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Malcolm McDowell stars in Lindsay Anderson’s tale of schoolyard rebellion. If…. caught the zeitgeist when it was released in 1968 and took home the Palme d’Or at Cannes for its allegorical look at the class system and social upheaval. It also received notoriety for its nudity and bloodshed. McDowell plays one of three outcast ‘troublemakers’ in a British private school. When the self-righteous student officers take punishment and condemnation too far, McDowell and his comrades (Richard Warwick and David Wood) stage escalating displays of rebellion that inch toward all-out war with the establishment.

If…. is an anthem for the counterculture of its time. But audiences today can still find relevance in the bullying and coming-of-age aspects of the story. And also in Anderson’s style and storytelling. I especially love the handful of throwaway topics Anderson mixes into the movie without ever letting them derail the central narrative. Warwick’s character seems to have a sexual or romantic infatuation with one of the younger students. One of the female staff members likes to walk nude through the hallways when all the boys and men are engaged in military pageantry. And the treatment of a character named simply “The Girl” (Christine Noonan) is inspiring. McDowell meets her at a restaurant and quickly goes in for a kiss. She slaps him hard, but the two soon find themselves making rough-and-tumble sex on the restaurant floor. But is she real, or just a figment of his imagination? She appears in other parts of the story, but I was never certain if she was anything more than a wish or an apparition.

The film is mostly in color, but features random scenes shot in black & white. Director Lindsay Anderson has said it was mostly due to budgetary consideration, and also one of time constraint. But in a film about anarchy, the sudden change in style feels almost natural after a while.