if.... (1968)

The critic praises the film's enduring mischievous anarchy and subversive wit as a gleeful attack on public-school repression and English society. They highlight its unique structure blending surrealism with reality and its superior passion and craft compared to other youth-revolt films.

The film succeeds in capturing the atmosphere and absurdities of public school life while investing its satire of class-ridden British society with plenty of venom. Malcolm McDowell gives a blistering performance.

The film is a High European classic that is also quintessentially English. It rivetingly evokes the nastiness of the public school establishment with brilliant touches and terrific brio, though the surrealist ending feels flabby.

The critic finds the film good and strong despite some mistakes, describing it as a very human, very British social comedy that aspires to the cool, anarchic grandeur of Godard films while pushing clear-eyed reality to its outer reaches. It singles out the strong ensemble acting, particularly Malcolm McDowell's debut performance as Mick.

Anderson minutely captures both the particular ethos of a public school and the general flavour of any structured community, achieving clear allegorical force. The conclusion's logic is impeccable despite drawing from an earlier film.

The critic questions whether the film is a masterpiece despite advance raves, viewing it as a schoolboys' revolt modeled on Jean Vigo’s “Zero for Conduct” that provides a psychological rationale for revolution but has a bleak, pseudo-documentary solemnity unlikely to reach a broad audience. It singles out the lingering attention to juvenile sadism, flogging, and homoeroticism in the boarding-school setting.

The critic describes the film as a satire on English public schools that captures institutional sadism and bullying effectively, praising Malcolm McDowell's anarchic performance and the director's handling of the caning sequence, but notes some false notes and surreal elements that don't quite work, concluding it almost changes the world but not quite.