if.... is a very special film for me. It was
my first film. When I went to audition for the part of Mick Travis I had no idea
the course of my life was about to change. It was the start of a lifelong
friendship with its director Lindsay Anderson. He was such an amazing person,
teacher, father, mentor, rather like an Oxford Don, he definitely was the master
and you were the pupil.
Thanks to Lindsay and the wonderful script written by David Sherwin, I was
given one of the great entrances into film that an actor could ever dream of.
Even though the film is over thirty years old I remember very well the scenes
with the three of us boys, Richard Warwick, David Wood and myself along with
Christine Noonan on the roof, machine guns in hand, mowing down the parents as
they came out of the school hall. Lindsay was gleefully holding up a copy of The
Times front page with a photograph of a student, machine gun in hand on the
roof at the Sorbonne in Paris. 'Timing', he said, 'it is all about timing.' The
1968 youth revolution had begun.
When the film first came out, it was criticized in some quarters as being
inflammatory and unpatriotic. Only a man who loved his school and country could
make such a film. Cheltenham College never quite forgave him. In fact, there was
a letter from the Headmaster that sat, unopened on his mantelpiece for as long
as I remember.
I looked back at the brilliance of Miroslav Ondrícek and the wonderful cast
assembled by Miriam Brickman. Great actors such as, Arthur Lowe, Graham Crowden,
Peter Jeffrey, Mary MacLeod and the wonderful Mona Washbourne. I feel so lucky
to have worked with them.
After the film had come out, to great acclaim and had won the Palme d'Or at
the Cannes Film Festival, I was sitting next to Lindsay at a dinner when he
turned to me and said, 'Well Malcolm, it looks like this will be the highlight
of your career and everything else will be down hill from here on in.' He was almost
right.
Lindsay when speaking about his hero John Ford, said that not only was he a
great director, he was also a great poet. The same can be said for Lindsay
Anderson. He is much loved and much missed.
My grateful thanks to everyone at the British Film Institute,
Malcolm McDowell
© 2002 BFI
Archived 2002-08 by Alex D. Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net