Michael Travis (Malcolm McDowell) is a coffee salesman trainee who is put into a prominent position after the previous salesman in the Northeast runs off. He finds a corrupt system in decline. He gets lost driving in the North. He runs across a military installation and gets tortured for a confession. He escapes when fire breaks out. Then he gets involved with medical experiments by Dr. Millar. He escapes and lives with Patricia (Helen Mirren) in London. This is dated. The surrealism is interesting for the first half hour. I get the general rant against the world. However the movie loses tension as each weird thing seems to randomly occur. I lose interest in the narrative. It's a fascinating bit of 70's British film. They are obviously throwing the traditional playbook out the window and trying something different. In addition to McDowell, it's fascinating to see Helen Mirren in her 20s.

This film emerged from the "revolutionary 1970s" as an example of unplanned obsolescence. Everything the director dislikes is set up as a strawman for denunciation; some sex is thrown in now and then to keep the proles watching and nodding to every malformed political thesis between boob shots. Its politics have been overtaken by events; the socialism it espouses by default revealed to be even more mindless, amoral and homicidal than the worst it can say about capitalism.Basically, you have to have a raging crush on one or more of the actors in this film to like it, or to value technique over substance. While Helen Mirren IS hot, she's not hot enough to redeem this crock.Guys, if you hate modern civilization that much, there are places you can still get away from it in. Go move there. That way, you won't have to bore us with adoring reviews of self-indulgent film school projects like this.

The central idea of Lindsay Anderson's bizarre and sometimes frustrating political satire seems to be that ideals inevitably come to grief when they fall into contact with humans and human society, which are invariably corrupt, petty, stupid, selfish and cruel. This is a pretty dark message for a comedy, even one as black as this, but it helps that the main character manages to cling to his ideals for as long as he does. The story comes from McDowell's own experiences selling coffee in the 'territories' (ie. the parts of England that aren't London), but the plot runs fairly close to that of Waugh's Decline and Fall, as we follow the fortunes of a naif through the blood thirsty world of capitalism and eventually into prison and beyond. Along the way we encounter every class and type of Britisher, every UK institution and we watch as idealism crumbles in the face of pragmatism and the failings of human character. Ex-Animals keyboardist Alan Price provides often clever, sometimes intrusive or annoying sung commentary on the action and on England herself, which makes for a somewhat uneasy mix, but then the whole film is like that. Anderson pulled out all of the stops and dares the audience to put up with the results. Hollywood won't do this now, but directors in the early 70s and especially those working outside the big studios could get away with it. At almost three hours length, and with a picaresque story that is never about just one thing for more than twenty minutes, this movie is a bit of challenge to sit through.Make the effort. Movies like this don't get made anymore and we're oh such lucky men to have this one.

I had seen "If..." and was not very convinced about weather I had liked it or not. I guess, as I am not English nor have I lived in the 70's, and I am a girl I couldn't really relate to the movie. But I decided to give "O, lucky man" a chance anyway. I liked so much more than if...! It gets some aspects of the capitalist world spot on, and it mocks it in a really over the top manner, making the plot line change continually. It still didn't make me crack up, but there's another aspect of the film that makes watching it worth while: the soundtrack is one of the best ever! It has a few Alan Price's songs throughout the film, that are written for it and performed in the studio. The band even gets a part in one scene! It's really an incredible soundtrack, amazing songs. So even if this movie is not for you, you'll at least have enjoyed the lovely music Alan Price provides.