Lindsay Anderson
O Lucky Man!

Tuesday 5 June 2018
15:00—17:58

Cinema, Horsebridge Arts Centre

1973 (certificate 15)

“No less than an epic look at society is created in Lindsay Anderson’s third and most provocative film. It is in the form of a human comedy on a perky, ambitious but conformist young man using society’s ways to get to the top. Malcolm McDowell, though practically on screen throughout, displays a solid grasp of character and nuances. He is first a salesman, then guinea pig to science, assistant to a great business tycoon, railroaded to prison as a fall guy, converted to near saintliness, almost martyred and then returned to conformism by an almost mystical reaching of understanding through a Zen-Buddhist-like happening. The film bows to various film greats but always assimilated to Anderson’s own brand of epic comedy. The music and songs of Alan Price also add by underlining and counterpointing the action.”
(from Variety)

The film is 2 hours 58 minutes long.

Part of Thinking Creatively. After 1968, a Trilogy of Resistance by Lindsay Anderson, Malcolm McDowell and David Sherwin, in memory of David Sherwin (1942-2018). If… screening on Sunday 3rd at 19:45, and Britannia Hospital on Sunday 10th at 17:30. Programme notes available at the three screenings.

“…by 1985 Sherwin was trying to claim dole, only to be told that he was ineligible because he “thought creatively” for more than 24 hours a week”.
(from The Guardian)

“The screenwriter David Sherwin was a special friend. We went through many girlfriends, marriages, triumphs and disasters together. I even wore his father’s demob coat from after the second world war in the opening shot of If… It was perfect. It was my entrance into film. It has become a rather iconic image. David and I had a unique relationship: my first film as an actor was his first screenplay. I met him in 1967 at the audition of If… The actress I was playing with, Christine Noonan, punched me rather hard in the face. I was knocked to the floor, my script flew everywhere. There was stunned silence and my eyes welled with tears from the shock of being hit so hard. When I regained my composure the energy between us became electric. It made for good drama. Lindsay Anderson, the director, called for the audition to end. David jumped to his feet and shouted: “Lindsay, you have found your Mick!” Lindsay was irritated by his outburst and scolded: “That is not how you cast a film David, now piss off!” I was cast in his first film and mine. It started my career.”

The 50th anniversary of If…. falls this year. David helped change cinema as we know it. He was an extraordinarily good writer who was never given the credit he deserved. I remember writing scenes with him for O Lucky Man! and when we were finished we would read what was on the page and laugh about whether Lindsay would consider the writing “epic” or “mini”. By Lindsay’s definition “mini” was unfocused and uninteresting, while “epic” had great style, was illuminating. Our production company was called SAM Productions, for Sherwin, Anderson and McDowell. With the Mick Travis trilogy, David wrote three amazing films. Crusaders (which became If…) was David’s original idea, which Lindsay took and made mostly about his own life. Coffee Man (which became O Lucky Man!) was mainly my story.

Britannia Hospital is more David’s. He had seen a newspaper article about England’s first heart transplant team. In the photos the doctors were wearing specially made neckties and blazers. Photographed before they had done any successful surgery, they seemed to be waiting for some unsuspecting victim. This spurred his fascination with the National Health system.

I was shooting A Clockwork Orange and Lindsay and David were working on O Lucky Man! when I received a card from Lindsay that he had written from his mother’s house on the beach in Hyde, Kent. It read: “Author drunk on floor, I don’t think we will ever make O Lucky Man!” A week passed – another card arrived: “Very fine work on the script! Things looking up … Looks like we will do the film after all!” Of course, Lindsay’s magic dust was sprinkled over everything but it was all very much a collaboration between three partners. Lindsay didn’t write; he dictated and shaped. David got it on the page”

Malcolm McDowell, extracted from The Guardian, 2.2.18.