If you haven't seen the full restored 3 hour version, then the version that you have seen is even worse, as in order to cut it down for Warner Bros. They just dropped reel 16. Apparently script writer Sherwin had a breakdown and Lindsey Anderson wrote the script which is why the quality drops after about an hour into the film. Anderson's editing concept constantly breaks the suspension of disbelief that has been achieved by hard working crew, by putting in irrelevant vignets, silent movie captions, black frames, Alan Price and his band suddenly doing a music video (there are five or six irrelevant music videos in there because Anderson thought it was a like a Greek Tragedy chorus!) and general lazy scripting. The beginning and the end are authentic, and are based on the real life of Malcolm McDowell. I imagine that if Anderson had just edited this as regular film (which would have made it the shorter, acceptable version) and if the script and story turns were more realistic, it would have been one of the greatest British films of that era.
Review of O Lucky Man!
