BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 07:41 PM

Of course Graham Crowden (RIP) was in all three of the Anderson/McDowell films.

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 04:09 AM

Yes, I remember O Lucky Man which was a great film and the brilliant Alan Price theme tune. At that time there were a speight of a few similarly good films including A Clockwork Orange (equally not for the squemish) and If. But the thing I remember most was the head of Arthur Lowe stuck onto the milk bottle, is that right? It is funny to think that he would later be the narrating voice for the children's programme 'The Mr Men' I miss this talented man so much.

Subject: RE: O Lucky Man...Allan Price Chords!!!
From: GUEST,Glenn
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 07:53 PM

I tabbed out the song O Lucky Man a few weeks ago after being so inspired by watching the movie for the umpteenth time. Correctins/comments welcome!
Glenn

O Lucky Man by Alan Price
From the movie O Lucky Man, which is without question Malcolm MacDowell's greatest work!

Tabbed by Glenn Orange, a busker from Charleston. 10-19-2009
Into and verse:

A--A-A-A                            D--D-D-D                   A--A-A-A       G--G-G-D   


If you have a friend on whom you think you can rely you are a lucky man

if you've found the reason to live on and not to die you are a lucky man


F                         G
preachers and poets and scholars dont know it

F                           G
temples and statues and steeples wont show it

F                                     F                  A   G   D
if you got the secret then try not to blow it stay a lucky man


If you found the meaning to the truth in this old world you are a lucky man

if knowledge hangs around your neck like pearls instead of chains you are a lucky man


takers and fakers and talkers wont tell ya

teachers and preachers will just buy and sell ya

when no one can tempt you, with heaven or hell you are a lucky man

INTERLUDE AND SOLO
Barred chords : A B C D E

takers and fakers and talkers wont tell ya

teachers and preachers will just buy and sell ya

when no one can tempt you, with heaven or hell you are a lucky man


BRIGDE (Barred)
          A                   B               
You'll be better by far to be just what you are

       C                         D            E
You can be what you want if you are what you are
                   A      G   D    End on A
and thats a lucky man!

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: robomatic
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 09:49 PM

I'm about to watch it for the first time.

Do I need to put on a proper costume, or bring rice or something?

Robo who's still got something stuck in the ol' wisdoms

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 11:12 PM

It has been so long, I'm sure when I first saw it I didn't know who most of the folks in it were. Thanks for the reminder, Art.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Joybell
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 09:12 PM

Funny thing, Art -- We finally got hold of "Billy Budd" and watched it last night. I last saw this film as a teenager. There are some parallels, with the main characters, in both films, I think. Billy Budd is young, innocent, pure. He smiles though all the bad things that happen. There are good characters in this film, though -- they are just helpless in the face of Evil and the rules of the British Navy. Watching it again after 40 years we found ourselves shouting at him, "Don't take it!" and "No! Robert Ryan is not nice, but misguided. He DOES really like to flog sailors. He is not your friend-in-waiting"
Strange, I don't remember wanting to do this last time around.
Terence Stamp has the same glowing beauty I remember.
Must find "O Lucky Man" and watch it again.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 05:16 AM

Everyone is going throgh changes,
No-one knows what's going on,
Everybody changes places
But the world still carries on.

Now, love must always change to sorrow,
And everyone must play the game,
It's here today and gone tomorrow
But the world goes on on the same.

Sung to the tune of What A Friend We Have In Jesus, so it sounds cheerful and consoling - until you listen to the lyrics. Something similar goes on in the title song, which opens with the marvellous line

If you have a friend on whom you think you can rely
You are a lucky man

(Not 'know'!) And maybe it's true - maybe that is enough. It's a very Zen film, or so I thought when I saw it at the age of 16. "This is this", as the guy says in the Deer Hunter - this is this, and what are you going to do about it? Smile!

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Fossil
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 03:48 AM

As I remember it:-

"Everybody's going throgh changes,
No-one knows what's going on,
But the world still re-arranges,
dum de dum de dum

Love must always change to sorrow,
everyone must play the game,
But he world stil re-arranges
and the world goes on on the same"

Or something like that. Haven't seen the film for may a year, but remember Alan Price and the theme tune. Brilliant!

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:26 PM

I don't think it can have had an X certificate - my school film club showed it. (That same weekend, ITV showed _The Collection_ - a new Harold Pinter play with Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates and Laurence Olivier. What a weekend that was.)

FB - Alan Price and his then band (not sure if it's the Set) are a recurring presence throughout the film; they play all the music, most of it on camera, and at one crucial juncture give the main character a lift to London.

Arthur Lowe, Mona Washbourne, Rachel Roberts, Ralph Richardson, Helen Mirren, Peter Jeffreys ("You have eyes like Steve McQueen"), I could go on. And a wonderful, wonderful central performance by Malcolm McDowell in his young and beautiful frog-faced prime*. My favourite film of all time.

*He was, I maintain, quite astonishingly beautiful when young, but it's hard to deny that he looked like a frog. See also Tilda Swinton.

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: fat B****rd
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 02:47 PM

Great cast of British 'faces'. Brief appearance by the Alan Price Set.

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 02:42 PM

No, it isn't for the squeamish. Carol went to bed after about 40 minutes, but she's squeamish.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: curmudgeon
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 10:17 AM

A great film indeed. Make sure to see the two others, If..., and Britannia Hospital. O Lucky Man is the second in the trilogy by Lindsey Anderson featuring   McDowell's character. Not for the squeamish - Tom

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 09:27 AM

saw it at the pictures with my mates when it was first released..
we'd have been about 14..
no way would we have looked 18..
but as long as we wore coats over our school uniforms,
the local fleapits needed the money
and were very relaxed about letting us in every week
for all the latest "X" cert movies..

amazing Alan Price music soundtrack..


we had a fantastic and broad extra-curricula
'adult' movie education way back then in the early/mid 70's !!!!

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 08:44 AM

Oh, *that* "Lucky Jim", which I always mistake for Rosie and Jim Sailing which in turn I always mistake for Das Boot.... Silly ninny!

Subject: RE: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 08:20 AM

O Lucky Man! - which I always get confused with Lucky Jim...

Subject: BS: O Lucky Man!--just a great film!!!!
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 02:03 AM

It's from 1974 or thereabouts--but no matter, it gets five stars from me!!! I do wish it was brand new and in theaters now because lots of people should see it here and especially now.

Malcolm McDowell and Ralph Richardson must be seen to be believed. As an indictment of modern life in a way that held me all the way, this is simply a wondrous collage of happenings to this young idealist that ought to teach him more real lessons about himself than ever seem to get through his huge desire for monetary successes.

Folks, rent it if you can. If not, get it from Netflix like I did tonight! Don't turn it off after the first 40 minutes or so. It is a long film, but stay with it. Like the young fellow in the film, it will take the viewer a while to see the brilliance of it.

A wonder! And please come back to this thread and give us your opinion.

Art Thieme