---
title: "if....: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/if-1968/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/if-1968"
critics_score: 75
critics_reviews: 7
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# if.... (1968): what the critics said

Critics' score 75 from 7 reviews: 6 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative.

Most critics respond warmly to if…., praising its attack on public-school repression and the class assumptions behind it. The reviews repeatedly credit its close observation of school rituals, bullying and institutional cruelty with giving the satire force beyond its setting. Malcolm McDowell’s performance is a recurring strength: Radio Times praises its ferocity, while The New York Times singles him out within a strong ensemble. Empire particularly values the film’s subversive wit and mischievous anarchy.

The reservations centre on how successfully that observed reality accommodates surrealism. The Guardian finds the ending loose, while Time Out considers its logic sound. Eye for Film also finds some surreal elements unconvincing, despite admiring the handling of institutional sadism. The spread is mostly favourable, with one substantial dissent: The New Yorker finds a bleak solemnity and lingering attention to schoolboy cruelty that limit the appeal of its vision of revolt.

## Empire — Adam Smith

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2011. 

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.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/55ce4ec8de95cf0744c583c2-review/)

## Radio Times — David Parkinson

Rating 4/5. 

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.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-e5t9sb/if/)

## The Guardian

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 March 2002. 

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.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/mar/01/culture.reviews1)

## The New York Times — Vincent Canby

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 10 March 1969. 

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.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1969/03/10/archives/screen-if-begins-runtale-of-school-revolt-opens-at-the-plaza.html)

## Time Out — SG

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. 

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.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/if)

## The New Yorker — Pauline Kael

Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 8 March 1969. 

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.

[Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1969/03/15/school-days-school-days)

## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 20 July 2007. 

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.

[Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/if-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/if-1968.md