1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die: IF...(1968)

[Maurice]

Today's Daily Telegraph:

by Charles Spencer



Title: Shocking schooldays revelation takes some beating



The other day I was leafing through "I001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" (an embarrassing title but an excellent loo book) and almost had apoplexy when I read that Lindsay Anderson's IF...was one of the featured films.



When I was at Charterhouse (1968-72), this violent and satirical portrait of rebellion in a British boarding-school was regarded as the devil's work by the beaks; more crucially, we boys thought it was pretty infantile anti-establishment propaganda, too.



Which just goes to show that those who have been brainwashed don't always realize it.



I decided to give the picture a second chance, 40 years on, and bought the DVD. IF....now strikes me as one of the most powerful and inventive British films I have seen.



At Charterhouse we used to huff and puff about how unlikely it all was. But that famous climatic scene of Malcolm McDowell and his followers shooting indiscriminately at those filing out of speech day now seems eerily prophetic of the high school massacres that have become an all too frequent news item.



The other scene we thought absurd was when the prefects administered savage beatings on the rebels. Boys beating boys? That went out with "Tom Brown's Schooldays", we thought complacently.



So it came as a surprise when I recently discovered a slim volume about daily life at Charterhouse, published in 1964 and consisting of the testimony of pupils, edited by one of the masters.



Older boys thrashing younger ones was apparently still acceptable in the days of the Beatles and Twiggy. At Charterhouse, it wasn't so much the swinging Sixties as the swingeing Sixties.



Here's the testimony of one head of house that the school evidently had no qualms about disseminating to the outside world. The boy explains that discipline had become lax:



"It was obvious I had to lay in. So I went about it scientifically, and I did it really hard."



The master then asks him if he felt nervous administering his first beating.



"I wasn't at all nervous. You see, it was important. If I did it badly, the discipline of the house would suffer."



I wonder what this sanctimonious creep did later in life. He'd now be about 63. A banker collecting a massive pension? An MP living the high life on expenses?



Whatever it is, I bet he still gets great pleasure from bossing people about and still wishes he could give them six of the best if they don't come up to scratch.



Corporal punishment humiliates the victim, as I know from painful personal experience. I expect it does far worse damage to those who administer it.

[moonfleet]

[Quote by Maurice]



" The other day I was leafing through "I001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" (an embarrassing title but an excellent loo book) and almost had apoplexy when I read that Lindsay Anderson's IF...was one of the featured films. "



I think too that " 1001 Movies..." & " 501 Movie Directors " by Steven Jay Schneider, are very good compilations book, every Cinema learners, students ...etc ...should get it



MN.

[billy bentley]

Maurice, any chance of more details on that "slim volume" ?

[Maurice]

name='billy bentley']Maurice, any chance of more details on that "slim volume" ?

It would be a bestseller.

[billy bentley]

You said it was published in 1964, would that be a private limited edition publication ?

[sippog]

I can confirm that Prefects at my school (which allegedly modelled itself after Marlborough) beat younger boys up until the mid '60's when an overzealous Prefect went too far and made a boy bleed. Then the practice ceased abruptly.



The beating was administered with a stick but the real punishment was to do with the ritual that surrounded out. You were told during lunch to report to the Prefect's common room. All the Prefects filed out, leaving you alone with the Head Prefect who told you what your crime was and the number of 'strokes' of the stick he would give you - usually three or four. It didn't hurt that much really but, as I say, the fear and humiliation were the essential punishment.



It seems incredible now that boys of 17 or 18 were sanctioned to do this to boys as young as 12 - my age when I was sent there. But of course it was commonplace then; just as flogging with a birch was common in Victorian times and, I'm sure, had it's advocates.



I was still at school when IF came out. It was probably the most prominent and influential film about schoolboys since Brook's LORD OF THE FLIES but perfectly in keeping with the times. Later on, my school went coeducational and the pupils became notorious potheads but in 68 we read Carlos Casteneda, smoked cigarettes, fantasised and pinned up posters of Godard's movies. We couldn't wait to get the hell out of there - and that's what IF so accurately captures.

[Maurice]

name='billy bentley']You said it was published in 1964, would that be a private limited edition publication ?

The title of the book is "Charterhouse", one of a series about famous public-schools, another being Marlborough.



Publisher: "Kenneth Mason Publications Ltd., 167, Victoria Street, London".



Note: The book precedes ISBN numbers.

[Maurice]

The only limited edition - relating to a public-school - in my collection is/was a Stowe auction catalogue (1921) found in an Oxfam bookshop.



With sumptuous photographs, the large book was intact and included an original auction poster.



The catalogue was then donated to the school - probably the first time it had returned to Stowe for 85 years.

[Maurice]

name='sippog']I can confirm that Prefects at my school (which allegedly modelled itself after Marlborough) beat younger boys up until the mid '60's when an overzealous Prefect went too far and made a boy bleed. Then the practice ceased abruptly.

Tony Blair, who attended Fettes College, Edinburgh, 1966-1971, was (aged 17) caned by housemaster Bob Roberts for flouting school rules - and by a prefect for smoking.



In its effects on pupils' morale and respect for authority, the cane may have been a weapon of mass destruction.



At more civilised independent boarding-schools, corporal punishment had been abolished several years earlier.

[billy bentley]

Many thanks Maurice, should I stumble across a copy here in NYC, I'll let you know.

[thatllbetheday]

name='sippog']I can confirm that Prefects at my school (which allegedly modelled itself after Marlborough) beat younger boys up until the mid '60's when an overzealous Prefect went too far and made a boy bleed. Then the practice ceased abruptly.



The beating was administered with a stick but the real punishment was to do with the ritual that surrounded out. You were told during lunch to report to the Prefect's common room. All the Prefects filed out, leaving you alone with the Head Prefect who told you what your crime was and the number of 'strokes' of the stick he would give you - usually three or four. It didn't hurt that much really but, as I say, the fear and humiliation were the essential punishment.



It seems incredible now that boys of 17 or 18 were sanctioned to do this to boys as young as 12 - my age when I was sent there. But of course it was commonplace then; just as flogging with a birch was common in Victorian times and, I'm sure, had it's advocates.



I was still at school when IF came out. It was probably the most prominent and influential film about schoolboys since Brook's LORD OF THE FLIES but perfectly in keeping with the times. Later on, my school went coeducational and the pupils became notorious potheads but in 68 we read Carlos Casteneda, smoked cigarettes, fantasised and pinned up posters of Godard's movies. We couldn't wait to get the hell out of there - and that's what IF so accurately captures.

So "If" which was released in 1968 was out of touch then since flogging had already stopped and pupils were practically hippies.