If.... - The greatest film of all time

As my friends will testify, I have always maintained that Lindsey Anderson's "If..." is the finest piece of work to find its way to screen. I am adiment that it is cinematic art at its highest. I have read countless articles, disections, interviews; so I doubt if I will ever be able to say anything about it that hasn;t been said previously. That said, I think that maybe a more personal recount of my love for this film may be more appropriate. I recall being 14 when I first watched If.. on the now defunct "Sky Movies Gold" at the height of my obsession with "A clockwork orange". I had its poster adorning my bedroom wall, soundtrack regularely on heavy rotation in my stereo. This need led me to watch anything that starred Malcolm McDowell. I'm first to admit, most of his films are terrible, but I cannot deny his brilliance in his early work. Anyway, this is largely seen as his first real screen role. The character of Mick Travis displaying the major shift in Britain at a time when people were finally going to stand up against the establishment. It was pure punk rock. A fuck you to the hypocrasy that was so prevelant. I had a friend sayto me that the film was "the gayest film he has ever seen". It is most definately not. Yes, there is some homosexuality in the film, but it shows how homosexuality, though a criminal offense at the time, was quite ok to do in an institutionalised setting. But, the real story of this arc, in my eyes, is one of tolerance to those whom share a different sexual preference. This is displayed in how the "rebels" never question their friends quite open homosexuality. He's one of them, a human being, and there's nothing wrong with being different. Having at one point been unfortunate to have been to a boarding school, I fully empathise with how the rebels felt. I was told "cut your hair", given abuse for my nationality and somewhat shunned for being from a different economic background to my fellow pupils. So, I watched this at quite an impressionable stage in my development, having just left the school and gone back home. As I found, some 30 or so years after If.. was released, such issues still remained in these institutions, as they almost certainly still do today. The film is surreal, romantic and violent. I still don't really know why the vicar turns up in the drawer after the shooting incident. But, the film continues to have a relevence in todays climate. You look at all the school shooting that appear; the feeling of isolation from the crowd that many a teenager will feel. This leads to feelings of passion, rage and a need to vent. The films romanticism stems from the love felt between all the friends, the hope that all of them have in the outside world outside of the four walls in which they have found themselves.