Scum

Scum is a fabulously gritty borstal drama revolving around troublemaker Carlin (Winstone) and his campaign to do his time quietly. The menacing staff and inmates of the Borstal (young offenders prison) are frighteningly realistic and the whole film has the feel of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Sporadic violence comes with no warning and the rape scene in the greenhouse is one of the most harrowing I have seen on film (may be cut in some versions). Full marks to Alan Clarke and Ray Minton for this beauty.

This is the TV version of the film, which was made for 'Play For Today' but was never screened until 1991, as it was deemed too controversial. It isn't as good as the movie version, which unsurprisingly was free to be even more uncompromising, yet it is still very similar plot-wise. Still very much an excellent watch and interesting to compare.

Carlin (Ray Winstone of "Nil by mouth" and "Sexy Beast") is a young criminal who after assaulting a police officer gets sent to a borstal (juvinial prison), with two other youth offenders, where they find life inside hell with the authoritarian system brutal and the criminal inmate hierarchy equally, if not more so. They must find a way to survive. Carlin is able to climb the hierarchy, the other two are not really that 'lucky' This TV movie was shelved by the BBC1 for 14 years before before being shown on Channel 4 exactly once, and then only in honor of a deceased Alan Clarke. Gritty, and depressing if a slight bit overly sensationalized. Still it's interesting to watch even if the feature film version IS better. In response to the shelving of the film Clarke and writer Minton remade it as a theatrical film in two years later in 1979. This movie can be found in Blue Undergrounds Alan Clarke Collection.

My Grade: B-

DVD Extras: Commetary with actors Phil Daniels & David Threlfall, and Producer Margaret Matheson; 2 Selected scenes commentary by Ray Winstone (one of which wasn't in the film)

This film was to show the horrors of a typical British Reform School, complete with regular beatings, humiliations, and even a rape scene. Sadistic staff and a team of violent and intimidating "daddys" terrorize the weak and timid members of the roughly 100 detainees. Racism and hypocrisy are in full gear. This is the Jr. Version of "Glass House", only even more graphic.

This film is very difficult to watch and was actually banned by the BBC to ever be broadcast due to the extreme violence and shocking situations. Although I watched to the end, I just don't quite see the value (especuially for entertainment) in this fictional nightmare. Perhaps as a "Scared Straight" project it could deter at-risk children from a life of crime. Otherwise any slasher movie will do less emotional damage to an impressionable mind. I do not recommend this film

I'll try not to comment on the controversy of this television drama . Everyone knows it was banned by the BBC prior to being shown on its PLAY FOR TODAY slot in 1977 and it wasn't until the early 1990s that the BBC relented by showing it with little fanfare .

Over all I thought the film version was better . Structure wise Roy Minton's script is more or less the same as the movie version with one added strand here where Carling is allowed to have a " wife " , in reality one of the younger prisoners , as a perk for being a daddy , a story strand that doesn't really work in my opinion . Director Alan Clarke would later re-employ nearly the entire cast for the movie version with the exception of Archer , and I couldn't thinking while watching the movie that Archer was written as a type of hippy . Here David Throfall plays Archer as .... A hippy . I don't want to criticise Mick Ford's performance in the movie but here we see the role played as it was written and is the superior version , but this is the only aspect where the original teleplay out scores the movie

I think because the movie version can get away with so much more than a television drama ( At least one made in the 1970s ) this version isn't so gritty and compelling . The film includes extreme language in every scene which adds to the realism and as has been mentioned the infamous rape scene isn't as shocking and depressing as the one in the movie version so compared to the 1979 cinema release the original television drama might be something of a disappointment leading the viewer to ask what was the controversy about in the first place ?