Overview
A surreal journey through ambition and class struggle, where the everyman faces the absurdities of life.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- witty
- surreal
- carnivalesque
- arthouse film night
- political cinema viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly regard the film as an ambitious, inventive, and enduringly provocative British satire, while frequently finding its sprawling length and dated depictions difficult.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Alan Price and his combo repeatedly comment on Mick Travis's journey through songs, functioning as a Greek chorus.
Mick travels through sales territories, industrial circles, working-class spaces, and marginalized communities in an episodic life journey.
The film combines bawdy farce, musical performance, surreal episodes, political sermonizing, and a sprawling three-hour form.
Several actors play multiple characters, including Ralph Richardson, Rachel Roberts, Arthur Lowe, and Helen Mirren.
Films like O Lucky Man!, and why
If....
shared anarchic political satire, surreal theatricality, and confrontational British humor
The Ruling Class
shared episodic social critique, musical interludes, and countercultural absurdism
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
shared picaresque structure, dark comedy, and surreal attacks on bourgeois institutions
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
shared experimental musical form, class criticism, and heightened early-1970s British atmosphere
Movie Details
- Director
- Lindsay Anderson
- Release Date
- 1973-03-25
- Runtime
- 184 min
- Rating
- 6.8 / 10 (121)
Cast
- Malcolm McDowell
- Ralph Richardson
- Rachel Roberts
- Arthur Lowe
- Helen Mirren
- Graham Crowden
- Peter Jeffrey
- Dandy Nichols
- Mona Washbourne
- Philip Stone
Where to watch in United States
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is O Lucky Man! about?
- A traveling salesman’s fantasy of upward mobility becomes a surreal, musical reckoning with British class power and institutional corruption.
- What is O Lucky Man! like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of O Lucky Man! as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is O Lucky Man! violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in O Lucky Man! as mild.
- What did critics think of O Lucky Man!?
- Critics broadly regard the film as an ambitious, inventive, and enduringly provocative British satire, while frequently finding its sprawling length and dated depictions difficult.
- Which films are like O Lucky Man!?
- Films with a similar feel include If...., The Ruling Class, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- How long is O Lucky Man!?
- O Lucky Man! runs 184 minutes.
- Where can I watch O Lucky Man!?
- In United States, O Lucky Man! is available to rent or buy from Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home.
