Scum

Be warned that you should go into this film with your guard up. By the time the final scene has faded quietly out, you will probably be in a state of shock.

The film details life in a Borstal institution and the violence and racial hatred that runs rampant through both the prisoners and their wardens. There is nothing cheery here at all and that is precisely the point. Director Alan Clarke deliberately films with a documentary style and it is this realism that makes the film so shattering. Scenes of sexual and racial abuse are placed in front of the camera and no raw nerve is spared the touch of the film.

It should be shown to youngsters as a reason not to turn to crime.

Scum is an unforgiving portrayal of both physical and psychological abuse of the British borstal system; 1 hour and 30 minutes. The movie explores the borstal's hierarchy, analyzing both the wardens and the inmates ' actions and responsibilities, asking who is the worst. As Carlin (Ray Winstone) joins the borstal, the hierarchy is shattered. Carlin says he's looking for' no trouble,' but he's just as pugnacious or even more skullduggerous than the others. Scum describes the angry resentment of inequality in' correctional' institutions, much like' Cool Hand Luke' or' One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.' Personally, I find few things worse than power abuse, whether in an institution or in a family. I'm sure that many would agree with me on that, and then make Scum an engrossing, resonant, and uncomfortable watch for everyone. Archer's protagonist, an articulate and apparently committed vegetarian who's out to make life difficult for the screws, delivers fragments of Roy Minton's script that beautifully examine the process and the angry men who staff these institutions-" Even though you've spent your life in jail, you're still just a simple cop. Now, who's got the stick for that? Us. Who's paying for that every day. Scum achieves what it aims to accomplish through convincing performance and blunt realism: portraying the reprehensible conditions of terrorism, discrimination and bribery in these institutions. One might wonder if the movie exaggerated these circumstances, but in 1982 government abolished the borstal scheme, replacing it with' Youth Custody Centres.' I assume it speaks volumes for the reputation of Scum.

The grandaddy of 'incarceration' films - this is one of the best, oft copied but never bettered.

I liked it because it's so damn British. The one liners are legion; you all know what they are and where, but among a stellar list 'Mecca, Archer' rises just above and never fails to have me in fits. The way Goodyear looks at the Governor just after this great outburst is also revealing; as is the look of satisfaction on Archer's face when he finally succeeds in riling the 'religious maniac'.

Of course, there's a serious message in here; expedited best in the conversation between Archer and Mr Duke over 'coffee'. Analysing the situation, as Archer attempts to do, will simply not be tolerated and is interpreted as dissent by a man who embodies the 'system' and is intellectually and emotionally unequipped to deal with his own, and the State's ultimate failure to deliver.

Like true class acts, this film works on several levels; it's a no nonsense drama bedecked with Taj Mahal one liners everyone loves, yet it also works on a deeper level; you cannot punitively 'correct' all offenders with violence and cruelty. You are not corrected, you are merely broken, as Davis and Toyne are. If you're not broken, you run amok, but the point is you're not 'cured'.

When this film was on TV in 1983, just after Channel Four started broadcasting, they edited the notorious potting shed sequence to such an extent that the heinous act committed was virtually excised, thereby diluting the dramatic effect to virtually zero. Interestingly enough, they also edited out the bit where Mr Greaves ignores Davis' second press of the bell. Why? Presumably because they feared the ire of the State at the highlighting of its inadequacies? I suppose they can be forgiven, Channel Four was new then after all, but it's quite revealing nonetheless.

If I'm home alone, I quote this film as I'm wandering around the house. I don't quite know why. It's all about the importance of individuality, standing up for yourself and not just 'accepting' things. That's probably the reason. Now, where's your tool?

Scum (the screenplay) was originally banned in 1977 - the year it was made - on the instructions of the BBC who had commissioned it. This was on the grounds of it being both too realistic in its presentation and simultaneously a work of fiction. The film follows the progression of three boys at borstal (prison for males ages 11-16) from arrival to the social dominance of one of them. It's a blackly humorous and scathing study of the (physical *and* mental) violence inherent in any social system, and particularly in the 'justice' system.

The screenplay was remade as a feature film in 1979, starring most of the original cast and featuring most of the original script, although a couple of scenes (featuring sexual abuse, though physical and racial abuse were deemed acceptable...) were presumably cut from the script because they wouldn't pass even the BBFC censor.

The original screenplay has subsequently been shown on UK television once. I happened to have the video running. With a high-quality tape in it. Lucky, that! It compares very favourably to the film, though the film format appears inferior (lower budget at the BBC), the quality of the performances is possibly better.

Scum is one of the most important screenplays to have been made, and shown, on British television, because it reveals the changing attitudes of the censors, and the nature of political censorship in the UK.

The film itself does not reveal this history.

I have seen this film once, and that should be enough for many people, yet they probably will have an urge to see it again and see the actors who are now making bigger, slicker movies (Cat off Red Dwarf in Blade 2 and Ray Winstone in everything!)

As it is about people around my age, this film hit me even harder. The rape scene counts as being the most sickening scene in movie scene history, yet it is all integral to the story. It is extremely bloody, racist and yet moving and heartbreaking. Ray Winstone is a cruel revelation as a top dog,a sympathetic yet violent hoodlum. Never been better since, I think.

The film moves at a breakneck speed and never seems to sag. I don't know what those employed at a borstal will think of it, but it would probably make them think more of the broken-down urchins as human.

A hard film to like, but even harder to forget. If I was rating it, a 3/5. I think I would give it a five if it wasn't so stomach-churningly realistic. Violence in films can be entertaining, but on no account this time.