Scum **** (1979, Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Firth, Phil Daniels) – Classic Movie Review 7784

Writer Roy Minton’s scalding 1977 TV play Scum about life in a boys’ prison for juvenile offenders was made by the BBC but then banned by them, so its director Alan Clarke made this controversial 1979 cinema version for producer Don Boyd’s independent company, Boyd’s Company.

It is a very tough, brutal, violent and uncompromising movie, as befits an attack on the Borstal system, and it is persuasively written by Roy Minton and convincingly played by its young cast. Does the strong reforming message get lost in the violence? Well, perhaps a little, but it is made carefully to avoid accusations of opportunism and to leave audiences angry and thoughtful.

Ray Winstone in Scum.

As Carlin, Archer and Richards, Ray Winstone, Mick Ford and Phil Daniels give impressive performances under difficult circumstances.

Also in the cast are Julian Firth, John Blundell, John Judd, Ray Burdiss, Alrick Riley, Martin Philips, Tony London, Patrick Murray, Trevor Butler, Ian Sharrock, Davidson Knight, Peter Francis, Sheridan Earl Russell, Philip DaCosta, Colin Mayes, Peter Kinley, Steven Butler, Michael Deeks, Mark Dunn, Richard Butler, Bay White, Peter Gordon, Philip Jackson, Stewart Harwood, Dennis Castle, David Stockton, Julian Hudson, George Lee, Sean Hopwood, Ray Jewers and Joe Fordham.

The film has almost no music.

The TV play Scum was not screened till 1991 when it was shown as part of a season on censorship, after the director’s death. The BBC said they banned it because they thought ‘there was too much incident packed into too short a time’, that they ‘doubted its veracity’ and that it ‘looked too much like a documentary’.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7784

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