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''Scum'' is a 1979 British
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by
Alan Clarke and starring
Ray Winstone
Raymond Andrew Winstone (; born 19 February 1957) is an English television, stage and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perha ...
,
Mick Ford
Mick Ford (born 1 August 1952) is a British actor, screenwriter and playwright, best known for his portrayal of intellectual convict Archer in the cinema version of '' Scum''.
Early life and education
Ford was born on 1 August 1952 in Croyd ...
,
Julian Firth
Julian Firth (born 8 January 1961) is an English actor, best known for his roles as troubled inmate Davis in the cinematic version of the film '' Scum'' and as Brother Jerome in the long-running television series '' Cadfael''.
Firth has enjoye ...
and
John Blundell. The film portrays the brutality of life inside a British
borstal
A Borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom, several member states of the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. In India, such a detention centre is known as a Borstal school.
Borstals were run by HM Prison Service ...
. The script was originally filmed as
a television play for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's ''
Play for Today'' series in 1977. However, due to the violence depicted, it was withdrawn from broadcast.
Two years later, director Alan Clarke and scriptwriter
Roy Minton
Roy Minton (born in Nottingham, England) is an English playwright best known for '' Scum'' and his other work with Alan Clarke. He is notable for having written over 30 one-off scripts for London Weekend Television, Rediffusion, BBC, ATV, Gran ...
remade it as a film, first shown on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
in 1983.
By this time the borstal system had been reformed. The original TV version was eventually allowed to be aired eight years later in 1991.
The film tells the story of a young offender named Carlin as he arrives at the institution and his rise through violence and self-protection to the top of the inmates' pecking order, purely as a tool to survive. Beyond Carlin's individual storyline, the film also serves as an indictment of the borstal system's flaws with no attempt at rehabilitation. The warders and convicts alike are brutalised by the system. The film's controversy arose over its graphic depiction of racism, extreme violence, rape, suicide, many fights and very strong language.
Plot
Three young men arrive at
borstal
A Borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom, several member states of the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. In India, such a detention centre is known as a Borstal school.
Borstals were run by HM Prison Service ...
by prison van: Carlin, who has taken the blame for his brother's theft of scrap metal; Angel for stealing a car and Davis for escaping from an open institution. Each is allocated a room; Angel and Davis get private rooms while Carlin is sent to a dormitory.
Carlin wants to keep a low profile, having been transferred for assaulting a warden. He meets and befriends Archer, an eccentric and intellectual inmate intent on peacefully inconveniencing the staff as much as possible, and is informed his reputation is already known; Banks, the current "Daddy" (the inmate who controls the wing) is seeking Carlin for a fight to maintain his dominance over the wing.
Carlin struggles to settle into the dormitory, and after having watched the timid and bullied Davis be attacked by Banks, is eventually viciously assaulted by Banks who repeatedly headbutts him in an unprovoked attack.
Carlin eventually gets his revenge on Banks, using a makeshift
cosh from a long sock with two snooker balls inside to beat Richards, then confronts Banks in the bathroom and brutalises him. He then informs him that he is replacing him as the "Daddy" of the ward, and will 'kill him' if he ever interferes with his or his friends' business again. Carlin later takes over the adjacent wing of the borstal by viciously beating the adjacent wing's Daddy.
Life improves for the inmates under Carlin, with victimisation of younger, weaker prisoners prevented, along with racially-motivated violence. Carlin gains status with the wardens, persuading them to move him from the dormitory to a single cell in return for agreeing to be a responsible "natural leader". Mr Goodyear, the housemaster, offers Carlin a leadership position in the borstal to help him develop his leadership skills.
Another inmate, Toyne, learns through a letter from his in-laws that his wife has died, and sinks into despair, eventually slashing his wrists. After being moved to another prison, word reaches the inmates that he has killed himself in a second suicide attempt. Davis, meanwhile, is framed for theft by Eckersley and placed on report. Carlin advises Davis to avoid them, though Davis is subsequently gang-raped by three youths in a greenhouse. This is seen by warder Sands, who merely smiles at the rape. Davis slips into despair, and kills himself when he uses a
razor blade
A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, safety razors, disposable razors, and electric razors.
While the razor has been in existence since before ...
to slash himself in his cell at night. While bleeding to death, he presses the button in his cell for help, but is ignored by warder Greaves.
Davis's suicide causes mass hysteria within the prison, with the inmates refusing to eat their food at dinner. Carlin initiates a full-scale riot in the dinner hall. Carlin, Archer and Toyne's friend Meakin are shown being dragged, bleeding and unconscious, into solitary confinement after having been beaten by the wardens. The Borstal's Governor later informs them the damage to the dinner hall will be repaid through lost earnings. The Governor then declares a minute's silent prayer for Davis and Toyne.
Cast
Inmates
Borstal staff
Deviations from original BBC production
The film differs from the original BBC production in many respects. The film contains strong language and is much more violent and graphic than the milder BBC version. Ray Winstone, John Blundell, Phil Daniels, John Judd, Ray Burdis and Patrick Murray all reprise their respective roles as Carlin, Banks, Richards, Sands, Eckersley and Dougan from the BBC version, while all other roles are recast.
David Threlfall
David John Threlfall (born 12 October 1953) is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's series '' Shameless''. He has also directed several episodes of the show. In A ...
had been intended to reprise his role as Archer from the BBC version, but he was working with the
Royal Shakespeare Company at the time and was subsequently replaced by Mick Ford. The story was also changed. The BBC version features a homosexual relationship between Carlin and another inmate, which was dropped from the film. Minton later said that this was a pity as it would have expanded Carlin's character and made him vulnerable in an area where he could not afford to be vulnerable.
The television play version of the film also features less graphic rape and suicide scenes. An additional scene shows Davis trying to talk to Carlin about the incident. Carlin dismisses him when he is reluctant to talk in front of Carlin's 'missus' (partner). In the remake, the relationship between Carlin and his 'missus' does not feature. Instead, during the mess, Davis looks up at Carlin from the dining table as if about to confide in him, but Carlin unwittingly chooses that moment to get up and leave.
Also in the television play, it is made clear at the end of the film that Banks is in hospital – resulting from the beating administered by Carlin when ousting him as the "daddy"; in the theatrical version he is present at the end moment of silence.
Release
The film had its UK premiere at the
Prince Charles Cinema
The Prince Charles Cinema (PCC) is a repertory cinema located in Leicester Place, 50 yards north of Leicester Square in the West End of London. It shows a rotating programme of cult, arthouse, and classic films alongside recent Hollywood relea ...
in London. It opened on 20 September 1979 at the Prince Charles Cinema and finished fifth at the London box office with a gross of £18,074 in its first week.
2017 re-release
In 2017,
Kino Lorber
Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...
re-released the film in selected theatres for a limited time. In the United States, the film grossed $5,405.
Response
In a
High Court case against Channel 4 for showing the film, British morality campaigner
Mary Whitehouse initially won her private prosecution, but the decision was later reversed on appeal. The
Independent Broadcasting Authority
The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television ( ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Author ...
had approved on its transmission. However, the film was received well by critics, and today enjoys a reputation of a classic cult movie. Philip Thomas of ''
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' said of the film, "''Scums brutality makes it a genuinely harrowing film. The bleak, snow-dusted locations, the featureless interiors of the institution, the perfect casting and magnificent acting of the indifferent and brutal staff make borstal appear to be what can only be described as a living hell." On review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
it has an approval rating of 89% based on reviews from 9 critics.
Legacy
In 2010, a Canadian film heavily based on ''Scum'', titled
''Dog Pound'', was released.
Home media releases
The film was first released on VHS video in the UK in 1983, where it was immediately caught up in the UK
Video nasty
Video nasty is a colloquial term popularised by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA) in the United Kingdom to refer to a number of films, typically low-budget horror or exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that ...
controversy of the early 1980s.
It was later released on DVD in the UK by Odyssey and Prism Leisure. It was the digitally remastered uncut version but in fullscreen, with only a trailer and an interview as bonus features. In the US an Alan Clarke boxset was issued that included several films, among them both the BBC original and cinema version of the film plus audio commentaries. Prism Leisure released a limited edition 2 disc set in the UK on 13 June 2005. Disc One featured the
BBC version with an audio commentary and two interviews. Disc Two instead featured the theatrical remake with an audio commentary, several interviews and featurettes and two trailers. It was digitally remastered from a widescreen print. This special edition DVD was sold in amaray slipcase packaging and also in a limited edition tin case. A Region 0 DVD boxset featuring both the theatrical version and the 1977 BBC-banned television version on separate discs followed in the US, released by
Blue Underground
Blue Underground is an American company specializing in releasing authoritative editions of cult and exploitation movies on Blu-ray Disc and DVD.
It was originally formed as a shell company to oversee 'making of' documentaries during founder ...
. In 2015, Australian company
Shock Entertainment released ''Scum'' on DVD and Blu-ray as part of their Cinema Cult line.
See also
*
''Scum'' (television play)
References
External links
*
''Scum''at the
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scum (Film)
1979 films
1979 crime drama films
1970s prison drama films
1970s teen films
British prison drama films
British films based on plays
British teen drama films
Films directed by Alan Clarke
Films shot in Hertfordshire
1979 directorial debut films
1970s English-language films
1970s British films