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A very good story about a dysfunctional family

Director: Ulu Grosbard
Format: Color
Studio: Warner Studios
Video Release Date: May 30, 1996

Martin Sheen, Jack Albertson and Patricia Neal star in this film, with few other supporting cast members.

Sheen is a returning army corporal following the Second World War.Jack Albertson plays his father, a harsh, dictatorial man who is inclined to lay down the law in the household.His mother, Patricia Neal, is his long-suffering wife who manages to get her licks in.A dysfunctional family, to say the least.

The young soldier manages to sort things out in the end.It is not, really, a surprise ending: rather as happy an ending as might be expected under the circumstances.

They all played their parts well.Probably Albertson played his character best, although Neal was excellent as well. So was Sheen, to be fair. Patricia Neal was recovering from an illness when she made the movie, and Sheen was concerned about her health during a dance scene, but he said she did better than he had expected, and in fact had a hard time letting him lead.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

Great eary Martin Sheen movie
This is a moving film starring a very young Martin Sheen. Set at the end of WW2 Sheen comes home an older and wiser man. How he and his mom and dad adjust to his return is very well told. Some excellent soundtrack music is more than matched by excellent dialogue and some wonderful photography.

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Love Can Assist The Move To Violence
I was so glad to find "IF" available through Amazon.The book I found it in (The Gay Militants by Donn Teal) I also found here also.

There is just one thought I would like to add to the reviews of this movie that have been written here and that is "love can assist the move to violence".

I think this was one of the ideas the writers and director were showing. I have heard it argued even with the recent violence on an Indian Reservation in the North of the USA that if only the boy had received love he would not have done what he did in his school. I have also heard that argument put forward about "Columbine". However I noticed as a sergeant back in Vietnam times that love in the platoon assisted in increasing levels of violence that were able to be performed.

In this movie "IF" there is one definite forming of love between the younger student and the older student. In the last scene the younger was handing a mortar shell to the older to blast away at the faculty and students. They were working together as a team.

Love is only a first step to solving our societies problems. I think that might have been one of the things that was trying to be said in this movie. The second step I think that was trying to be said was for us to find non-violent ways to do that, other wise: "Columbine".Anderson, Sherwin and Howlett had no way of knowing "Columbine" was coming. This might be a stretch but I bet those two boys loved each other too.

Finally found after all these years.....
While, this is my first time on Amazon. My sole reason for coming here was hoping against hope to find, finally, a copy of IF... !While it has been over a decade since I last watched it. I can still remember the sheer force of McDowell's performance, and the dangerous thrill for rooting them on at the end. I have always been disturbed by the ease in which the Director helped us as viewers along the path to siding with the "Outsiders".
Considering their perceived mission, for reasons so small as boredom or cynicism, their ultimate defiance, is criminal. But, somehow, even now, as I eagerly wait for my copy....I can't wait to experience the scenes still imprinted on me...from the coffee shop to some of the dialogues. This movie, I believe, remains topical and forceful.
Considering the acts of violence seen these past years, the movie was dead on in showing how easy the slide to living outside the mainstream expectations can be....looking forward to seeing it again at long last!

(Thanks to Amazon. This movie has been long in coming)

Meaningful.
I had to wait quite some time before I could actually lay my hands on If.... But then the waiting proved to be fully justifiable. This was time well spent, without doubt.

Naturally, after seeing Clockwork Orange for the Xth time, I began searching for more of Malcolm McDowell. Surely this man must have appeared in more excellent movies? Yes. I watched Caligula :-) and I also picked up Cat People, which was entertaining. Blue Thunder, too.

Now after If... (how many dots should I put here?) I must go see O Lucky Man! I'm talking nonsense here, but anything I might say about If... may sound boring. School? Black and white scenes? Surreal? Guns? Guns? Did I say that?

Nay, If you came this far and have now learned about If..., I know you'll keep it in the back of your head; but I assure you, after you have seen it you'll not be able to cast it aside. Acting is superb, the themes deep and carefully explored, and the ending is just 'explosive'.

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"Rise up from your chairs & contend for your lives!"
Sister #3: As a family, we saw quite a few movies at drive-in's during the 1960's and 1970's in our blue, 1961 Ford Falcon van.I had the habit of falling asleep on the floor of the car somewhere around the second half of the first or second movie.Many a viewing of James Bond movies were totally lost on me.This, however, is one of the few movies I saw at a drive-in that I did not fall asleep through.

It was 1968 and I was 11 or 12.I loved this movie.Here, on film, was a creative woman carving out her own life and making her own destiny.Everything about this movie appealed to me.I loved Vanessa Redgrave in the part, I loved her free-flowing clothes and hair, I loved Isadora's dancing, her nonconformity and unconventionality and, I especially loved the scene where Isadora and her brother run through the British Museum, past the Elgin Marbles, on their first trip to England, chanting, "Rise up from your chairs and contend for your lives!" (that is the way I remember it). To me that seemed the ultimate call to freedom.I hoped one day to run, like Isadora and her brother, through the British Museum, past the Elgin Marbles declaring my delight.I thought fondly and nostalgically of Isadora and her brother when I visited the British Museum with my husband in 1997."Rise up from your chairs & contend for your lives!" I chanted under my breath on my first sight of the Elgin Marbles.Long live the spirit of Isadora Duncan, say I!

Vanessa Redgrave fantastic in forgotten biopic
"Isadora", the ambitious movie bio of famed early 20th Century dancer Isadora Duncan, opened in 1968 to mixed reviews and poor boxoffice. In those days, the contractual right to a director's cut of a film was quite rare. The distributor, Universal Studios, quickly shortened the picture by 30 or so minutes. It later changed the title to "The Loves of Isadora". None of these efforts bore fruit, and the production soon faded from most people's memories. It did result in a much deserved Oscar nomination for its star, Vanessa Redgrave, who lost out to Barbara Streisand and Katherine Hepburn [tie vote].

Duncan was a remarkable woman who vowed never to get married [though she finally did] in an age where marriage was most women's singular goal. She may not have revolutionized The Dance, but she certainly had a strong influence on it. She openly had several lovers over the years. These ranged from a brilliant set decorator to the American heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune to a Russian Bolshevik poet. Her dance recitals enthralled audience in American and Europe. She founded several schools whose purpose was to educate children though art.

Redgrave is stunning as Isadora, and her inspired performance makes the movie well worth watching. Some viewers recommend the original version, which I own. It runs 157 minutes. I suspect, though, that this is a movie that actually benefits from some judicious editing. In the original, the Russian sequences go on and on and are filled with stereotypical views of Russian artists, performers and poets during the Bolshevik period. Up to that point, "Isadora" is quite fascinating. I feel the shorter version, which runs about 131 minutes, is more coherent. It maintains the great majority of Redgrave's amazing interpretation of Duncan.

Other memorable Redgrave movies include "Howard's End", "Julia" and "The Devils". Reisz did a wonderful directing job on "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", "Morgan" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman".

A free spirit ahead of her time...
The legend of Isadora Duncan seems to be gradually fading with time. But when this film was made in the 1960's, she was still very much a bright memory and her free-spirited approach to both life and her art struck a definite chord with the Love Generation. Seen today, it's still a fascinating glimpse into what was undoubtedly an eccentric and frustrating yet brilliant character. As a dancer, Isadora was unique although hardly a pivotal figure in the history of dance.

The film is always beautiful to look at - the style seems to suggest that there were many similarities between the Twenties and the Sixties. I don't know about that, but the film has a splendid period feel. The gorgeous Croatian resort of Opatija was an inspired choice to represent the French Riviera of the Twenties. A lot of attention has been paid to all the detail. Too bad, therefore, that Maurice Jarre's music seems to reflect neither the era nor the character of Isadora. But visually the film is fantastic.

Director Karel Reisz deserves much praise for making the enigmatic character of Isadora as accessible as he does. The script tries hard to illuminate her by concentrating on key events in her life rather than making a conventional biopic for this very unconventional person. But it constantly and somewhat needlessly jumps back and forth in time which is occasionally confusing. The concentration on Isadora is so absolute that the other people come and go with barely a word of introduction or explanation. Much is made of Isadora's grief over the death of her children in a car accident. But no mention is made of her Russian husband's suicide. Our view of Isadora is more impression than insight.

Even so, Vanessa Redgrave treats us to a remarkable performance - making Isadora as credible as she was outrageous. She is also surprisingly good in the dance sequences, some of which are quite stunningly staged. Redgrave's American accent may wander a bit, but she holds nothing back in baring Isadora's soul to us. It is a powerful performance.

All the other actors are truly just "supporting". Cast against type, James Fox has a great time as the extravagent designer Gordon Craig. Jason Robards, by contrast, is permanently morose as millionaire Paris Singer. As the Russian poet who eventually marries Isadora, Ivan Tchenko is full of fire and vodka. Special mention should be made of John Fraser, who plays Isadora's long-suffering secretary Roger. Fraser was a wonderful actor in some significant films of the Sixties (El Cid, Repulsion, Tunes of Glory) yet stardom somehow eluded him. He gives the second best performance in Isadora - an expertly judged mixture of devotion and exasperation.

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Analyze THIS, Norman
Tony, not yet Bates Motel-ready, nonetheless constructs a dangerous fantasy world to impress sexy high-schooler Tuesday Weld...then discovers she's far more dangerous than he.Worth a look.

Casting Coup of the Decade
The casting coup of the decade: jittery, gawky, perenially unbalanced Anthony Perkins together at last with sexy, conniving, gap-toothed Tuesday Weld. So who will win out in this epic duel of born psychopaths? Poor Norman Bates never had a chance. Oddball black comedy from 1968, as sardonic in its observation of popular norms as any film from that insurgent decade. Pity poor ex-arsonist Perkins who's only chance at winning all-American flag-girl Weld, is to spin a fantastic tale about the CIA. Little does he suspect. Still, fantasies come easily to Perkins trapped in a dead-end job, whose employer appears to specialize in poisoning the waters of a scenic stream. But then he should have looked closer at those picturesque waters; he might have learned something about appearances and deception. Honor student Weld is not what she appears, and the shadowy shot of her in hiked-up skirt straddling a corpse is as disturbing as anything from Psycho's house of horrors. No wonder Perkins retreats to the nut house at movie's end. There he's safe from poisons of the outside world, especially from pretty blonde ones. After all, he more or less picked her at random, as good as she looked in her skimpy little band costume, marching to a military beat. The real fun is in watching Weld jump at the fantasy, slowly take it over, and eventually shock Perkins into speechless amazement. And, of course, throughout it all, they really, really, do love each other.This is a genuine sleeper of a movie, giving the quirky, talented Weld the role she was born to play. Only the compromised last shot disappoints. Better that this serial minx stays on the loose as a warning to starry-eyed fantasists everywhere that, among the innocent-appearing, not even Norman Bates is safe.