Scum starts as three new inmates arrive at British borstal for young offenders, Carlin (Ray Winstone),Davis (Julian Firth) & Angel (Alrick Riley) are all introduced to Mr. Sands (John Judd) the brutal senior officer who runs A wing. The three new inmates quickly discover life at the borstal is brutal & unforgiving, Carlin is known as a hard-case & Pongo Banks (John Blundell) the current 'daddy' on A wing fears competition so beats Carlin up. Carlin decides to take over Banks operation & with the aid of some snooker balls in a sock 'convinces' Banks & his cronies that he's the new daddy on A wing. However the inmates have as much to fear from corrupt & uncaring screws as they do each other...

This British production was directed by Alan Clarke & one has to say once you have seen Scum it'll probably stay with you forever. Originally commissioned by the BBC for their Play for Today series in 1977 they refused to broadcast it, this is the TV version referred to in the IMDb's 'Alternate Versions' section. Writer Roy Minton & director Clarke then went & re-shot it (Archer for instance is played by a different actor in both versions) for a theatrical release which is far more violent & has much more profanity in it. I have never seen the original BBC version but it is available on The Alan Clarke Collection as is the theatrical cut as well which is the one I am basing my comment on. Scum is a very harsh & brutal look inside a British borstal for young men during the late 70's, it is unflinching in it's detail & depiction of cruelty, corruption & is utterly damning of a system which was wholly inadequate & didn't work. It's a brilliantly written film, the character's are superb & you really feel for them as people, the dialogue takes no prisoners with lots of swearing & racist insults (jungle bunny, coon, black barst*rd etc.) that may offend some of the more politically correct members of the audience. In fact the whole of Scum will probably offend the PC brigade. The film presents the borstal as an institution run by violence & fear, both the inmates & prison officers are seen to be guilty of perpetuating the circle of sadism, violence & corruption in a system that is abused by everyone for their own ends. Scum is just a brilliantly compelling, absorbing, shocking & wonderfully written film that tells it like it was & pulls no punches & doesn't try to fool the audience with any sort of Hollywood romanticised 'happy ending' where everyone happily walks away.

The one thing I must say at this point is that I am positive the way borstal is represented here is no longer the case in reality, in that sense you could almost call Scum a period film at this point in time although it was very much contemporary at the time it was made (these days young offenders in Britain are more likely to have Playstations in their cells). The lack of any sort of soundtrack adds to the gritty realism, the borstal is a cold & bland looking place just like it should be. The violence is extreme at certain points, from a very harrowing scene in which a boy attempts to commit suicide to Carlin using snooker balls in a sock to knock someone out to a very unpleasant & graphic sequence showing a boy gang raped. Scum is not an easy ride, it's not a pleasant film to watch although it doesn't set out to pleasant & nor should it. It's scenes of violence are shocking but they have a purpose & are effective in helping to tell a shocking yet always compelling story.

Technically Scum is basic but the harsh simple gritty documentary look of it helps immensely, both to make it difficult to watch & keep it very much grounded in reality. The acting is superb from a fantastic cast, everyone here is just utterly convincing, chillingly so at times in fact.

Scum (the theatrical cut anyway) is a brilliant film & it's as simple & straight forward as that. It's definitely not a film for everyone that's for sure but if you want to watch a challenging film that will stay in your memory for a long time then Scum is it.

Alan Clarke first released Scum in 1977 as a BBC TV-film, yet the BBC disapproved of the film due to the amount of raw, harrowing realism which had been packed into a short running-time. Therefore the BBC banned the version, and it was not until fifteen years later that the TV-version was aired on the UK's Channel 4. Though, to get around not being able to release the TV version of Scum Alan Clarke opted in for developing a remade, feature-length version to be aired at cinemas, this was released in 1979. The film sent shockwaves through cinemas across Britain, causing huge controversy from the media, government and British public. Some people saw the film as a "visceral image of a flawed system", while others saw the film as "exploitive trash in the form of a documentary".

Scum is a disturbing look at a British Borstal's futile attempt at rehabilitating young offenders, the inmates of the Borstal range from adolescent teen to young adult. Most of them (if not all) have little hope in achieving anything in their life, except for just moving from prison to prison for their antisocial crimes. The film focuses of on brutality of a flawed and corrupt system whereby the inmates have no hope of rehabilitation due to the infantile regimes. The film shows how survival through brutality is the only way of getting through the system and even then there is still no sign of release for any of the prisoners. Thankfully in today's Britain, Borstals are inexistent, since they were (as is quite apparent in Scum) deemed unfit for people, due to the despicable infliction of violence and vicious corruption.

Scum is undoubtedly a film which will prompt viewers to question to entire rehabilitation process used for society's undesirables. Scum makes you wonder whether it is morally incorrect for even the most disgusting of individuals to get such vile treatment. As the brutal treatment is only prompting the individual to become even more sadistic and inhumane. The film details what men will do to "comply" with a system they loathe and how they will form their own rules and beliefs to suit the system in a way which will benefit them. There is a strong element of wasted talent etched into the film, this is in the respect of intelligent men who have potential, yet do not know how to use it. Scum takes you inside a world where young men have been reduced to their most primitive form; a place where violence breeds violence and respect is shown through class and power, rather than morals. I beg of you to think about what Scum is attempting to say and question through its subtext.

The performances from the entire cast are pulled off with raw, natural intensity. Ray Winstone's debut performance as –nicknamed "the daddy"- Carlin is one of the most unflinching and uncompromising performances I have ever seen. It is a performance which bursts with adolescent rage and masochism. He is a boy who has been demoralised by the life he has grown up in. It is distressing to see a man of complex capabilities be destroyed by his primitive brutality, which has been forced upon him by the human instinct of survival.

The technical prowess of Scum helps to create and delve inside the bland, grim and unpleasant environment of the Borstal. Making the film feel even more genuine in its atmosphere through its documentary style editing and camera techniques, the use of long-haul, close-ups and tracking-shots add to the film's aggressive ingenuity. In some of the more violent scenes of the film the camera is held for longer takes, which helps to provoke more emotional power. The camera feels somewhat intrusive, this is because of how Alan Clarke is achieving to shed light on a conformity situation people were afraid to question and examine, yet Alan Clarke is unadulterated when it comes to presenting realism and so tries to make his film-making as tight as possible. There is no use of score either, nor any form of music to accompany scenes, making scenes feel all the more haunting and prolonged.

Scum is an engrossing, convincing and complex example of British film-making at the top of its game. It is a story you will never forget, and remains a film which contains scenes that once viewed will be etched into the depths of your mind. Scum should be compulsory viewing for everyone as it remains a highly affective film of searing emotional intensity.

Had the Borstal system not been abolished in 1982, Alan Clarke's controversial drama Scum could have been used as a potent form of crime deterrence, the film's gritty, documentary-like approach being so harrowing that any potentially delinquent viewers would surely think twice about flouting the law for fear of finding themselves banged up in a concrete hellhole with a bunch of sociopathic thugs. If shown as part of the school curriculum, teenage crime figures would surely have dropped quicker than Davis's pants in the film's notorious greenhouse rape scene.

Being buggered while potting plants is just one of the many dangers that face the young inmates of Scum's tough correctional facility. Even hard-nut Carlin (Ray Winstone) feels the pain, receiving a thorough beating from both his fellow cons AND the screws, before eventually establishing himself as 'the daddy'-the top dog amongst the prisoners-by cracking a few select skulls (his methods including the classic 'snooker balls in the sock' trick). Tensions run high when one of the inmates commits suicide after the death of his wife, but when Davis (Julian Firth),seriously depressed after his assault, slashes his wrists during the night, anger and resentment boil over, resulting in rioting.

Chock full of strong language, extreme brutality, and unflinching scenes of racism, suicide and rape, Scum is still extremely shocking stuff, even by today's standards, but is far from exploitative: director Clarke simply tells it like it is, showing us the harsh reality of life behind the walls of the UK's borstals, where every day is a lesson in survival. His film benefits greatly from memorable performances from the excellent cast, both young and old, and a genuine atmosphere of hopelessness. Don't expect an uplifting ending: this ain't no Shawshank Redemption.