Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Anderson attempts a rather heavy handed allegorical tale, his vision of a dysfunctional Albion. The working class flexing its muscle through organised labour, a pragmatic middle class, kow-towing to labour and the aristocracy, a ruling class oblivious to the chaos surrounding it, and a prying, amoral media. Anderson seems to have gone beyond his critique of capitalist imperialism and found himself buffeted from all sides by the chaos that was Britain in the early 1980s. His major coup is seeing the future of humankind as merely a pawn in the oncoming information industry. The film was made towards the end of the first Thatcher government's electoral victory, when Britain was still in the grip of industrial conflict, and the there was still a debate about the possibilities of socialism. Nowadays this seems very dated and almost obscene, and its hard to imagine that the ongoing conflict betweenmanagement and labour was very real back then. However, because of Andersons obsession with class conflict, the story gets completely lost, and I found it hard to maintain interest in a story that had very little to empathise with. UK Films such as Gregory's Girl, Chariots of Fire and Ghandi were the big hitters, British directors like Ridley Scott were making Blade Runner. Anderson, like many others, was on the wrong side of the fence culturally and politically by the 1980s. People wanted something more than sledgehammer politics. However, this is a loveletter to some of the great TV actors of the 1970s and 1980s. Leonard Rossitor is great, Robin Asquith more than holds his own. There's Joan Plowwright, Dandy Nichols, and Richard Griffiths. Alan Bates makes an appearance as does Arthur Lowe. Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell. The list is endless. So, a poor movie, but worth a watch just to catch the best of British acting from the era.

I guess there are a lot of Lyndsay Anderson fans out there who are prepared to forgive their hero. Although, why they should forgive him for dropping the ball with this turkey I can't imagine. Personally, I thought this slice of "satire" was a dreadful crock of brown, smelly stuff. Coming on the heels of "O Lucky Man" I was fully in tune with all the surreality. Sadly the thing was painfully let down by all those bolt-on, tokenistic and grand-standing waves to the liberal gallery. I thought the scene where the pretty little protester offered the riot cop a flower was particularly risible. The implication being that the rioters were all a bunch of peace-niks and definitely not inclined to get down and medieval with the fuzz. As for Mick Travis' snogging scene with the nurse, well....... I've never seen a less convincing affair-de-coeur, Carry-on films included.Now, that would be an idea for a subtle satire: "Carry On Anderson"

'If....' and 'O Lucky Man' were the extremely compelling first two instalments of the 'Mick Travis' trilogy, directed by Lindsay Anderson, and starring Malcolm McDowell as the eponymous hero. What might be loosely described as 'the final chapter' - 'Britannia Hospital' - lags behind in terms of power and pace.It is set in the hospital of the title, where staff are striking ( the patients have to eat oranges ) and refuse to let ambulances through the main gates ( unless the patients are near-death ). Protesters object to an Amin-like leader who is being treated there as a private patient. Vincent Potter ( Leonard Rossiter ) is the manager trying against all odds to organise a visit from The Queen Mother. He even bribes the shop steward with a promise of an O.B.E.! Mick Travis, newly returned from the States, is part of a television crew making a documentary about the strange goings-on at The Millar Centre. Mad-as-a-March-Hare Professor Millar ( Graham Crowden, reprising his role from 'O Lucky Man' ) is conducting Frankenstein-style medical experiments.With the Winter of Discontent ( an industrial dispute that affected the entire country for several weeks in early 1979 ) still fresh in people's memories, David Sherwin's script has a lot to say on the so-called decline of Britain. The trouble is we have heard it all before. The Boulting Brothers' 'I'm All Right Jack' also made fun of trade unions, while Robin Askwith's ( how shocking must it have been then to see him in a movie where he kept his clothes on ) militant shop steward is not far removed from the Kenneth Cope character in 'Carry On At Your Convenience' ( 1971 )Leonard Rossiter amuses as the harassed 'Potter', and Anderson's stamp is on it, but for me this is an unfortunate end to the 'Mick Travis' series. McDowell gets little to do other than prowl around hospital corridors with a mini-camera in his hand. The character looks as though he was put in as an after-thought. He deserved a much better send-off than this.Arthur Lowe is seen briefly as a rich patient who makes a stirring patriotic speech before expiring ( the actor sadly passed away for real soon afterwards ), and Alan Bates contributes a cameo ( if you can call it that ) as a corpse. Mark Hamill ( yes, old 'Luke Skywalker' himself ) plays a pot-smoking member of Travis' television team.Like 'If....', the film ends in violent fashion as the protesters and the strikers smash through the gates and invade the hospital. It had the misfortune to open in Britain around the time of the Falklands War, when the prevailing national mood was one of machismo and jingoism, and right-wing papers had a field day stirring up outrage over Anderson's so-called unpatriotic depiction of Royalty. Anderson never worked in Britain again, a fate reminiscent of that of the great Michael Powell. Not a bad film as such, but its statements are unoriginal and humour far too obscure to be really funny.

I just wanted to correct a few things said already.Lindsay Anderson has stated (often) that the Mick Travis in each of the films is a different one. He's using the name "Mick Travis" instead of saying "everyman" or "any old sod". So, complaining about what Mick did or didn't do vis a vis "the last film" is sort of pointless.The Royal in question here, right smack in the film is a Queen Mother impersonator and a great one at that. You're completely right that the Queen wouldn't stand for it... but that's why they put the half-mad happy dotty royal instead of her.. The Queen Mum would just go on and wait for her lunch.The film is eccentric in a great way... sure it has some blood spatter but I can tolerate that. =) Anyway, I wish we had gotten more shots of Malcolm in less clothing, but hey, I'll just have to live with it. Overall, a great film.