Very, very interesting. It often feels realistic and honest, but then there are events that couldn't possibly take place in the real world - none of the characters' actions at the end make any sense, for instance. The only thing that detracts from it is the unfortunate colour-to-b&w shifts. McDowell is astonishingly good.

Wow.

Every time the movie went from color to black and white I got kind of angry. I just cant seem to find a logical reason as to why that was needed. Maybe it saved them money or something, who the hell knows? What I do know is; the cast was wonderful. Especially McDowell, he makes this fairly slow film really interesting to watch. Towards the end If... starts to get really surreal and becomes alot more interesting. Then it ends, and your jaw will probably drop.

An interesting experiment, heavy with allegory and a symbolic color power. Too full of itself, though. Pretentious.

561

A strange commentary on British society, this film makes wonderful use of its unique cinematography and soundtrack to slowly build a sense of tension that results in an explosive finale.

It's well made and fun to watch, but allegory is the lowest form of narrative and the allegory here is thick. By and large it's a one-note movie. It has one thing to say and the only variations belong to the degree of bluntness with which it is said. Eventually, and alas, predictably, it decides that its message about repression turning youth into monsters still isn't obvious enough. The finale dispenses with the until then reasonable hideousness in favor of hyperbolic grotesqueness.

Watch O Lucky Man! if you've yet to see it.

The alternating black and white to color was so pointless that I thought my DVD was broke. If you are gonna do that, you have to be saying something and not just being a pretentious douche. It was pretty boring and the ending was really lame. McDowell was good though.

I much prefer the spiritual sequel to this, O Lucky Man! (1973). This film is very much about war, revolution and domination. Even if I didn’t understand every metaphor, I was always captivated while watching this.

Bizarre film - very school boy fantasy. It has a strange look compounded by the mix of black and white and colour. Some memorable scenes and Malcolm McDowell is hypnotic but I couldn’t really be bothered to analyse all the sub text.

#535

Weird and pretentious but not without merit or thought provoking scenes. Not exactly something I want to rewatch soon, though.

Rewatched if... for the first time in ages, and DAMN, that's a good movie. I'm trying to think of any movie where Malcolm McDowell doesn't play a self-obsessed psychopath - I'm sure he must have made one at some point, but until further notice, a good rule of thumb is always: don't piss off Malcolm McDowell.

Bizarre surrealist film, alternating color with B&W, and characters appearing out of thin air. Some of it works well (the headmaster shouting "I understand you, boys!") and some of it doesn't. (Mrs. Kemp nude?) Slow pacing for the first half, but I've never lived at a British boarding school, and thus, couldn't fully appreciate it. Still, I could relate to the scenery and the main trio, especially McDowell's magnetic, realistic character. Also representative of the fervor sweeping schools then.

I feel like there is a lot more to this movie than what I grasped. An interesting film for sure. I'd like to see it again one day.

The various criticisms leveled against it here are to some degree all valid, but I don't really care. I found it immensely enjoyable and very aesthetically pleasing, I even liked the at first jarring jumps to black and white after a while.