This Sporting Life

Year of Release:  1963
Director:  Lindsay Anderson
Screenplay:  David Storey, based on the novel This Sporting Life by David Storey
Starring:  Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell
Running Time:  134 minutes
Genre:  Drama

Set in the English town of Wakefield, the film concerns Frank Machin (Harris), an angry coal miner, whose natural aggression leads to him being recruited by the local rugby league club, and he soon becomes something of a local hero.  However Machin's violent streak causes havoc with his life off the playing field, particularly in his turbulent relationship with brittle widow Margaret (Roberts), who also happens to be his landlady.

This is a raw and powerful film, which marked the feature film debut of director Lindsay Anderson and the first starring role for Richard Harris.  Based on the prize-winning novel by former rugby league player David Storey, who also wrote the screenplay, this is part of the so-called "kitchen sink" films of the 1950s and 60s, which attempted social realism, tackling the lives of ordinary, working-class Britons, with cynical, disillusioned "angry young men" protagonists and tackling topics that for the time were quite controversial.  The film is notable for the visceral rugby scenes, in which Anderson gets his camera right among the player, and uses a fast paced editing style and some slow-motion sequences.  Richard Harris turns in a fantastic performance as the brutal Frank Machin, a burly, angry man ready to lash out at a moment's notice, physically or verbally, even in his quieter moments the threat of violence is never far away.  It's an innate part of him, that serves him well as a rugby player, and makes him a star, but which poisons everyone and everything around him.  Rachel Roberts gives a heartbreaking performance as the damaged Margaret, grieving for her husband and bringing up two children on her own, she views Machin with a mix of fear and contempt, even if she cares about him, she can't allow herself to open up to him.  The cast also includes the first Doctor Who William Hartnell, as a seedy talent scout.

Rachel Roberts and Richard Harris in This Sporting Life 

If....

Year of Release:  1968
Director:  Lindsay Anderson
Screenplay:  David Sherwin, based on the script The Crusaders by David Sherwin and John Howlett
Starring:  Malcolm McDowell, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, David Wood, Robert Swann, Peter Jeffrey
Running Time:  107 minutes
Genre:  Drama, satire

The film is set in an all-male British boarding school where the pupils lives are ruled by meaningless tradition, and bullying, predatory prefects (known as "Whips") who force the younger boys (who are referred to as "scum") to act as their personal servants.  The headmaster (Jeffrey) is completely ineffectual and out of touch, and the rest of the adults are either bullies, weird or ineffective or a combination of the three.  Mick Travis (McDowell), Knightly (Wood) and Wallace (Warwick), three senior boys, start to rebel and soon become a problem to the staff and Whips.  After a particularly brutal beating, the three boys plot violent revenge for the school's Founder's Day celebration.

Lindsay Anderson, who himself attended boarding school, had a reputation for tough, social realist films such as This Sporting Life (1963), and this film mixes gritty realism with surreal flights of fantasy.  The early scenes introduce the daily life of the school, depicting the traditions, and casual cruelties that Mick and friends are rebelling against.  The picture switches, seemingly randomly, between colour and black-and-white.  Apparently because it was easier to film the scenes in the chapel in black-and-white rather than colour, and Anderson liked the effect and decided to use it throughout the film.  There are memorably bizarre sequences, such as where McDowell flirts with a waitress (Noonan) in a cafe and they end up wrestling naked on the cafe floor impersonating tigers, and a scene where a character, who has seemingly been killed earlier, pops up in a drawer to shake hands with his supposed killers.  This is very much a film about the late 1960s.  It's a counterculture film, about the struggle between old and new ideas that were going on in Britain at the time.  Despite it being very much a product of it's time it is still weirdly relevant today, in it's depiction of old versus young, albeit in possibly the most privileged place imaginable.  The violent climax, which involves a gun battle at the school, is possibly even more disturbing now than it was at the time. This is a deeply disturbing film, that still packs a punch, but it is also very funny, and features a star-making performance from Malcolm McDowell, in his film debut.         
 McDowell and Anderson reunited with writer David Sherwin for two subsequent films, O Lucky Man! (1971) and Britannia Hospital (1983),  in which McDowell reprised the role of Mick Travis, albeit as a very different character each time.  Both of them are very well worth checking out, if you can find them.

Richard Warwick, Malcolm McDowell and David Wood in If....