Lindsay Anderson’s If… (1968) is a film which successfully challenges the role of authority and discipline within society through Anderson’s use of technique and setting; a film that is especially effective when one considers the social context of its time. Set in “the privileged milieu of the British public school”, many observers have interpreted the films setting as a metaphor for the climate of society at the time of the films release, as noted by Peter Cowie when speaking of the films success at Cannes in 1969; “the top prize for If… seemed to legitimize the spirit of revolt that had swept through Europe and much of the United States.” Even when interviewing himself in the press release for If…, Anderson highlighted the potential his boarding school setting had as an allegory, when he said of the film:
The other aspect that appealed to me, I think, was the extent to which a school is a microcosm – and particularly in England, where the educational system is such an exact image of the social system. I like very much to show a little or a limited world which has implications about the big world and about life in general existence… I should have thought that such an intimate and authentic picture of these great and influential establishments would be appreciated by anyone interested in the way the world works.
In addition to the films setting, much has been said about Anderson’s switches between colour and black and white throughout the film; do they depict, as if often the case in cinema, the difference between fantasy and reality?; are they used in a Brechtian fashion to alienate and disenchant the audience?; were they originally used because of time constraints and difficulty of filming in colour inside the chapel?; or was it simply because Anderson ran out of money? Whatever the true meaning behind this device is, what is certain is that by doing so Anderson does indeed heighten the “confrontation between youth and age, between anarchy and discipline” by further unsettling and disenchanting the audience; a disenchantment that was reflected in the “spirit of revolt” present both on screen (in If…) and in real life at the time.
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As someone who was an extra for only a couple of seconds in the beginning of term section which was filmed at out our school, i've always been proud of being part of this film that produced such a devastating critique of the public school system. Even though i was blissfully unaware of what was really happening in Paris at the time, there was a similar feeling of revolt within our school and fantasies of revolt. Dont forget that we also had an armory and ammunition on site and I do vaguely remember that someone had secretly hidden a thunderflash that they had acquired from one of our military exercises...not that we were going to act out anything, but similar feelings were definitely floating around for some of us at that time....years later at the BFI i came across a letter from our headmaster to Anderson blasting him over the film - and it became apparent that in order to get permission to film at our school Anderson had assured him that it would not take a negative position on public schools - I got a big laugh out of that!
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