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"If...." is a true rebellious movie, in which Malcolm McDowell and his close friends are kicking against the established system and customs, 3 years before he would be doing the same in "A Clockwork Orange", which does definitely shows some parallels with this movie.

It's about the clash of new versus old really. The grown ups versus todays youth, old customs versus modern progress. In that regard this movie also really doesn't feel all that outdated. These are themes that are of all times and ages really. It's what keeps the world going and helps moving it forward, for better or for worse.

You shouldn't take this movie very literally. Most of the movie its sequences can be seen as having a deeper and symbolic meaning to them. I won't pretend like I understood everything this movie was trying to do and say but let me make clear that the movie at all time still remains a perfectly accessible one, no matter how odd and symbolic things might seem, which especially gets the case more toward its ending.

It's simply because "If...." is such a compelling watch. You get sucked in by the movie its visual style and slow way of storytelling, that sets things up very nicely. It helps to make the characters some really great ones as well, most notably of course the Malcolm McDowell one, who is a true, classic rebel, who's fed up with the current system and decides to stand up against it, on his very own rebellious sort of way.

It's actually surprising this movie got directed by a woman. Surprising, since this is a movie that is clearly set in a 'man's world'. It's set at a boy's only, old, English, established private school. The sort of place that is being very strict about the rules and makes sure everyone knows about them and keeps to it, as well as knowing the importance of the, quite literally, ancient traditions.

It really is a well crafted movie, that gets its point across but above all things is a really great and compelling one, that you just need to keep watching, even if you don't fully understand what its trying to say.

8/10

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About Frank Veenstra

Watches movies...writes about them...and that's it for now.
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