Scum (1980)

Waste of time

Just what I expected

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

I saw way better prison movies then Scum so that's why I gave it only a five star rating. The dialogs are kind of cliché and boring. It's again all about the tough guards bullying the juvenile prisoners. The whole movie is just screaming and bullying. Some young scum intimidate the other inmates because I guess they are power hungry, dumb, and have nothing better to do in their pathetic life. It's all about being "The daddy" of the prison. The rules are absolutely ridiculous and too severe. It's not like that you will prepare young delinquents to fit in society. On the contrary that's how you create even more disturbed psychopaths. The actors were not that bad. It's just the movie that is not good enough to be remembered. To me it's rating here on IMDb is way too high.

Tough new inmate Carlin (superbly played with riveting intensity by Ray Winstone) gets sent to a British borstal for young offenders. Despite conflicts with both the guards and fellow inmates, Carlin soon becomes the new top con in the joint.Director Alan Clarke does a tremendous (and terrifying) job of presenting prison as an absolute claustrophobic and dehumanizing hellhole seething with rage, hatred, and violence in which the strong prey on the weak, only the fittest and most ruthless survive, and the venal staff prove to be every bit as savage and predatory as the hardened criminals. Roy Minton's hard-hitting script not only pulls no punches in its stark and unflinching addressing of such harsh and troubling issues as racism, corruption, and the abuse of power and authority, but also offers a frighteningly persuasive argument for exactly why prison reformation doesn't work due to the way it puts far too much emphasis on punishment and deprivation.The uniformly excellent acting from a top-rate cast rates as another substantial asset: Mick Ford provides several welcome and much-appreciated moments of delightfully brash humor as impudent intellectual anarchist Archer, Julian Firth contributes a heart-wrenching portrayal as the frail and vulnerable Davis (the sequence in which Davis gets rape by three boys in a greenhouse is extremely difficult to watch), Phil Daniels snivels it up nicely as weaselly loudmouth Richards, and John Judd impresses with his fierce turn as fearsome and pitiless head officer Mr. Sands. Phil Meheux's stark cinematography gives this picture a potent sense of documentary-like realism. Brutal and disturbing for sure, but still quite powerful and impossible to shake just the same.

SCUM isn't an easy watch. It's the filmed version of a BBC TV movie that ended up being banned by the lily-livered broadcasters for being simply too dark and violent. I've not seen the BBC version, but I can't imagine it being better than this hard-hitting, yes, classic, of a movie.It features a star-making turn from Ray Winstone as a newcomer to a violent borstal where constant threat comes from both staff and fellow inmates alike. Winstone's character is tough to love - he's as racist as the rest - but he commands respect and exudes a powerful presence, particularly in such classic scenes as the one involving a couple of pool balls.The story is constantly gritty, downbeat, and depressing. Suicide, rape, self-harm, and bullying are all constant themes. Thank goodness for Mick Ford's Archer, an intellectual inmate who brings some much-needed levity to the production. Watch out for numerous future stars in the cast, including a truly evil Phil Daniels well cast against type, P. H. Moriarty (from THE LONG GOOD Friday) and the likes of Patrick Murray (Mickey Pearce from ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES) and Danny John-Jules in more minor parts. SCUM is as powerful a condemnation of the British borstal system as it gets.

Despite being released over 30 years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Scum has lost none of its punch. It is an unforgiving portrait of the British borstal system - 1 hour and 30 minutes of both physical and psychological abuse.The film examines the hierarchy of the borstal, looking at the behaviour and roles of both the officers and the inmates, questioning who's worse. This hierarchy is ruptured when Carlin (Ray Winstone) enters the borstal. Carlin claims to be looking for 'no trouble', but really he is equally or even more pugnacious and skullduggerous than the rest.Much like 'Cool Hand Luke' and 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest', 'Scum' explores the infuriating frustration of injustice in 'correctional' institutions. Personally, I find few things worse than the abuse of power, whether it's within an institution, a family or any other context. I'm sure many would agree, subsequently making 'Scum' an engrossing and unpleasant watch for all.Asides from Carlin, the most significant character is Archer (Mick Ford), an intelligent, disaffected vegan who is a habitual troublemaker. Archer serves as an interesting plot device; he offers intelligent, biting monologues on the flaws of the institution, most notably to an officer's face, who retaliates by reducing their civil conversation into another officious, hostile procedure.It's Carlin's arrival, growth and ultimately tenure as 'The Daddy' that serves as the central narrative of the film, but thematically the film acts as a condemnation of the borstal system and its corrupt, vindictive employees. One may wonder if the film is hyperbolic, but the borstal system was abolished by government in 1982, replacing it instead with 'Youth Custody Centres'. This corroborates Scum's credibility.www.hawkensian.com