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I was unsure what my expectations were going to be of this film at first because it seems quite a weird film but what draw my attention to If.... was that Stanley Kubrick was fascinated and inspired by Malcolm McDowell's performance which lead to Malcolm's part in A Clockwork Orange. Anyway about If...., I thought this film was just really good that had a lot of hard to watch scenes including some bullying and also of the gunfights and that aggressive making out in the café between Mick Travis and that young girl like they were fighting and literally biting each other. It was very well filmed especially when some of the scenes went into black-and-white. That reminded me a lot of Memento because those scenes were scenes at a dark time or an important time for Mick. This film ends like there is going to be more. I am now going to watch it's two sequels O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.
Malcolm McDowell's performance in his first film as Mick Travis started in a huge way with a very powerful performance that made the character very realistic and quite fearful as well. Mick is a young man who is a student at the school but is a bit of a troublemaker. The way Mick was lead down to using guns and murdering people was a lot like how Travis Bickle's life started to go downfall. Malcolm made a very good impression as Mick for Kubrick to cast him as Alex DeLarge. His character was very similar to Alex because of the badass side to his personality and also of the way he behaves with people. He looks rather evil with that badass side. Despite of how villainous he ends up becoming, he is really cool. He has that Harry Callahan sort of cool taste to his character. In this film and also in A Clockwork Orange, I don't think Malcolm had a very big problem appearing nude in his early films. He has a brave talent for that as well. After all, it is only acting and acting isn't real-life.
Personally, I think that Lindsay Anderson's directing in If.... was just really awesome. It was really awesome as well because his directing regarding Malcolm McDowell leads him to Alex DeLarge and led Kubrick to his best film character as well. Lindsay makes the story very believable and very thrilling as well. It is rather strange because If.... is apparently the first of a trilogy but the trilogy are supposed to slightly fall apart. That's what I heard about it anyway. It was a very well filmed piece of filmmaking that is an underrated Malcolm McDowell film and a bit of an underrated trilogy as well from Anderson.
Malcolm McDowell is best remembered for the films he was in the past when he was a lot younger. A Clockwork Orange is his most famous film and is his best performance but If.... is a great film with a really solid performance from McDowell and he didn't really earn as much credit as he should have such as a special award for best newcomer or something. It is one of the best films from the British. The British have always been probably the best at making normal comedies and black-comedies as well but we are good at making crime thrillers as well. This is definite recommendation to those people who are fans of Malcolm McDowell. Also for people who love crime thrillers from the British. I haven't seen it but after reading a synopsis, if any of you have seen The History Boys then you should watch If.... It is a really good piece of 1 hour 40 minutes pure entertainment that you can just sit back and enjoy. See this film when you get chance.
8/10
