I watched If whilst studying film at college and remember thinking how strange it all was, re watching I can’t help but relate the film to terrible recent events in the USA. What in the sixties was allegorical of revolution against authority now for me speaks more to the ridiculous claim by the NRA that armed guards are needed in schools, the kids of If do not have awful lives, they are simply disaffected, only with access to weapons does that feeling manifest as violence. This film was never meant to be about this, but in a world where violent crime in schools has become a reality one can no longer feel any affinity with the characters of If or their response to their lives. My thoughts are with the children of Sandy Hook and my hopes are with a government which may act as it should.