LIFE ON MARS......

Have spent most of the evening watching one of the most iconic films of the 1970's. Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man! is now a fascinating period piece. A vision of a world now vanished - in some respects. The empty motorways, grimy East End, and naff suits and haircuts may be no more ( albeit still surviving in Hebden Bridge!) but much remains relevant. The Third World ( as it was then known ) is still being violated for profit, the rich are still getting richer, and the same lot remain in charge of the Establishment. Director Lindsay Anderson was a left-wing intellectual and also gay in a world which still had to wake up to tackling homophobia and sexism. Some of it would today make the liberal left wince. But, taken as a film of its time, it remains a telling indictment of capitalism. And, also, a wonderful nostalgia trip for my generation.The cast - Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Ralph Richardson, Arthur Lowe - is to die for.