BD 84 If....

[swo17]

If....



Legendary director Lindsay Anderson expanded on the social outrage and intense character focus of his debut This Sporting Life with this combustible tale of teenage insurrection. Winner of the 1969 Palme d Or at Cannes, If.... was a popular triumph and instantly recognised as a classic.

A caustic portrait of a traditional boys boarding school, where social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects. But three junior pupils, led by Mick Travis (played by Malcolm McDowell in the role that would catapult him to becoming one of Britain's most iconic actors), decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.

Packed to bursting with its director's customary passion and experimentation, If.... remains one of cinema's quintessential tales of rebellion, a radical snapshot of late 60s change, and one of the towering achievements of British film in any era. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this masterpiece in a new Blu-ray edition.

BLU-RAY ONLY EDITION

• Commentary with film critic and historian David Robinson, and actor Malcolm McDowell
• Three of Lindsay Anderson's short films: Three Installations, Henry, and Thursday's Children
• Over two hours of new and exclusive interviews with Producer Michael Medwin, Writers David Sherwin and John Howlett, Editor David Gladwell, Production Manager Gavrik Losey, Cameraman Brian Harris, and Actors David Wood, Hugh Thomas, Geoffrey Chater, Philip Bagenal, and Sean Bury
• Two trailers for the film
• A 56-page containing new writing by David Cairns; a new interview with actor Brian Pettifer; a self-conducted interview with Lindsay Anderson; notes on the three short films; and rare and archival imagery.

[Lowry_Sam]

So will If... be the same as the Criterion? or has the original uncensored version been found?

[RossyG]

The Criterion version was uncensored. You can see Captain Mainwaring's wife's muff when she walks naked around the school; the censored version substitutes that shot with a alternative angle.

[zedz]

He may be referring to the apocryphal nude McDowell scene that previous discussion seemed to establish was cut well before release (at McDowell's request, if I recall correctly).

[Lowry_Sam]

There have been several of accounts (and stills) online (including imdb) of people who saw the film at festivals and when it first screened in the UK that have documented footage not on the Criterion disc. The most detailed of those discussions has disappeared from imdb, but one still remains:

Yes, this film is surreal and brilliant. I saw the original uncut version in its theatrical release & later at UT in a film studies class. The VHS & Criterion versions are NOT the complete film. They have been heavily censored. Among the deletions are: full frontal male & female nudity (at least 5 minutes total), a sex scene where McDowell is "deflowering" (his words) a coed...again both totally nude and a dream sequence where males are being sexual active with each other. It's a shame that the advertised "English" release version is still not the complete version..If you don't believe me: find an old 1969 Playboy magazine where they used to have a feature titled "sex in the cinema" and you will see photos of the original film & they are not in the versions mentioned above! If the original version was released into the theaters today it would have to receive NC-17..no doubt about it. I'm guessing there are at least 10 minutes missing in all available releases. It may have something to do with the actors not agreeing to sign off on some of their contents!

It may be the case that there are multiple "original" versions of the film with different footage (ie. festival or prerelease prints that had footage that didn't end up in the version that ended up getting wider distribution).

[John Hodson]

A 'coed'? In If....? Oh, deary me no...

[med]

1. imdb message board posts should be taken with several shakers worth of salt.

2. "coeds" didn't exist in boarding schools in the 1960s.

[ellipsis7]

2. "coeds" didn't exist in boarding schools in the 1960s.

In 1968, the year of the production of IF..., Marlborough College was the first English boarding (Public) school to admit girls to the 6th form years, a minor social revolution in itself...

[med]

How about this: in the world of If..., there's no such thing as coeds.

[MichaelB]

I'm getting a very strong sense of false memory syndrome here.

In particular, the Playboy "evidence" is worthless. Because of magazine lead times, stills would often be compiled and sent out before the films had finished editing, and of course that particular magazine would gravitate automatically towards anything erotic, regardless of whether it was actually in the final cut. Also, publicity stills were hardly ever frame enlargements - they were shot on the set by a professional photographer, and the framing and lighting won't necessarily match the content of the film. Just look at pretty much any random issue of a strongly stills-oriented 1960s/70s magazine like Films and Filming - it won't take you long to come across a scene that you don't recall, but it's not remotely evidence of "censorship".

But what about everything else? Well, as it happens, there were two separate cuts released in Britain - the original X-certificate version released at the very end of 1968, passed by the BBFC without cuts, and a later 1971 version designed to take advantage of the then-new AA certificate, which admitted 14-year-olds and upwards. I don't know what was cut from that version, but I assume the eroticism was toned down.

Anyway, I don't have a reliable running time for the AA version, but according to the Monthly Film Bulletin the original X-certificate version ran 10,004 feet, or 111 mins 9 secs. In other words, you'd expect the Criterion disc to run just over 100 minutes, if this "at least 10 minutes missing" claim can stand up to scrutiny.

But in fact the DVD runs 111 mins 32 secs and the BD runs 111 mins 45 secs, which rather torpedoes that theory. Similarly, the UK DVD runs 106 mins 56 secs and the old VHS version ran 106 mins 48 secs - which is pretty much what you'd expect after applying PAL speedup to a 111-minute film. (I suspect the running-time discrepancies between the Criterion editions and the two UK editions have more to do with differing distributor logos than anything else.)

[zedz]

Some information gleaned from the old (Criterion) If. . . thread:

The X-Rating
From the official script book: According to Lindsay Anderson there are many versions of the movie floating around the world, most cut according to the dictates of that particular country's film censor boards. In the entire US, only NY had the uncut version at the time of its release while the rest of the country had the cut version. Lindsay mentioned that some scenes were done with different camera angles. Most film censor boards were offended by the showing of some of the boys' genitals in the shower scene and Mrs. Kemp's pubic hair as she wandered through the halls naked later on in the movie. Some versions have different camera angles and some have those scenes cut, either completely or severely pared down. The version of "if...." that is available in the US is 111 minutes. This is exactly the length quoted in the book. So it would be safe to say that the US version contains the "different angle" shots which were probably shown outside the NY area.

According to the commentary, or some other supplement on the disc (or else I've imagined it all), full frontal shots were cut by Anderson himself during the normal editing process, in consultation with McDowell, who felt uncomfortable about their inclusion. So there were shots, and there were cuts, but they had nothing to do with censorship (other than self-censorship).

That release was also attacked because Criterion was "censoring" ten minutes of original smut, but it looks to be a case of bullshit then; bullshit now.

This info about the later re-edit might be the only pertinent stuff:

No, the full-frontal male nudity was restored by Lindsay for the film's release in the UK in 1971, when it was re-classified with an 'AA' certificate. Most of the 'AA' prints in the UK are uncensored, such as the ones I saw at the Leicester Phoenix Arts in 2000 and at Queen's College, Cambridge 2002 (and they weren't the same print). The most complete version of the film - which included more nudity in the cafe scene - was the print screened by the BBC on more than one occasion in the late 70s.

This also seems to conform to davidhare's recollections in the thread, but the difference seems to amount to a couple of seconds, not ten minutes, and nobody can blame Criterion or MoC for releasing the original director's cut of the film.

Also of interest from that thread:

It's been February since a boxed set, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Gorin set finally show up

Five years before its eventual release it was already a running joke / sore!

[JSC]

Already quite happy with the Criterion blu-ray, so I think MOC could add something a bit more tempting than a booklet. Perhaps...an HD extra of Anderson's The White Bus, as it contains a few of the actors from if.... and utilizes some of the same color / monochrome experimentation (even if only because of budget constraints). Arthur Lowe is particularly funny in it.

[Finch]

Pushed back to 19 May for more work on the special features

First the bad news, in order to make the release as good as it possibly can be, we need some more time to sort out some special features, so we are having to put the release date back for IF.... until 19 May 2014

[Drucker]

They just posted said special features on Facebook.

• Commentary with film critic and historian David Robinson, and actor Malcolm McDowell
• Three of Lindsay Anderson’s short films: Three Installations, Henry, and Thursday’s Children
• Over two hours of new and exclusive interviews with Producer Michael Medwin, Writers David Sherwin and John Howlett, Editor David Gladwell, Production Manager Gavrik Losey, Cameraman Brian Harris, and Actors David Wood, Hugh Thomas, Geoffrey Chater, Philip Bagenal, and Sean Bury
• Two trailers for the film
• A 56-page containing new writing by David Cairns; a new interview with actor Brian Pettifer; a self-conducted interview with Lindsay Anderson; notes on the three short films; and rare and archival imagery.

All the current upcoming releases are delayed, but hopefully this bodes well for special features.

[manicsounds]

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[manicsounds]

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