphorically. The Parks sleep on a couch in the living area to be on call if their son, who decides to have his own camping experience, stays in a tent in the grounds in the back of the house. The Kims are hiding under the furniture, showing that they are beneath the wealthy family. Mr. Park says that he can still smell Mr. Kim, as if the poor are somehow contaminated by their place in society. Mr. Park says that Kim “always seems about to cross the line,” but doesn’t, again using the analogy to show the need for the lower classes to stay in their place. But his smell “crosses the line.” He says, people who ride subways have that smell, as if derived from associating with others of what he would consider to be the working-class subculture.

Choong Sook resides at the house, being the housekeeper, but the other Kims escape (walking through a tunnel, the underground being their place in life).. When they return to their apartment, their home below the surface is flooded, showing how their plans have washed away. Kim comes to believe that plans are meaningless, and he falls into despair. They attempt to save some possessions, and Ki-Woo gets the Scholar’s Rock, which was supposed to represent good fortune. Ironically, it causes just the opposite, and his clinging to it is misplaced hope in this story.

The next day the Parks are preparing for another birthday for their son, and they can afford to host an opulent party. The scene of Mrs. Park going into her spacious walk-in closet contrasts with the impoverished multitudes in the gymnasium who sought shelter from the storm as they rummage through donated clothing. Mr. and Mrs. Park must act as servants. Da-Hye invited Ki-Woo and his sister. Da-Hye and Ki-Woo are kissing in her bedroom. It is above the grounds, looking down at the rich guests. From that height he is temporarily elevated in his status and wonders if he fits in there.

The child Da-Song likes to pretend he is a Native American, and for the party Mr. Kim must pretend to be one also. In this context he is an oppressed person playing the role of a member of another oppressed race. Ki-Woo takes the Scholar’s Stone and descends to kill Geun-Sae so he can’t expose the Kim family. But the man gets the drop on the young man and smashes his head with the stone. At this point Geun-Sae is in a deranged state following the death of his wife, and he seeks revenge on Choong Sook for her death. He wields a knife, killing Ki-Woo’s sister. On seeing a return of the “ghost,” the boy Da-Song faints. Mr. Park demands that Mr. Kim give him the car keys to transport his son for medical care, not showing any concern for the dying Ji-Jeong. Geun-Sae attacks Choong Sook who is able to use a food skewer to kill the man. It is ironic that something used to feed this posh group is now a homicide weapon used against the rich host. So far, the lower-class uprising has only resulted in deaths of those in their own class. But when Mr. Kim sees Park’s disgust of the smell of his family, Mr. Kim loses it and stabs Mr. Park to death.

What happens next is a narration by Ki-Woo which relates that he recovered following brain surgery. He and his mother were put on probation for acting fraudulently, but she is acquitted of Geun-Sae ‘s death for acting in self-defense. Ki-Woo views the Park house from a hill, the only way he can come close to rising to the height to be able to purchase the home. He realizes his father now lives in hiding in the room below the now vacant house because Geun-Sae used the light controls in the room to send out a Morse Code signal, and now so does Ki-Woo’s father. Mr. Kim has moved from one subterranean place to another, replacing another lower-class person in the seemingly never-ending oppression of the poor.

Ki-Woo writes a letter, that the film visualizes, to his father about working hard and becoming wealthy enough to buy the Park mansion so his father will join them. But he composes the letter from the dingy basement apartment in which the story started, suggesting that his hopes will remain only a dream.

Badlands

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Badlands (1973), directed by Terrence Malick, has an appropriate title, not only because of where the movie takes place, but because of the criminal action that it depicts. It is based on the story of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate and the deaths of ten people during a nine-day period. The movie focuses on how someone gains attention through infamy if the chance at legitimate fame is out of reach. The film explores the same area that Truman Capote addresses in his novel In Cold Blood, that is, the underbelly of the United States. As Michael Almereyda says in his essay “Misfits,” the two main characters symbolize “some lethal short circuit in the American psyche.” Badlands also touches on the American fascination and celebration of outlaws, revealing its citizens’ anti-authoritarian feelings.

Almereyda notes that Malick left out some of the more gruesome acts of Starkweather to construct an almost bloodless fairy tale, as Malick once described the film. Most of the story is told from the perspective of an innocent, the fifteen-year-old Holly (Sissy Spacek), which allows the audience to gradually perceive what is happening in her association with Kit (Martin Sheen). She moves from a place of teenage romance to shell-shocked detachment.

Her story, though, is not one of youthful protection from the effects of reality. She says that her mother died young and her relations with her father (Warren Oates), became strained after the death. He moved her to Fort Dupree, South Dakota, which added to the feeling of disconnection from the outside world and increased her feeling of being an outsider. Malick provides still shots (the emphasis on “still”) of an alley of trash cans and peopleless streets, which promote the feeling of isolation.

Kit arrives in the story working on a trash truck, which suggests that he not only works with garbage, he is also part of the refuse of the land. He basically collects stuff and discards them during the course of the film, which implies he is stuck in this job. (Almereyda says that Kit’s accumulating and discarding objects may reference “Malick’s skepticism about the ephemeral nature of human identity, possessions, and the encompassing material world”). He also is good at talking trash in an almost charismatic way. His weirdness is immediately illustrated when he offers his coworker a dollar if he’ll eat a dead dog on the road. But, his fellow trashman says he will not do it for a dollar. That suggests that things are so destitute here, that he might consider it for more cash.

Kit tries to make money selling some of the trash and analyzes the people from the refuse he finds, which shows he has a bit of insight into what makes people tick. He meets Holly as she practices baton twirling. It is a wholesome image which Mallick possibly wants to contrast with what happens to her, and which may be the reason for Kit’s initial interest, if opposites attract. One of the first things he says to her is that he’ll try anything once. Which shows that prohibitions are not what he cares about. That attitude can be exciting to a young, lonely girl like Holly.

To add to his alienation from society, Kit gets fired. When asked at the unemployment office, he says he can’t think of anything he’s qualified to do. His line stresses how detached from the mainstream he is. Holly narrates that she found Kit handsome and that he reminded her of James Dean. That is a telling remark. Dean epitomized the renegade, and his good looks made that lifestyle attractive. Kit holds that same fascination for Holly, but he is a sort of Hollywood knock-off.

Kit goes to Holly’s place again and says he quit (a lie) and that he’s going to be a cowboy (not true – he will be working at a cattle feedlot). He tries to make it seem that he is more independent and important than he is. He may feel that way about himself, since he earlier told her that he has things to say, and most people don’t. She ran away from him the first time, saying her dad wouldn’t approve of Kit. Now she says she has homework to do when he wants her to join him. She acts like she is clinging to her routine life, but she is only giving lip service to it, and this time she goes for a ride with him. He notes that someone threw a bag on the ground and observes how filthy everything would be if everyone did that. His work as a trash collector probably elicits this comment, but it also shows that he feels all people are transgressors, so why should he be judged?

Holly says the two fell in love, adding that she wasn’t popular at school because she “didn’t have a lot of personality.” The interest of a handsome young man raises her self-esteem, as she notes that he could have had any other girl. She keeps their relationship secret from her dad, since Kit is ten years older than she. She says that secrecy kept them “away from all the cares of the world.” She saw her bond with Kit as an emotional oasis in an empty personal desert.

She says he wanted to “die” with her, which is a kind of dark way of expressing feelings for another. She is now smoking, which shows the rule-breaking effect he has on her. Mallick gives us a shot of a catfish in a bowl. Is that an image of a bottom feeder who tries to get by on the leftovers of society? She admits to throwing her pet fish out before it died when it was sick. She felt guilty about this act but can confess it to Kit, who has no moral judgment.

After the first time they have sex, Holly questions why is it supposed to be such a big deal? It was not noteworthy for either, which may show a feeling of letdown of their hopeful dreams by reality. Kit says they should smash their hands to remember the day, noting pain will remind them of their consummation. What stands out for him is not something pleasant but hurtful, an indication of his dark outlook on life and how they can’t be remembered by anything positive in their lives. He puts a note about standing by her and other mementos in a balloon that flies away. Holly points out that he did this act because he must have known they would never be happy in the future. The balloon could indicate how Kit’s hopes were not felt to come true and just drift away like the way a dream disappears after waking to reality.

When Holly’s father discovers the relationship, he shoots Holly’s dog as a punishment. What a disturbing way of disciplining her. He recreates a loss of something she loved, like the death of her mother. It shows how disturbed he became due to the loss of his wife which led to the end of his dreams of happiness.

Her father rejects Kit’s desire to keep seeing Holly. So, Kit breaks into her house and packs Holly’s clothes so she can leave with him. When father and daughter return, Kit shoots and kills the father. His remorseless pathology is obvious now, showing no emotion about his act of violence. His action shows he will no longer let others stand in his way. She smacks his face at first but she quicky switches to coverup mode as she wonders if neighbors heard the shot. He leaves her fate up to her though, saying she can call the police.

Kit leaves a recording saying that he and Holly decided to kill themselves. He does this act to gain time, hoping the authorities would think they were dead. He ends the recording by perversely saying, “I can’t deny we’ve had fun, though,” summing up their relationship as pleasant, despite his committing murder. That statement alone shows his sociopathic mentality. He sets fire to Holly’s house, in essence destroying her attachment to the past. He says they will change their names and hide out up north. She goes along with him because she says, “it was better to live a week with someone who loved me for what I was, then years of loneliness.” Her statement shows how empty her life felt to her.

The music that plays in the background is a playful, almost childlike tune that is in counterpoint to their illegal actions. Kit sees their life like a childhood adventure, tinged with practicality. They build a treehouse and tunnels in the wilderness. They stole food, and Kit taught Holly survivalist techniques, including how to shoot. They dance at one point to “Love is Strange,” a fitting tune for this odd couple. She admitted they had their spats, and that she wished sometimes he would fall into the river and drown. Her admission reminds us of the fish she let die, but it also sounds like a remark a child may say about a young companion.

Kit insisted that she take her schoolbooks with her. It almost seems like he is in some way nurturing her growth as a child. It is interesting that she reads from Kon Tiki, a book that details a voyage on a raft, since its survivalist story away from society is something Kit and Holly would be interested in. She says she grew to love the forest because she felt like all the rest of humanity were dead. Again, we have this anti-grownup, outsider feeling.

She ruminates about her life, the actions of parents and meeting Kit that led to this very moment in her life. She then lived “in dread” about how short life is and how destiny comes down to a domino effect set in motion out of one’s control.

Somebody sees Kit trying to catch fish, using a gun. Kit views men approaching from up in a tree and he shoots and kills three men. Kit justifies his actions to Holly saying the men were willing to kill them for a bounty. But he is cold as ice about his actions, feeling no emotion about harming others. It’s almost like he views death like some kind of game.

Kit has a friend named Cato (Ramon Bieri), and they visit his remote home. Kit and Holly go out into the field and Kit sees Cato running back to his house and looking back at them. He doesn’t let on, but he probably felt that Cato was going to turn them in. Kit shoots Cato, and then perversely opens the door for him to get to his bed. When Holly asks, “Is he upset?” Kit says dispassionately, “He didn’t say nothing to me about it.” He even shoots two young people looking for Cato. Sheen’s tone of voice and lazy swagger paints a pitiless picture of Kit.

Kit’s violence seems to have put Holly into a state of numbness. She calls it feeling “blah,” but her description of feeling like all the water being drained out of a bathtub reflects her emotional emptiness. Now the police are on alert in several states, and citizens are armed and vigilant, not knowing where Kit might strike next. To avoid public places, Kit and Holly go to an upscale house and he tells the owner that he is sorry to disturb him as he reveals his handgun. His politeness is disarming, as he hides his violent nature under a calm surface.

(At one point an architect visits the upscale house. He says he talked to the owner the night before, but Kit, answering the door, says the man is sick. The visitor is Malick, and his role as an architect is appropriate for a man constructing the film we are watching).

Holly’s detachment increases as she says that the world now feels like a “faraway planet” that she could not return to. She wanders around the rich man’s estate, whose lavish beauty stresses how out of place she is. She may wish to escape into a fantasy world, a pleasant dream distant from the horrors of reality.

Kit uses a Dictaphone to record a message which is ironically funny given his actions. He sounds like an upright citizen when he says that one should listen to parents and teachers, consider the viewpoints of others, and accept the majority opinion once it prevails. He acts like he is just temporarily taking the car of the rich man (John Carter) and gives him a list of the things he has “borrowed.” His friendly attitude makes him seem like a nice fellow until he turns violent. The Cadillac he steals is the only way he can show what it would be like to be prosperous.

They leave South Dakota and go to Montana. Almereyda says at this point “the landscape drains like that tub, and we may glean that Badlands is a story of lost children at large in a moral vacuum.” There is a shot of Kit from the back as he holds a rifle over his shoulders with his raised hands. The view from that angle makes him look like a scarecrow. That figure is supposed to scare but not harm, but Kit is very scary in reality. She talks about traveling like Marco Polo, which points to her wish to be on a great adventure, when in fact they are living like fugitives where no place provides them with solace. Kit buries some of their things, saying they will revisit them to remind them of how they were. He acts as if they will overcome the miserable fate that awaits them due to his actions. He says the buried objects will be like a time capsule for future people to consider, which shows a grandiose idea of a legacy.

Holly narrates that although Kit needed her given his desperate situation, she says, “something had come between us. I’d stopped even paying attention to him.” She says she, “spelled out entire sentences with my tongue on the roof of my mouth where nobody could read them.” Her loneliness is palpable now as she seems to be in a no man’s land, disconnected from everyone, and only communicating with herself.

She privately vows never to run around with someone as wild as Kit again. She seems to lack any insight into what kind of trouble she is in, having attached herself to someone like Kit in the first place. Finally, she voices her concerns to Kit about how even if they somehow escaped to Canada, he couldn’t provide them with any income. He is so lacking in insight when he says, “I can get a job with the Mounties.” He stops the car to dance to a Nat King Cole song and talks about how he wished he could sing like that. He can be romantic as he realizes what a different life he would have if he had other talents. He can appreciate the beautiful look of the sun rising over the mountains. Instead of gaining notoriety through artistic talents he thinks about being remembered for his infamy.

As a helicopter chases them, Holly is no longer willing to go on with Kit’s crazy adventure. As Kit escapes he adds another policeman to his body count and drives away. After stopping at a gas station, he throws away all their stuff, as if freeing himself from the objects of the world that he is tethered to. He does hold onto Holly’s journal, the source of the narration we hear. Possibly he feels that it can be something that will let his story live on. After a high-speed chase Kit stops and builds a pile of rocks that marks where he was caught. It is a sort of monument to his notoriety. (At one point Malick shows a photograph of a native holding a rifle in front of the Great Sphinx. Could Kit be similarly, in a mock-epic manner, attempting to erect his personal object for prosperity?). And he has gained a renegade’s fame as one of the officers says, “We did it,” as if they will now receive recognition for capturing such a well-known criminal, who actually gave himself up. One of the policemen, after looking at Kit, says, “Hell, he ain’t no bigger than I am.” His remark shows how publicity exaggerates the aspects of an individual.

Kit continues to act so much like an average person that it shows how odd he is. He is conversational, talking about guns to the cops, and how he’ll attach his well-known status to them, calling them “heroes” for taking down such a famous outlaw. One of the policemen knocks the hat he stole from the rich man off Kit’s head, as if removing any perception on Kit’s part that he belonged to the upper class. Even the patrolman says Kit looks like James Dean, another left-handed association with fame. The cops feed his desire to be a well-known by talking about how they admire his clothes, receiving his lighter as a souvenir like it belonged to a celebrity, and asking who his favorite movie star is.

He seems considerate as he reunites with Holly while being taken into custody. He says he’ll make sure she’ll get off and find a good man to be with. But then he says that the rich man was lucky he didn’t kill him, too. She does get off on probation and marries the son of the lawyer who defended her. Kit is sentenced to die in the electric chair, but donates his body to science, which shows that Dr. Jekyll side which was offset by his Mr. Hyde killer. The last shot is of the air transport taking the captured duo away, and the camera shows the sun-laced sky, as if ironically showing that Kit felt he rose above the masses to achieve fame in the only way he knew how.

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.