Scum (film)
| Scum | |
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| Directed by | Alan Clarke |
| Produced by | Clive Parsons Don Boyd (executive producer) |
| Written by | Roy Minton |
| Starring |
Ray Winstone Mick Ford Julian Firth John Blundell Phil Daniels Alan Igbon Ray Burdis |
| Distributed by | Blue Underground |
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Release date
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Running time
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98 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £250,000 |
Scum is a 1979 British crime drama film directed by Alan Clarke, portraying the brutality of life inside a British borstal. The script was originally made as the television play Scum for the BBC's Play for Today strand in 1977, however due to the violence depicted, it was withdrawn from broadcast. Two years later, director Alan Clarke and scriptwriter Roy Minton remade it as a film, first shown on Channel 4 in 1983. By this time the borstal system had been reformed and eventually allowed the original TV version to be aired.
The film tells the story of a young offender named Carlin as he arrives at the institution and his rise through violence and self-protection to the top of the inmates' pecking order, purely as a tool to survive. Beyond Carlin's individual storyline, it is also cast as an indictment of the borstal system's flaws with no attempt at rehabilitation. The warders and convicts alike are brutalised by the system. The film's controversy was derived from its graphic depiction of racism, extreme violence, rape, suicide, many fights and very strong language.
Scum would be one of the most controversial British films of the early 1980s, but has since become regarded as a popular classic.
Three young men arrive at Borstal by prison van: Carlin, who has taken the blame for his brother's theft of scrap metal; Angel for stealing a car; and Davis, sent here after escaping from an open institution. All three are allocated to their rooms; Angel and Davis sent to private rooms, and Carlin sent to a dormitory.
Carlin wants to keep a low profile, having been transferred for assaulting a warder. He meets and befriends Archer, an eccentric and intellectual inmate intent on using non-violent means to cause as much of a nuisance to the staff as possible, and is informed his reputation is already known; Banks, the current "Daddy" (the inmate who controls the wing) is seeking Carlin for a fight.
Carlin struggles to settle into the dormitory, and after having watched the timid and bullied Davis be attacked by Banks, is eventually beaten by Banks and his friends in an unprovoked attack.
Carlin eventually gets his revenge on Banks. He uses a makeshift cosh from a long sock with two snooker balls inside to beat Banks's crony, then confronts Banks in the bathroom and replaces him as the "Daddy" of the ward. Carlin later acquires power over the adjacent wing of the borstal by administering a vicious beating to the adjacent wing's Daddy.
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