O' Lucky man

Director Lindsay Anderson delivers a film that consciously plays with the telling of a story, beginning with sepia tone and the opening line ‘Once Upon a Time’. From then on we’re launched into technicolour and taken on the surreal journey of an ambitious young man in search of success who is constantly thwarted by the British Establishment. Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), a trainee coffee salesman, is both optimistic and naive. With his desire to be successful he eagerly jumps at any opportunity with wilful ignorance that inevitably leads him into the path of sinister digressions that challenge his good intentions. Each vignette plays on the genres of film from horror to comedy, realism to surrealism. The actors deftly play several roles each, their characters weave in and out of the story line to occasionally reconnect in this sprawling celebration of allegory.