Brutal is the only word fitting to describe this movie. Adapted from a made for TV drama which was banned by the BBC before it was even shown, Alan Clarke’s nightmare vision of life within the British Borstal system is an extremely uncomfortable but compelling viewing experience. I say ‘experience’ because there is nothing to ‘enjoy’ here, in the same way that there was nothing to ‘enjoy’ about the frank brutality of the scenes in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ - but here it is made worse in the knowledge that his was indeed a rather accurate portrayal of day to day life within the British young offender Borstal institutions.
Violent and shocking at the time, it loses none of its original power 20+ years later. The superb Ray Winstone plays the new internee at the institution who arrives with a reputation which the others are determined to crush before it gets out of hand. Gang rape, rioting, teenage suicide, this movie has it all as Winstone turns from a quiet prisoner, there to do his time, into a hard nut psychopath in order to just stay alive. A damning indictment of the borstal system, where prison guards turn a blind eye to most thing and join in with the rest and prisoners turn from offenders into animals, ‘Scum’ is easily Alan Clarke’s finest movie and an excellent performance from Ray Winstone marks him as one of Britain’s best and most under-rated actors. One of the things we British do best is make hardcore gritty dramas and this is one of the finest examples of them. Its not pretty but it is an excellent movie, so if you can stomach the violence then check it out, but be warned, this is a prison movie without the Hollywood gloss.
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