A Sense of Freedom

Although the video description is a little misleading as it suggests Jimmy Boyle was an innocent man, the movie, based on Jimmy's autobiography, tells the story of Jimmy's life as a brutal gangster and is amazing from beginning to end. There's a lot of violence and a lot of blood, but some very emotional moments as well which make you re-evaluate your opinion of a person.

After terrorising people for ages, eventually Jimmy starts to get a taste of his own medicine - but this guy is too hot to handle.

The emotions are raw in this movie and though there is some music, none is needed. The lack of music adds to the intensity of the film and David Hayman's acting as the star of the movie is better than brilliant - he shows us pure evil, anger, sadness, and compassion, and every emotion seems as real as the other.

People say that beatings work against criminals so they think such violence should be used as a deterrent - this film proves exactly THE OPPOSITE - when Jimmy is treated like a human instead of being beaten, there is a drastic change which leads to him running a rehabilitation centre and preaching against gangs and violence.

The fact that VIOLENCE DOESN'T WORK AS A DETERRENT is what this film proves, evidenced by a man who's suffered loads of it.

Jimmy's 'sense of freedom' is when he is treated like a human instead of being beaten.

The true story of Jimmy Boyle, one of Scotland's most notorious troublemaker's. This movie gives the viewer; 1. A glimpse into the harsh reality of growing up in one of Europe's toughest neighbourhood's, the "Gorbells" in Glasgow, Scotland, and; 2. It shows the 'Incredible' strength of one man's spirit. Jimmy, use to run small time protection rackets and the usual 'Gangsterism' that goes with, that is until he's caught and sent to prison. Everybody feared Jimmy Boyle, and I understand why, Boyle was one hell of a nasty character and you will see why, but that was no excuse for the brutal punishments this Human being received once imprisoned. He was actually in solitary confinement longer than any other person on record or "in the movies", but that's just one of the punishments Jimmy receives in prison. This movie will bring you through all the emotions that "Midnight Express" did. I actually prefer 'a sense of freedom' because of it's low budget and realism, and it's portrayal of one man's strength of spirit to defy condititioning by way of extreme brutal punishment inflicted upon him by the British Judicial System, this guy would not give in, until they did, unbelievable, you gotta' see what this guy went through. One of my favourite parts is when Jimmy is at His Mother's funeral, so sad, and the line "you'll see, jimmy" J.B. replies "you'll see,!? you'll see f*#k'all without your eye's." Ouch!. Jimmy Boyle still lives in Glasgow, he houses and counsels homeless and drug addicted teenagers.

I was so disappointed when I put this disc into my machine. The dialogue is dubbed in Standard Scots!! Even though in many cases it's the original actors supplying the dialogue, it still sounds very strange. Native Scots will find this difficult to watch due the strange accents. Accents that sound very unnatural. Accents that are neither Kelvinside nor Morningside. I have not made it to the end of this DVD because the dubbed soundtrack is so annoying and off putting.

The distributor missed a trick with this release. The American DVD release of Gregory's Girl has two soundtracks – English and Scottish. They could have done the same with A Sense of Freedom.

Let's hope that STV release this drama in its original form.

This is the life of Jimmy Boyle, a Glaswegian gangster. The fact that the film was apparently shot around forty years doesn't in the least detract from the film, in fact it adds to it. This is a wonderful insight into what Glaswegian life must have been like back then, when men were men. My only disappointment is that the film didn't have subtitles.

Gabriel Millsom.

A brutal Man. A brutal system. This is the true story of hardman Jimmy Boyle based on the tough streets of the Gorbals in 1970,s Glasgow. A hard hitting story of a man who,s loan sharking and racketeering eventually leads him to prison where his anti authoritarianism is met with rough justice by the prison wardens. This low budget film proves that money and special effects need not be the key in mastery