If By Lindsay Anderson: Movie Analysis

The film “If…” by Lindsay Anderson is an allegory of the risks of repressing sexual desires with extreme repercussions for doing so, with imagery starting from the opening sequence with a young student caressing a peach while another watches intently, and ending with the extreme act of violence that Mick Travis uses instead of sating his sexual desires. The entirety of the film places the students and subjects of the film within the seeming prison like system of their boarding school, which rules over every single aspect of their life other than breathing. In this essay, I would like to cover the ethos of the school system and school itself and how it trains and sets in motion a set of societal constructs that set up some things, like sex, …show more content…
The first being that of Jute who like Erik Hedling states in his article Romance in “If….: Romance in a Brechtian Fashion” Jute is the true first casualty of the film, due to the fact that we are introduced to him and then almost instantaneously he is lost among the mass that is the rest of the student body. I think that this is a fantastic metaphor showing the industrialization of most school systems. Where they take the individual and then force them into a predetermined mold or group of molds that strips or more in the case of the film break away the individuality of the student. The next character and his role in the movie I would like to explore is that of Travis who is the main character of the film, Travis represents the voice of the people. Which my opinion coincides once again with Helding in that we see Travis as an representation of the people’s voices and especially because the way at every turn he is silenced. His voice is again and again disregarded and or ignored one of the examples being that of his history paper, where the teacher lost it but still gives him an “A” and goes farther into it when one of the prefects confiscates his necklace of teeth symbolizing the loss or confiscation of his vocal powers. Not to mention his illustrated punishment of caning that is by no means a coincidence that they way that he is prostated resembles that of Jesus being …show more content…
I think that overall in more educated schools and school systems have progressed into a new era of sexual education that attempts in most cases to include the entire spectrum of sexuality rather than just that of heteronormativity. I believe that the article” In defense of danger: Sex, schools and the politics of discourse” is a great illustration of this. A town rallies around their school performing a school sponsored rendition of the stage play “Vagina Monologues” and to the nation and news outlets dismay and outcry. The performance goes off without a hitch and with the full support of the students’ parents and faculty. Admittedly most high schools are not this progressive and still treat sexuality as a taboo subject not even to mention the sexuality of women and the rest of the LGBTQA community. While the high school in the article is leaps and bounds ahead of the times, there is still an extremely conservative force that tries to send the nation and its youth back into the dark ages, saying that they will make America great again. Rather than repressing peoples desires and urges to live their lives in a way that makes them happy which last documented is an inalienable right, they