O Lucky Man! (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Everytime I see pictures of the flemish painter Heironymous Bosch and then see Lindsey Anderson in this movie I think, gee he looks just like Bosch; kinda makes movies like Bosch paints as well. His loosely connected Mick Travis trilogy: if.., O' Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital often look like the typical Bosch tryptich, in which the left panel shows man's expulsion from a distorted forboding man's view of "heaven"; in if..'s case a British authoritarian boarding school, while the right side of Bosch's tryptichs show the twisted tortuous hell that man merits from his sins on earth; in Britannia Hospital's case, an insane asylum diguised as a government run hospital where death is certain from the most disgustingly violent experiments and sponsered by bureaucratic sadists. In the middle of these moralty paintings is the incendiary display of sins man commits. And it is here that we often find the most engaging bits of Bosch's work where so much happens in an instant as viewing a painting, which, actually takes years to see it all. O' Lucky Man is very much designed in this fashion even if it wasn't intentional. We get elements from this movie that may never be fully realized again in film; a dismal prospect indeed. Innovations actually abound with this revolutionary film. We have it's soundrack and score composer not only effectively weigh commentary on the movie's long suffering but affably earnest protagonist Travis (played with astonishing exuberence and charm by Malcolm McDowell), but that the singer (Alan Price, formerly of the Animals) even interacts with him in the film. As innovative and amusing as that technique was, the soundrack can still stand on it's own as one of the greatest and most relevant to a film plot ever written. Tell anyone who goes on a job interview or for that matter, hates their job to listen to the world weary idiosyncratic bliss in the song Poor People, a song that sticks forever in the souls of those who loved this movie like honey melting on hot toast crumpets. All in all, a very touching ode to smiling down disaster.Many may twitch at the seemingly overindulgent symbolism going on and the lengthy running time and disjointed feel of this epic. They may also get confused by the hilarious running gag of the actors playing repeated roles. I found it fun beyond a roll in the hay to catch when each player shows up again and again several times over then bust out in laughter when Travis actually recognizes the lusciously charming Helen Mirren groupie character Patricia who showed up in episodes before his stint in jail, then looking at her talent agency clerk character with puzzling bewilderment a few moments later as if he had no clue. As Mick, Malcolm McDowell can come off as enthusiastic and gullible then believably struggle with frustration, cynicism, and finally dogged determination to be "good" then giving up only to be thwacked back into his trademark grin. The writing is all over his vastly expressive face and makes this one of his most unforgettable portrayals, completly abscent is the casual sadism that has garnered him praise but unfortunate typecasting down the road. This is a must see movie for fans of his villian work who want to see his range; simply brilliant work.It is also a film that is astonishingly relevant to how capitalist societies still function. We're often amazed at how we haven't changed much from our need to divest in our homeland to rape another for the needs of the selfish. Granted the film is long and bitingly sardonic and perhaps that idealism causes a slower decay then Anderson might have imagined. Still, many of the films relevant lines about dying like dogs, radio commentary on Zen and revolution being the opium of the intellectuals ring strong in the hearts of anyone who questions their own existence and worth in the world. This seems to be the one true everyman type of film as surreal as it may be. There is just something so satisfying in just hearing the characters walking, which sounds strikingly like marching. And it happens almost everytime before our poor boy Travis gets a beating. It is a movie that has to be seen and heard repeatedly. Defintely buy this film. For anyone who cares, if you managed to tape the uncut British version of the film when it ran on some obscure cable stations back in the early 90s, you may have gold in your hands; the deleted 'My Home Town' suicide sequence is there. Yes, like a Boscsh picture, there is so much to see in this gem and we are all the luckier for having it in our lives.

Sad to report that the cinema styling of Lindsay Anderson is now almost gone from the world of film enthusiasm. He is forgotten, obviously, because he just wasn't sensational enough for American audiences. But "O Lucky Man!" is a kind of unique fantasy story, both masturbatory and culturally significant, because of its fine slow pacing, its quiet story, its rowdy scenes inside of an adult club (Anderson was never too afraid to show nudity and sexual content but, as always, there was a point to it all), and its fantastic music score from the hot and bothered Alan Price and his rocking band. "O Lucky Man!", in fact, reminds me of what I enjoy so much about movies, and why I still can't get over them to this day. If you are looking for action and adventure and silliness typical of American vehicles here, you won't find it. Anderson was always too much of a pessimist to move that far outside of reality, and God bless him for that! This film is so much more entertaining because it is laid back, because it does not rely upon violence for its effectiveness, and because it has a strong sense of humor and deliberate pacing that is both adult and ridiculous in its own way. In short, this is the kind of eccentric, oddball, and masterfully written movie that we probably won't see any longer, because this kind of relaxed, humorous sensibility is almost gone in the contemporary age. McDowell is fantastic here, and I think it is deeply sad that he has had to remain so underused in modern movies. Anyone who thinks he can't go deeper than the gleeful sadism of "A Clockwork Orange" (another movie that I love because of its "movieness" alone) should watch his performance here before judging the man--but most have, sadly, forgotten this title. Any film where a grown man can end up lying on his side while breast suckling a grown adult woman in the storehouse of some orchard is obviously worth your time. We won't be seeing another Lindsay Anderson.The DVD is great, although I was a bit put off that the movie is split right down the middle on 2 separate discs. However, the extras more than make up for this. There is a great audio commentary that is worth the price alone--one simply has to hear it, it explains itself. There is also the great feature "O Lucky Malcolm" which is essential for film completists. And, finally, a great featurette on the making of this film which is actually quite a rare find. It's about time that a great transfer of this fine title came to DVD, with a widescreen format and a great soundtrack. If you are tired of the violence and sickness of our modern movies, and you have a desire to return to the old days of great moviemaking (the 70's) where the anxieties of modern life were less and the proliferation of technology was not as great, then "O Lucky Man!" is the escape for you--providing that you have the sensibility to accept it. Oh, the days when we had human beings around, sigh...This film is rated R for some adult material, but other than one particularly randy sequence there is nothing overtly offensive throughout the film. If you like Malcolm, you'll love it. A+

My first exposure (like many others) to Malcolm McDowell was A Clockwork Orange. I became quite enamoured of his acting and eagerly sought out his other works. My next find was his leading star role in Lindsey Anderson's if... It remains my favourite McDowell film and begins the trilogy of Anderson film's starring McDowell as three different characters all named Mick Travis. Yes they are not the same person, as Lindsey and others have pointed out.In O Lucky Man this Mick is an upcoming coffee salesman, who seems rather successful and is given his own territory in northern England. Unlike if...., O Lucky Man has that bizarre British surrealism almost out of the gate. He meets up an oddball series of characters many played by the actors from if.... .along with a few that also starred in Clockwork, primarily Philip Stone. These actors seem to show up as different characters with in Lucky Man, many with no lines.A an allegory it reflects the growing capitalism in the UK.A very young and very pretty Helen Mirren appears as the leading lady.Mick ends up in many odd adventures most notably (spoilers)A research facility where escapes after finding a man whose head has been grafted to a sheep's body. he gets framed for embezzlement by Patricia's (Mirren) wealthy fater, spends time in jail, becomes a humanist, meets up with a rock band (who actually provided all the music) and gets an interesting meal when he enters a small country church that has food for god piled at the alter..If dark British humour is not your cuppa then go elsewhere. As I said while a good movie it is no where near the genius of if...., and watching this nor Britannia Hospital are necessary to see and enjoy "if....", unless you enjoy McDowell and Lyndsey's works.

... e em bom estado.

With 22 previous reviews here already I wonder why I'm compelled to say something about a film that is so well discussed and ... so unamimously loved and adored. I think, perhaps, because there is something akin to a species of comaraderie among those who've given several hours of their lives over to McDowell and Anderson's unique and unforgettable masterpiece that I feel compelled to share my bit."O Lucky Man" is probably one of the least known but greatest films of all time. Volumes and tomes, I'm sure, have been dedicated to it's analysis and, guaranteed, there are cult groups of appreciators throughout the English speaking world. It more than amply deserves its following.We talk about films like "Woodstock" and "Easy Rider" as defining the voice and zeitgeist of the post WW II generation and yet, those two are very much an American expression of such. "O Lucky Man", if you will, supplies the absolutely necessary British expression of the thoughts, fears, targets, desires, conflicts and foibles of that generation to complete the "trilogy". Yet for all it's period resonance there is something about this film that exerts a continuing and ageless dedication that is taken up by generation after generation. And even though this is a VERY British film, replete with all the slangs and idioms of that culture, "O Lucky Man" is, notwithstanding, quite universal. The human situation is basically, the human situation and while this film would probably be rather irrelevant outside of Western culture it is completely comprehensible and "grok-able" to the occidental mind-set. And yet, while "O Lucky Man" achieves this with uncanny eloquence and the blackest of humours, it is at least then, universal and timeless in the West. This is basically due to McDowell's original concept that the film be an "everyman" story, something, like Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon", that focused in on the everyday life of the common person. In other words, it resonated with the lives and experience of just about everyone.Rich or poor, saintly or corrupt, ambitious or hopeless, absolutely certain or utterly lost, "O Lucky Man" speaks to just about every situation and life-status imaginable, pointing out life's foibles with great affection and humour, and, a considerable, barely disguised outrage. Anderson, like Roger Waters, was an extremely intelligent, socially outraged man, who suffered throughout his difficult life with the yolk of being British. The educational and class systems high-lighted, for both men, the extreme injustices of life and instilled in them both a deadly accurate rage and eloquence unequalled in the peers of their times. Anderson's extremely dry and acerbic observations are also tempered with an underlying affection for individual people, despite their inconsistencies and injustices. It is in this that "O Luck Man" stands out - for all the surgical criticism it is in its core, it is a film with an enormous amount of heart. Behind the teeth-gritted vitriol of the justifiably angry, there is often an extraordinarily tender heart that speaks its eloquence from the simple core of essential hurt."O Lucky Man" follows a time in the life of "everyman" Michael ( or Mick ) Travis ( Malcolm McDowell ) as he is catapulted, cajoled, careened and completely randomly knocked into several life situations in one long stream that sends him to the heights of affluence and influence and down to the slimy grit of utter destitution. All the while he seeks to find "reasons" for that is happening to him. And as the story goes on, he finds that reason, ever increasingly fails to offer any guidance. In the end he learns that reason itself, the great pinnacle of Western consciousness, is a limited construct that often fails one in the direct experience of Life. Universal as that message is, even still, it was particularly prominent in the 1970's. For as the post-war generation saw, as did the Dadaists and Surrealists of the early 20th century, reason has its limits and could quite possibly be blamed in a sense for the debacle of BOTH world wars. It has been said that the Age of Reason ended with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and that the Western experiment has been in crisis ever since. "O Lucky Man" is a powerful voicing of that notion."O Lucky Man" looks like an early 70's film and Alan Price's phenomenal musical score is very much of the period, but there is something indefinable that CONTINUES to speak beautifully to people LONG past the decades that have followed it. Despite the look of the film, the settings, costumes, hair, the music and so on, "O Lucky Man" still exerts a powerfully relevant immediacy that is ageless. There are as many 22 year olds loving this film as there are 52 year olds.In the story, new things appear to and envelop our Michael Travis for a time and repeatedly he experiences them and then moves beyond to the next thing that life throws at him. He meets the same people over and over again, in different races and social positions, all with different names but each one being a complimentary doppelganger to the other that appeared earlier in the film. Occasionally Travis pauses momentarily as he recognizes the "archetype" he sees returning to him again, in yet another situation, but then quickly moves on. As a viewer this is one of the delights of the film - watching the same actors reappear in new roles, under new names or even races. A small ensemble of impeccable British actors, including the grand Sir Ralph Richardson, brilliantly play out this yin-yang dance of personality archetypes that has very interesting implications beyond filmic novelty. They appear repeatedly to Travis as he moves between the extremes of fortune, teaching him something different and putting him into situations he must navigate before he can move on. At times he is the active instigator and at others the "control-less" receiver. Idealogies are embraced, one after another, and rejected. In the end, he is left lost, bruised, confused and jaded, sick with experience. The mind's merciless bear-trap of gridlocked thought has McDowell's protagonist in the perfect position for a major revelation.And this where the Zen Master himself, Lindsay Anderson, steps in to deliver the final coup de grace, the blow that definitively shuts the bitter, cynical mind up, facilitating the "skull cracking" explosion of satori. This moment of the most excruciating tension and release is unique in all of film and is one of the most powerful moments of art anywhere. When Travis/McDowell is commanded by Anderson, playing himself, to smile and our everyman demands to be given a reason to do so, he is told "don't ask why, just do it". Travis fights back in petulance and is finally struck hard across the face with Anderson's hefty manuscript. There is a breath stopping, pulse pounding silence, then the 'flash'..... Watching McDowell's face change from shock, outrage and humiliation to complete gestaltic realization is the utter apex of this incredible film.Indeed, the entire message of the "O Lucky Man", in it's glorious and ironic parody of real life, is here, in these last few minutes of the film. The hard "coconut shell skull" of reason is cracked, and the light comes flooding in.Alan Price's title song bursts into ecstatic light here, summing up everything with utter joy and an immediate wisdom that speaks to eveyone, no matter what generation. All ideologies are rejected, all single points of view are dissolved and the enormous power of the living moment is embraced as the film finishes with a triumphant paean to life directly lived. Lindsay Anderson and Malcolm McDowell's "O Lucky Man is indeed an "everyman" film for everyone. It's completely understandable why Richard Warner flew all the way from Toronto to Annapolis, MD in 1980 to see this film ... ;-)As much as it is more than welcome to have this truly remarkable film available on DVD, it's a bit sad that with a two disc special version, the producers of the set have opted to go for the edited version of the film. Not a quibble to lovers of "O Lucky Man" is the removal of the early morning arrival of the van into London, which is accompanied by a wonderful instrumental piece by Alan Price. If a two disc-er was in the making, why edit this part of the film out? It is a beautiful segue into the next extreme seen on the pendulum of fortune. It harkens fractally back to Travis' walk through the fields with "the children" ( who will 'lead' him ) to the highway, and thence to "The South" and it's shocking reversal of luck. The second disc includes some VERY welcome documentary material, the most impressive of which is the extensive examination of Malcolm McDowell's career which includes some enormously informative AND riotously funny raconteuring from McDowell himself. What comes out of that mostly is the tremendous influence Lindsay Anderson had on his life and career AND just how incredibly FUNNY the star of "O Lucky Man" actually is in real life. McDowell comes off as irrepressibly youthful, a trickster exploding with practical jokes and a man very much aware of the vagaries of fortune. So despite that one omission mentioned above, this is a release that anyone who loves the film is going to want to have. Perhaps a future version will put the missing scene BACK into release and restore the film to its proper fullness."Oh ... and Mr. Travis ..."

O Lucky Man Endlich, endlich gibt es diesen Film auf DVD!Ich habe, als 68 Jahre alter Mann, fast 40 Jahre darauf gewartet diesen Film daheim in meiner Filmothek stehen zu haben, da er in den Filmtheatern nur relativ kurz gezeigt wurde.Nach einer Idee von Malcom McDowell und von Lindsay Anderson in Szene gesetzt, war dieser Film für die damalige Zeit ein Muss. Nicht für den sogenannten 'Mainstream' gedacht, hatte er auch nicht sooo eine große Verbreitung wie z.B. 'A Clockwork Orange'.Jedoch ist für mich als Filmbegeisterten die Story und die Darstellung der Charaktere unvergessen.Allein die Musik von Alan Price (bestimmendes- und Gründungs-Mitglied der ersten 'Animals') lässt diesen Film zu einem Meisterstück werden. Hörgenuss ist angesagt!Außerdem gibt die junge Helen Mirren hier ihren Filmeinstand und wer sie liebt und ihre Schauspielkunst genoss und immer noch genießt, erhält hier Gelegenheit sie noch mehr zu bewundern.Die DVD kommt direkt aus den USA und hat natürlich den Regionscode '0'. Da heißt es dann den Code umstellen oder besser noch, ein extra Laufwerk in den Computer einbauen (Ich schaue mir meine Filme an einem 86 cm Flachbilschirm an und bediene diesen durch einen Computer).Ausgeliefert werden 2 Discs, wobei die zweite einige Extras und Schmankerl enthält.Sehr interessant, vor allem der Kommentar von McDowell und Price. Natürlich sind da gute Englischkentnisse gefragt! Denn im Gegensatz zum Film, der englische und französiche Untertitel hat, haben diese Extras keine!Bild- und Tonqualität ist sehr gut und man kann den 'Amis' nur dankbar sein ihn in so guter Qualität auf den Markt gebracht zu haben. Immerhin ist der Film von 1973!Oh mei, ist lang geworden, doch ich bin halt ein Fan. O Lucky Man

A coffee salesman takes a rambling tour of 1970's Britain.There comes a time when you think you know something about movies: What is good, what is bad, how things should go, how things should work, etc., etc. Thank goodness a movie comes along now and again that says "no you don't - you know nothing!" Oh Lucky Man! is like Pulp Fiction and High Hopes - it is a smarter film than you are a film watcher.After a build up like that you might expect for me to say that this is a perfect film or that everything works. But it doesn't. The story rambles and pauses, moves left and right and tries to keep the audience on its toes. The humour is mostly black, but very true to life. People are often selfish and acting for themselves - while Travis (our hero - if we can call him that) is quite kind and thoughtful. Like an Adam that has been put in to the modern world rather than the garden of Eden.I have seen this film twice. Like many films, once when I was too young to understand it. It is quite sexual graphic at times and that stuck in my memory for a long time. In one scene a black man plays out a scene at a sex club - and to this day I am puzzled as to what this represents. That the entirely white audience see the black as an entertainer to laughed at or cheered. That this is his only place?Most anything-goes films are comedies, and while this has plenty of black comedy, I see it as social comment. Life has moved on from the 1970's, people have escaped their own class more, women have more of a role to play, people get away with things less. But no one can say - even viewing today - that it doesn't tell plenty of home truths about the UK.(People that live outside the UK and never visit must be puzzled by what goes on here. I bet you would have to answer hundreds of questions if you watched it beside, say, an American.)Lindsey Anderson sees all authority as being violent, ugly and corrupt. This is the kick in the balls society that existed before CCTV in police stations and human rights acts. Where people were fitted up for crimes that the police knew they couldn't have committed. I never wanted to walk down a time tunnel to 1970's Britain and this film is probably the last tie I have to that ugly and desperate decade.Oh Lucky Man! is one of the best films ever made. It has something that few films ever have - instant cult appeal. You could watch this over and over again and not get bored with it, see something different and learn something new. They should bring it back as a musical or a stage play. While not every scene works and not every tune pleases, it is cinema from another world that we never quite had - but might have had if only the money men of Hollywood hadn't made their ugly mark on the world.If you think film is about anything more than simple entertainment Oh Lucky Man! is a must-see...

Cinq années après le très controversé If qui reçut la palme d'or à Cannes et qui permit à Malcolm McDowell d'être repéré par Kubrick qui lui donna le rôle principal dans Orange mécanique pour la renommée et le succès mondiaux, Lindsay Anderson retrouve son acteur fétiche et décide à nouveau de développer une intrigue qui s'attaque cette fois à toutes les institutions britanniques. Le film relate le parcours tumultueux d'un représentant en café qui va traverser un destin extraordinaire où chaque moment de sa vie va être chamboulé. Le réalisateur dresse le portrait d'une société hypocrite, servile, violente, perverse et n'épargne personne dans cette fresque au ton corrosif. Anderson agit de façon opposée à la citation de "Tout le monde, il est beau, tout le monde il est gentil" et ne s'invente aucune illusion sur la gente humaine. Policiers, scientifiques, bourgeois, hommes d'affaire, mendiants, militaires... personne n'est épargné. Le scénario est riche, dense et remarquablement bien ficelé accompagné par une BO de qualité qui apparaît pratiquement entre chaque changement de lieu. Malcolm McDowell interprête avec tout son talent le rôle de Mick Travis, le même nom que celui qu'il portait dans If, ne surjoue pas, reste humble et sobre très éloigné de l'image du fou dangereux survolté de ses précédents rôles. Le réalisateur dirige un casting prestigieux qui sert admirablement bien son oeuvre, on retrouve Helen Mirren qui jouera la femme de McDowell dans Caligula. Le réalisateur se permet d'introduire dans son long-métrage des structures formelles originales comme certains mots apparaissant pendant les scènes qui rappellent le cinéma muet où seuls les gestes comptent ce qui apportent un certain regard du spectateur à travers ces procédés formels. Lindsay Anderson réalise une magnifique fresque entièrement désenchantée qui se conclut sur une note ambigue pour signifier que la vie elle-même est hasardeuse et qu'on peut considérer comme le meilleur film du réalisateur. Le DVD offre des images de grande qualité, on passe vraiment un très bon moment!