'' O Lucky Man ! '' is a 1973 British comedy-drama fantasy film , intended as an allegory on life in a capitalist society . Directed by Lindsay Anderson , it stars Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis , whom McDowell had first played as a disaffected public schoolboy in his first film performance in Anderson 's film '' if .... '' ( 1968 ) . The film was entered into the 1973 Cannes Film Festival . The film opens with a short fragment outside the plot . Grainy , black-and-white , and silent , a title " Once Upon a Time " leads to Latino labourers picking coffee beans while armed foremen push rudely between them . One worker ( McDowell with black hair and moustache ) pockets a few beans ( " Coffee for the Breakfast Table " ) but is seen by a foreman . He is next seen before a fat Caucasian magistrate who slobbers as he removes his cigar only to say " Guilty . " The foreman draws his machete and lays it across the unfortunate laborer 's wrists , bound to a wooden block , revealing that he is to lose his hands for the theft of a few beans . The machete rises , falls , and we see McDowell draw back in a silent scream . The scene blacks out , the word NOW appears onscreen and expands quickly to fill it
1973 Cannes Film Festival
1973 Cannes Film Festival
O Lucky Man!