In an English boys' boarding school, social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. Three Lower Sixth students, Wallace, Johnny and leader Mick Travis decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.
Acting
McDowell's debut—those eyes were already trouble.
Direction
Anderson's surrealist touches that break reality without warning.
Writing
Script co-written by a schoolteacher who knew the rot firsthand.
Director
Lindsay Anderson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released months before the May '68 protests in Paris; the poster's 'Which side will you be on?' became an actual rallying cry. Anderson denied it was prophetic—then kept making films about institutional collapse.
The 'if....' title refers to Kipling's stoic imperial poem 'If—' which the film systematically dismantles. The ellipses are Anderson's, suggesting the sentence continues unfinished—or violently interrupted.
GB
