LITTLE MALCOLM & HIS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE EUNUCHS Blu-ray Review

I had to fight the urge to turn off Little Malcolm several times when I was watching it for review. However, seeing as how I'm a professional (ha!), I soldiered on and ultimately realized just how successful this film is in attaining its goal.  Little Malcolm was made in 1974, right at the tail end of the age of the hippie and Swinging London in the UK. The film uses John Hurt's Malcolm Scrawdyke as an analogue for the lingering strains of student activism that were beginning to turn to fascism in that time.  BFI Flipside has, yet again, brought to my attention a British film that truly crystallizes the atmosphere in England in the 1970's.  Their presentation is dark and murky, but always filmlike in its appearance.  The inclusion of contemporary short films that has become a trademark, is also the case here, and it helps to contextualize the attitudes of the filmmakers of the day.  Little Malcolm is the kind of film that requires you to stay through the end if you are to get any sense of its significance, but the blistering conclusion will leave you reeling, and is well worth your time.

Delusional revolutionary Malcolm Scrawdyke (a mesmerising John Hurt) leads his Party of Dynamic Erection - Wick (John McEnery), Irwin (Raymond Platt) and Nipple (David Warner) - in an enraged battle against an unseen nemesis in this chilling dark comedy. Financed by George Harrison and based on the celebrated stage play by David Halliwell, Little Malcolm was shot in wintry Oldham by director Stuart Cooper (Overlord) and cinematographer John Alcott ( A Clockwork Orange). It won the Silver Bear at the 1974 Berlin Film Festival.

The synopsis really says it all. The film plays like a rallying cry against the bourgeois establishment gone horribly wrong. John Hurt's charismatic Malcolm is booted from his art school after stirring up some trouble or other, and is attended to by a couple of acolytes desperately in need of a leader. Little Malcolm is an exploration of megalomania, and its effects in a micro setting, and let me tell you, it isn't pretty.

Malcolm is a dick.  He's an unpleasant little man with dreams of grandeur and a persecution complex, much like most megalomaniacs. He disguises his general misanthropy in the cloak of revolution, and when he talks about the "eunuchs", he is simply referring to those in any establishment who have rejected him.  The clearest analogy to draw from Little Malcolm is a young Adolf Hitler.  A man who was rejected from art school and took his rage, internalized it and then starting shouting at everyone that it was their fault that he was a failure.  The only real difference is that people listened to Hitler.

For the vast majority of the film's run time, Malcolm is really grating, almost to the point that I wanted to turn the film off.  However, there is a third act turn that really helps to give him some depth and not necessarily redeem the film, but certainly to end it on a high note.  The film doesn't work without the ending, and this particular climax is brilliantly played and truly turns Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs, from a chore to a masterpiece!

The Disc: 

As I mentioned above, Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs is certainly the least lively of any of the BFI Flipside discs I've seen so far.  The Blu-ray edition is extremely sharp and authentic feeling, even though the colors are drab and muted.  I assume that is how they are meant to appear. The mono sound is terribly effective in conveying John Hurt's bombastic performance as Malcolm Scrawdyke, and shows very little sign of aging, which is good.  Overall, the A/V is, once again, stellar if not terribly flashy.

In this package, BFI have provided a lengthy book of essays on Little Macolm and its accompanying short features. These are always a pleasure to read, and this one is no different.  The short films featured here are a gender role reversal comedy titled Put Yourself in My Place from the director of Careless Love, previously available on Flipside's stellar Deep End disc, and The Contraption, a amazing bit of visual flash from James Dearden. Also appearing on the disc is the film's initial theatrical trailer, which is mostly press quotes, but seems to convey the film's intent somewhat well.

Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs is a gut punch of a film about what happens when little men meet their match.  Highly recommended.

BFI Flipside present Little Malcolm on ALL REGION Blu-ray