One of my favorite flicks of all time. This is maybe the archetypical alienated, surreal, rebellious British youth film of the 1960's. The film starts so quiet and boring. Annoyingly so. Then it hypnotizes you in stages, each with a chapter title. The last chapter 'Crusaders..' which should have been the title of the film, will wake you up with the stiff realization of what is at the core of quiet, well adjusted society. This film is logically coherent, yet psychologically confusing, and offers no truths. The viewer is left to realize their own truth somehow, and that is one of the surprising qualities of the film. The foundations of the status quo are so in doubt here that the quiet incidental scenes are the most disturbing and beautiful of all, merely because of what the VIEWER may read into them. The characters are seductive, and that is dangerous in this case. I am still looking for the soundtrack, if it was ever released. The scenes seem to be ritualistic, mysterious and metaphorical- things not easily projected onto the stiff, starched, 'proper' society of it's setting. All these elements combine into a stylized, surreal esthetic that makes the dialogue seem almost redundant. This is the true genius of the film to me, it's something that really transcends words. It's a feeling, a mood or atmosphere created in the film that communicates more powerfully than words that self-identity may lead to orgasmic revolution. It is this complex philosophical style that is so profound and wondrous to me about this film, and the creators probably had no idea what they were doing. They probably were simply drawing on their own authentic environment and context.
