Hacker Cinema
if....
1968 · Film · 112 min
Directed by Lindsay Anderson
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.
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6 comments on Hacker News
I recommend watching "If..." (1968) with Malcolm McDowell.
Arm the students if you care so much about ensuring individuals can defend themselves. But then you might see real-world re-enactments of a little British movie called If....
I wonder if Stephen King still thinks pulling Rage from publication is a good idea. It doesn't seem to have helped. (Incidentally, reading that novel helped me understand that as tempting a fantasy as it is to bring a gun to school and take my class hostage, it wouldn't get me what I wanted.)
The left wing film director Lindsay Anderson who directed the movie "If..." starring Malcolm McDowell about an uprising in a British public school was asked why he didn't read The Guardian but the right wing Telegraph newspaper. He replied by saying that it was easier to spot the lies...
Personally I think the Guardian deserves support as the only real opposition or left newspaper in the UK. It's really flawed and the lies are harder to see but it fulfils an essential role in society.
This is very old (1958) but my Dad introduced me to Missa Luba - a Catholic Mass sung by Congolese.
Famously used in the movie "If..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missa_Luba
Lindsey Anderson, left wing film director of "If" only read the UK right wing newspaper The Telegraph because "it's easier to see the lies" compared to papers his peers read.
This really nails the psychological atmosphere of my late 70s-early 80s British childhood. I remember being terrified of rabies thanks to films and posters like the one in the article, and believing that I would one day have to fight the Soviets in some foggy, anthrax infested field. All before I was ten years old!
This diminished as the 80s went on, along with that sense of Orwellian paternalism that seemed to suffuse British life (see films like Scum, If..., The Offence) - Perhaps it was the shadow side of the "cradle-to-grave" era which ended with Thatcher - a welfare state administered by former aristocratic imperialists. I don't know. I was too young to have a handle on it, and like the creator of Scarfolk, the time has a kind of mythological existence for me.
The article mentions how the creator of Scarfolk was inspired by public information films. These were a source of pure terror to any kid who grew up in 70s-80s Britain.
Imagine you are watching something fun on childrens TV, then, out of nowhere a short horror film appears - only, as the authoritarian narrator reveals - this isn't fiction - this is real. You couldn't watch tv without the fear of some horrible thing being shown at random. There were certain times of day when they were more likely and you could feel the dread mounting as they approached.
Here's an example of the wholesome and educational material 80s kids were subjected to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWfOLN9Z1yw
This scared the crap out of me as a child. If you're at all interested in horror or propaganda then I highly recommend them! There are a bunch of them on youtube.