I have been looking for “If…” for some time, without success, as an antidote to the deadening Downtown Abbey view of the world, where servants reside contentedly downstairs, happy with their place in the world serving their masters and mistresses upstairs.
This 1968 movie by Lindsay Anderson captures the rebellious, never-to-be-repeated mood of the late 1960’s, a moment in human history when the powerful seemed and were so very vulnerable. It is when you realise how close they came to losing it all that you understand the vengefulness of the Thatcher-Reagan, neo-liberal counter punch that came just eleven years later.
Anyway “If….” was hiding in plain view, on YouTube. Here it is. Enjoy, it’s a great movie which, amongst other things, made a deserved star out of Malcolm McDowell.
The Broken Elbow 
Can anyone imagine a film like this being funded today? For that matter, any film by Anderson or Ken Russell? The days of the cinematic auteur are over. Hollywood spends billions producing an endless stream of predictable, formulaic rubbish. It’s not just the political hopes of the sixties that have been destroyed. The cultural loss is equally felt.
A neat little piece about it:
http://thequietus.com/articles/24393-if-1968-fifty-years-anniversary-chris-menges-interview