{ "id": "ep7w0ycw6x", "slug": "if-ep7w0ycw6x", "title": "If....", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997", "label": "Released 1939 to 1997", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "If.... is Lindsay Anderson's 1968 British satire starring Malcolm McDowell as rebel schoolboy Mick Travis at an English public school; it won the 1969 Palme d'Or at Cannes and spawned O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.", "snippet": "If.... is Lindsay Anderson's 1968 British satire starring Malcolm McDowell as rebel schoolboy Mick Travis at an English public school; it won the 1969 Palme d'Or at Cannes and spawned O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1939-1997", "markdown": "# If....\n\n**If....** is a 1968 British satirical drama film directed by [Lindsay Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/lindsay-anderson), set in a traditional English public school (in the UK, the term refers to a selective, fee-paying private school), where a trio of student rebels resists the school's rituals and eventually plots violent revolution.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) • [2](https://davidbuckingham.net/growing-up-modern/the-spirit-of-1968-revisiting-lindsay-andersons-if/introduction/) It stars [Malcolm McDowell](https://www.edgepedia.org/malcolm-mcdowell) in his first major role as the anti-establishment schoolboy Mick Travis, and it won the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.[3](https://ciencia.ucp.pt/pt/publications/the-ambiguity-of-the-revolutionary-moment-lindsey-andersons-if-19/) • [4](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/if)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | 1968 (USA, United Kingdom); originally released in the United Kingdom in December 1968[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) • [3](https://ciencia.ucp.pt/pt/publications/the-ambiguity-of-the-revolutionary-moment-lindsey-andersons-if-19/) |\n| Director / writer | Lindsay Anderson; written by David Sherwin, based on the original script Crusaders by Sherwin and John Howlett[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) • [4](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/if) • [9](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/if) |\n| Lead cast | Malcolm McDowell (Mick Travis), David Wood (Johnny), Richard Warwick (Wallace), Christine Noonan (The Girl), Robert Swann (Rowntree)[4](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/if) |\n| Honor | Palme d'Or, 1969 Cannes Film Festival; also nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA[4](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/if) |\n| Running time | 111 minutes (BBFC-certified cinema versions run 111m 9s to 111m 20s)[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) • [5](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/if-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynzizmjg) |\n| Financing | Funded by the American studio Paramount; no British company would finance the film[2](https://davidbuckingham.net/growing-up-modern/the-spirit-of-1968-revisiting-lindsay-andersons-if/introduction/) • [6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/15/artsfeatures) |\n| Sequels | Semi-sequels *O Lucky Man!* (1973) and *Britannia Hospital* (1982), with McDowell as Travis and scripts by David Sherwin[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and setting\n\nThe film follows the growing rebellion of a group of pupils called the Crusaders at an unnamed English public school. Returning for the new term, the older boy Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), a romantic and a rebel intent on identifying with those from whom he is secluded, including women, workers, and the marginalised, begins to push back against the authority of the prefects, known as \"whips\", led by Rowntree (Robert Swann).[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) • [7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/search-locations-lindsay-andersons-if) Combined with the tyranny of the teachers and the ineffectual naivety of the headmaster (Peter Jeffrey), the school's rules and arbitrary rituals eventually earn Mick and his fellow Crusaders Johnny (David Wood) and Wallace (Richard Warwick) a caning.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) • [7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/search-locations-lindsay-andersons-if)\n\nBefore this surreal rebellion, haunted by the odd figure of The Girl (Christine Noonan), who drifts through the Crusaders' lives like a ghost, comes the final straw: a violent climax in which, wielding sub-machine guns and grenades, the schoolboy rebels shoot down at staff, teachers, and parents from the school's rooftops on Speech Day.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/search-locations-lindsay-andersons-if) • [3](https://ciencia.ucp.pt/pt/publications/the-ambiguity-of-the-revolutionary-moment-lindsey-andersons-if-19/) The film deliberately refuses to be read as either dream or reality.[8](https://sightlines.media/film/14794/if-1968)\n\n## Production\n\nAnderson began filming in the spring of 1968, when he was 45, working from a script he was still finishing with David Sherwin when student rebellions broke out at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Columbia University in New York.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/15/artsfeatures) At the start of their collaboration, Anderson and Sherwin had been energized by seeing Jean Vigo's *Zéro de Conduite* again, not for its anarchistic spirit, Anderson said later, but for its \"poetic method\" and the way it moved between reality and fantasy without appearing to cross a frontier.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/15/artsfeatures)\n\n**Financing and casting.** No British company would finance the film, and it owed its existence to American money from Paramount.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/15/artsfeatures) It featured no well-known stars, and McDowell's role as Mick Travis was his film debut and first major role.[2](https://davidbuckingham.net/growing-up-modern/the-spirit-of-1968-revisiting-lindsay-andersons-if/introduction/) • [8](https://sightlines.media/film/14794/if-1968) To avoid specific contemporary references, the schoolboys wear stylized, semi-Edwardian costumes, and McDowell's Travis first appears dressed like a revolutionary from Dostoevsky's *The Possessed*, in a long black topcoat, wide-brimmed black hat, and black muffler across the lower half of his face.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/15/artsfeatures)\n\n**Locations.** Much of the film was shot in and around [Cheltenham](https://www.edgepedia.org/cheltenham) in [Gloucestershire](https://www.edgepedia.org/gloucestershire), with most location filming at the school there and fragments of the town throughout, including the [Montpellier](https://www.edgepedia.org/montpellier) roundabout near the school.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/search-locations-lindsay-andersons-if) Anderson was himself an old boy of the real college used for filming, and the film's critic-turned-director, only on his second feature after *This Sporting Life* (1963), brought to the material a knowledge and contempt available only from inside the system he was attacking.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/search-locations-lindsay-andersons-if) • [8](https://sightlines.media/film/14794/if-1968)\n\n## Style\n\nThe film was shot by cinematographer Miroslav Ondříček, fresh from work with [Miloš Forman](https://www.edgepedia.org/milos-forman) in his native [Czechoslovakia](https://www.edgepedia.org/czechoslovakia).[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) The film shifts between black-and-white and color footage in a way that appears random, blurring where fantasy ends and reality begins and highlighting the dreamlike old-fashioned quality of the boarding-school backdrop.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) The black-and-white began by accident: the cameraman found it impossible to light long shots of the school chapel in color, and Anderson decided to film all the chapel scenes in black-and-white, then \"shoot a few other scenes in black-and-white when I feel like it\".[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/15/artsfeatures) The school year is structured in titled chapters, and the satire stages every ritual of the school with documentary care before detonating it.[8](https://sightlines.media/film/14794/if-1968)\n\nThe [British Board of Film Classification](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-board-of-film-classification) has consistently certified the film with the advisory \"Contains strong violence\".[5](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/if-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynzizmjg)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film opened in the UK a couple of weeks before Christmas 1968, replacing [Roger Vadim](https://www.edgepedia.org/roger-vadim)'s *Barbarella* at short notice at the Plaza cinema on London's Lower Regent Street, where queues snaked down the street.[2](https://davidbuckingham.net/growing-up-modern/the-spirit-of-1968-revisiting-lindsay-andersons-if/introduction/) With no stars, no rock music on the soundtrack, and little advance publicity, its reputation spread largely by word of mouth, and it became the unexpected box office hit of the year, taking £40,000 in its first few weeks and quickly earning a national release.[2](https://davidbuckingham.net/growing-up-modern/the-spirit-of-1968-revisiting-lindsay-andersons-if/introduction/)\n\nAt Cannes it won the Palme d'Or in 1969, and it was also nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA.[4](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/if) The critic Basil Wright wrote in 1974 that it \"has the unique quality of being about every public school there ever was; we all, if Old Boys, see it in our own school\".[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) McDowell's performance caught the attention of [Stanley Kubrick](https://www.edgepedia.org/stanley-kubrick), who later cast him in *[A Clockwork Orange](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-clockwork-orange-film)* (1971) because of his role as Mick Travis.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/search-locations-lindsay-andersons-if)\n\n**Scholarly readings.** The film is widely identified with the revolutionary spirit of 1968, the year of the Paris May riots, the [Prague Spring](https://www.edgepedia.org/prague-spring), and mass demonstrations in London and the United States.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) • [2](https://davidbuckingham.net/growing-up-modern/the-spirit-of-1968-revisiting-lindsay-andersons-if/introduction/) Some scholars, however, have identified it as more ambiguous and less overtly revolutionary than often claimed, and Gavin Lambert, writing in The Guardian, argued that despite the timing, *If...* is not a political film.[3](https://ciencia.ucp.pt/pt/publications/the-ambiguity-of-the-revolutionary-moment-lindsey-andersons-if-19/) • [6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/15/artsfeatures) The public school setting functions as a microcosm of English society: its prefectorial system mirrors class hierarchy, its combined cadet force literalizes the complicity between education and militarism, and its chapel rituals expose the relation between Christianity and social control in England's governing classes.[8](https://sightlines.media/film/14794/if-1968)\n\n**The Mick Travis trilogy.** McDowell played Mick Travis twice more for Anderson in two semi-sequels written by David Sherwin: *[O Lucky Man!](https://www.edgepedia.org/o-lucky-man)* (1973), which extends the satirical allegory into a picaresque journey through British capitalism, and *Britannia Hospital* (1982), which revisits the institutional critique in the context of the [National Health Service](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-health-service).[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if) • [8](https://sightlines.media/film/14794/if-1968) Like *If....*, both owed their existence to American financing, from Paramount and Warner Bros respectively.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/15/artsfeatures)\n\n## References\n\n1. [If.... (1968), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/84ab5d37-8ee8-597a-b8de-3490e4335de5/if)\n2. [Introduction, David Buckingham, \"If…. and the spirit of '68\"](https://davidbuckingham.net/growing-up-modern/the-spirit-of-1968-revisiting-lindsay-andersons-if/introduction/)\n3. [The ambiguity of the revolutionary \"moment\": Lindsay Anderson's If…. (1968) and the legacy of the global crisis of 1968–1975, Matthew Raymond Mason, CECC, Universidade Católica Portuguesa](https://ciencia.ucp.pt/pt/publications/the-ambiguity-of-the-revolutionary-moment-lindsey-andersons-if-19/)\n4. [If... , Paramount Pictures](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/if)\n5. [If, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/if-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynzizmjg)\n6. [Anarchy in the UK, Gavin Lambert, The Guardian (2002)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/15/artsfeatures)\n7. [In search of the locations for Lindsay Anderson's If…., Adam Scovell, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/search-locations-lindsay-andersons-if)\n8. [if.... (1968), dir. Lindsay Anderson, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/14794/if-1968)\n9. [encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/if)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1939 to 1997*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/if-ep7w0ycw6x", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/if-ep7w0ycw6x.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"If....\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/if-ep7w0ycw6x. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[If....](https://www.edgepedia.org/if-ep7w0ycw6x)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/if-ep7w0ycw6x](https://www.edgepedia.org/if-ep7w0ycw6x). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"If....\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/if-ep7w0ycw6x. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "If.... is Lindsay Anderson's 1968 British satire starring Malcolm McDowell as rebel schoolboy Mick Travis at an English public school; it won the 1969 Palme d'Or at Cannes and spawned O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital." }