If....
If.... (stylised in lowercase) is a 1968 British satirical drama film produced and directed by Lindsay Anderson, and starring Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, and also starring Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, David Wood, and Robert Swann. A satire of English public school life, the film follows a group of pupils who stage a savage insurrection at a boys' boarding school. The film was the subject of controversy at the time of its release, receiving an X certificate for its depictions of violence.
If.... | |
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British cinema poster | |
Directed by | Lindsay Anderson |
Screenplay by | David Sherwin |
Story by | David Sherwin John Howlett |
Produced by | Lindsay Anderson Michael Medwin |
Starring | Malcolm McDowell Richard Warwick Christine Noonan David Wood Robert Swann |
Cinematography | Miroslav Ondrícek |
Edited by | David Gladwell |
Music by | Marc Wilkinson |
Production company | Memorial Enterprises |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 111 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $500,000 |
Box office | $2.3 million (rentals) |
If.... won the Palme d'Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. In 1999, the British Film Institute named it the 12th greatest British film of the 20th century; in 2004, the magazine Total Film named it the 16th greatest British film of all time. In 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine ranked it the 9th best British film ever. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 90% approval rating based on 49 reviews, with an average score of 7.9/10. According to the site's critical consensus, "Incendiary, subversive, and darkly humorous, If.... is a landmark of British countercultural cinema."