O Lucky Man!

It's always nice to find a worthy film after being a movie watcher for three decades. I remember when this movie was in the theaters. I was a teenager then and didn't go see it. I decided to watch the video and was immediately drawn into this surreal Bunuelish kind of British made movie. Malcolm McDowell is superb as the forever optimistic young coffee salesman. No matter what happens to him, he keeps his good attitude. Don't miss it! But, don't expect absolute narrative

To see this film again has been a monumental thrill. Lindsay Anderson, what an extraordinary director. IF. THIS SPORTING LIFE. BRITANNIA HOSPITAL. THE WHALES OF AUGUST. So very few films, but each one of them, a journey of discovery. Entertaining but angry and provoking. His repertory of actors, from Malcolm McDowell his star and, I imagine, his lover to Arthur Lowe. The Anderson-McDowell collaborations deserve an in depth study. Very rarely a director and actor can bring such glories from each other. De Niro and Scorsese. Von Stemberg and Dietrich. Kazan and Brando and very few others. The joys of Rachel Roberts, Ralph Richardson, Helen Mirren, Mona Washbourne and a cast of a thousand glorious British character actors. The film is so filled with surprises that you don't want ever to end.

This remarkable, often overlooked film deserves a higher critical reputation than it has largely received. It represents a blossoming of the themes introduced in "if..." (the previous film in Anderson's trilogy) and a playful, even strangely upbeat reworking of those ideas.

"if..." was an explosion of the subconscious, repression fermenting into fantasized revolution; in "O Lucky Man!" the repression has matured into deep, abiding social, political, and economic corruption-- but the fantasies have matured as well. Mick Travis's journey through early '70s England features calamity after calamity, atrocity piled onto atrocity, but it feels lighter than air. It rises like a joke-filled balloon. That vantage point gives the viewer the two advantages unavailable to Travis: wisdom and perspective, and the film's humor comes from the distance between us and the characters scurrying below. (But the film is not, I think, cynical; the road to enlightenment may be hard one but the film makes it clear that it's not unreachable.)

Surrounding Malcolm McDowell's indefatigable Candide of a hero, the supporting cast flows in and out of their multiple roles like a comic repertory company, in which the same actors show up in scene after scene shuffled into a new assortment of scoundrels, con-artists, victims and sages, climaxing (don't worry, I'm not going to spoil it) in a beautiful, subtle joke which has to be seen to be understood.

From the silent-movie pastiches through Price's terrific songs (the music is used admirably) through wild, spontaneous moments of parody, uninhibited symbolic flourishes, and a few small scenes of genuine poignancy, "O Lucky Man!" deserves to be recognized as one of the great films of the 1970s, and perhaps of all time. It's certainly one of my personal favorites. Movies, I think, though bigger than ever, have become smaller and smaller at heart; more films should have the ambitions this film does and deliver on so many of them.

There is something intriguing about this film. It won't suit everybody, but if you are in a reflective mood you'll find yourself drawn into the story and becoming fascinated by it.

It is a journey through life and its experiences directed with a deftness and real respect for the material. The points are all made with a lightness which somehow makes them all the more effective. You watch the story unfold and are reminded of your own life's progression.

Malcolm McDowell contributed to the script and is just superb in the lead role. He uses exactly the right touch in a perfectly judged performance - it is difficult to imagine anybody else in this part.

A classic often overlooked by mainstream film critics.

I have seen both versions (there was an edited version in the late seventees that did not include the rescue scene) of "O Lucky Man" several times. I first saw it in London in the mid seventees as I was very impressed by Lindsay Andersons earlier "If", not to mention a fine performance by Malcolm McDowell. The surreal quality of of Andersons allegorical perspective of life in England at the time was reflected in one of the films great lines, "Try not to die like a dog?" Having seen the film several times since (and turned some friends onto Lindsey Anderson), I was truly surprised at how this film has, not only, not dated, but actually has more relevance now than it did some 27 years ago. England, was about to undergo radical changes in both government and economy. The naivety of the care free sixties was well behind us. Major strikes were frequent. Punk was about to explode onto an exhausted music scene. And, soon there would be a new regime of economic rationalists running the country. The mood and pace of "O Lucky Man" seemed to reflect a sense of innocence lost. Troubled times ahead. A sense of fear and mistrust of the prosperity that is so often associated with capitalism and free enterprise. There are even blatant stabs at genetic engineering. But most of all the sense that England was no longer in control of it's own destiny. Through out this vision of uncertainty are some of last centuries finest comic performances. Most notably Aurthur Lowes' 'Dr. Munda' was, and still is, brilliant. WARNING!!! Even though this film does not follow the normal codes and conventions of narrative structure, my next comment is about a scene towards the end of the film. So, if you have not seen "O Lucky Man", but would like to, stop reading now. The best line of all that sums up the mood of this film is delivered by Mick Travis during the audition scene. After being slapped in the face by Lindsay Anderson when he was told to 'smile', he looks straight at the camera, sneers, and says, "What's there to smile about?". All these years later, still brilliant.