A Sense of Freedom

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

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.

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.

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"

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.