If..(only really it was just like that)

Not only a stunningly accurate portrait of life in a public school in the 1960s, also and exploration of the tension between convention and rebellion - what makes a rebel and why do 90% of the victims of the public school system end up as damaged hidebound drones and 10% become unknown brothers n arms.

First seen when it came out in '68 in the cinema in Horsham (we were banned from going, but rules are made to be broken...hey ho) and watched again when I got it on DVD a few years ago and most recently now and again with David Taylor and Jane a couple of days later.

Clearly elements of fantasy - telegraphed by the use of b&w - and the school is more military than I remember, but the ethos and day to day were exact. Travis acted out my fantasy - tear it all down - I guess I was lucky to be a loner and not have a group of close freinds to build a revolution with.

Watching with David was an eye-opener for Jane as we provided a running commentary  on how "we had that" and "that really happened" and "yes in our place too".

I have a probably false memory of cheering in the cinema at the end of the film. One for the "One Solution Film Club"

Excellent thriller very well resolved

Gripping from the opening scenes of Esposito exploring his memories as he struggles to write asnd visiting his old boss - who is still working and then the gradual exposition of what happened 20 years earlier and how they eventually caught and broke a confession out of Gomez by Irene goading him about his inferiority - and then the unexpected release and his presumed employment as a hired killer for the deep state, Epiosito's colleagues murder in his flat and his exile to a remote outpost.

Then in the present they track down Morales (the victim's husband) and discover no trace of Gomez. Eposito visits Morales, also in self imposed exile to a remote town, and discovers him living alone with a photo of his wife. He eventually confesses that when the investigation failed he tracked down Gomez and captured and killed him

Driving away something doesn't ring true to Epiosito and he circles back and watches Morales house until he sees him carry food and water to a barn. Inside he discovers Gomez still alive and serving a real life sentence for his crime in solitary silence - Morales does not speak to him.

Eposito leaves and resolves to seek his own closure with the murdered colleague, who he now realises was killed because he told the killers that he was Eposito, and Irene - which ends the film with her smile.