A Sense of Freedom

An interesting movie to say the least.....

I watched this film by complete accident and have never discounted the influence it has served in my life.

Once the film had been seen I went onto read the book (much more intense) and then the sequel (the pain of confidement). Eventually having lost the movie some years ago I managed to win a copy on Ebay some weeks ago, once again opening me up to the harshness and bleakness this film gave me and still does.

A wonderful performance by David Hayman (totally hard, totally cold) and others (watch out for Rab C Nesbitt and Fulton Mackay from Porridge).

The film portays the true story of Jimmy Boyle as rather biased towards Boyle forgetting the effect he would have on some peoples life. Do not forget that these prison officers took some almighty provocation from Mr. Boyle and when Mr. Boyle in the movie questions the officers about wether they are any different from him they're answer is "we have families at home waiting for us...."

Having watched the majority of British Prison movies (Macvicar, Scum) once is left with the feeling that this is the top one. So sad that is has not enjoyed it's day on DVD yet.

I visited Peterhead Prison some years ago and was astonished with it's look, goodness knows only what it was like inside.

The brutal nature of the film is also astounding, knife slashing, prison beatings and a quite astonishing deterrent by Boyle to avoiding such beatings (Urgh!).

Do such beatings deter, well now adays people believe such punishment has no effect and is unfair on the criminal, funny that as Boyle is now a reformed character preaching to the addicted masses, one could be contraversial and say that his punishment served as his "sense of freedom"

Peter McDougall, British televisions most unfllinching writer, skilfully avoids making this a message-movie or an adaptation in a traditional sense. It is partly fictionalised, as it is not a story about criminality, it is about Boyle, a man with a will of iron who defies all society's attempts to dispose of him, and eventually reforms through compliance not defiance. David Hayman is very convincing and there's a wonderful cameo from Hector Nichol as a gatecrasher at a party. The violence is noticeably a long time coming. McDougall never needs to throw as many shocks in as possible, but brings in whatever is needed when it is needed. The icing on the cake is Frankie Miller's score and John McKenzie again showing he can film violence more truthfully than any other director. Wonderfully honest for STV, the emotion reaches more grim levels than McDougall's previous BBC works. Hayman plays the death of his mother and his contemplation of suicide beautifully, but most impressive is his curled up, wounded animal figure on the cell floor saying his name over and over again. This is the way to make a television film.

I had this fantastic drama on video, and was most excited when I found I could upgrade with the DVD release. So I gave away my video and bought the DVD, only to find to my horror that the DVD is edited, has new titles put on which are unbelieveably tacky, and worst of all, is DUBBED into Standard Scots!

This destroys all the beauty of the piece, both the chilling dialogue and the comic timing.

Additionally the blown up print makes the film look like a home movie.

An absolute disaster, and a successful job of making a gem look awful.

And the person I gave the video to taped over it.

Being 13 years old in 1979 meant three TV channels , no videos , no X certificate movies and strict guidelines as to what was shown on television. In other words 13 year old schoolboys were sheltered as to what they saw in those days so when A SENSE OF FREEDOM was broadcast it caused a massive stir at school with it being the main topic of conversation due to its depressing violence and strong violence

" This place is a f***in' sh**house "

" Shut it ya f***in' pr*ck "

" Hey did did you see that bit where Boyle gobbed on the cop at the police station ? "

Perhaps the most memorable scene at the time was Fulton Mackay best known for his comedy role in PORRIDGE moaning that " It's always raining in f***in' Greenock " which was quite shocking , and A SENSE OF FREEDOM was rather shocking and depressing at the time

I haven't seen it since then but I did read the book in the mid 1980s and have to say this adaptation doesn't really do the book justice . Okay there's a massive amount of scope involved in Boyle's book that takes place from his childhood to his time in Barlinne special unit so I guess I shouldn't complain too much since it must have been near impossible for Peter McDougall to adapt , but the book itself is totally compelling giving a brutal insight as to what it's like to serve a life sentence in the Scottish penal system at the time . Most disappointingly the film version ends with Boyle's arrival in the special unit , in the book if memory serves me right this happens about two thirds of the way through and Boyle is shocked when the penal system treats him like a human being . I can't help thinking A SENSE OF FREEDOM ( Film version ) would have worked better if it concentrated a bit more at the end on the special unit thereby giving the screenplay a more obvious redemption plot

A couple of other points about crime and punishment in Scotland since A SENSE OF FREEDOM....

Scotland now has it's own devolved parliament where it's elected members bend over backwards to accommodate the rights of convicted criminals in prison . There's several prisoners ( Including sex offenders ) taking the Scottish parliament to the European Court Of Human Rights at the moment claiming that because they don't get enough recreation their rights have been abused

The Gorbals estate where Boyle and his cronies grew up is now a desolate wasteland full of drug addicts . It's always been a rough place but in the days of Boyle and razor gangs and NO MEAN CITY the gangs would stick to their own . There's no such honour nowadays as woman and old age pensioners are seen as fair game for a mugging . This isn't something I read about either since my brother used to live in the Gorbals

The special unit was closed down several years ago as it was seen as a case of " The lunatics running the asylum "

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.