Scum

Year:  1979

Director:  Alan Clarke

Screenplay:  Roy Minton

Starring:  Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Ford, John Blundell, Phil Daniels, Ray Burdis, Alrick Riley

Running Time:  97 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Three teenage boys arrive at a British "borstal" (a type of youth detention centre):  Carlin (Winstone) is being transferred for assaulting an officer at his previous borstal, Angel (Riley) has been convicted of stealing cars, and Davis (Ford) escaped from an open borstal.  Once in the prison Angel suffers racist abuse from both inmates and guards, and Davis, who is perceived as weak, is also victimised.  Meanwhile Carlin is targeted by the inmates, for his tough reputation, and the guards, who want revenge for the officer he hit.  In order to survive carlin embarks on a desperate, violent struggle to become the top dog, or "daddy", in the borstal.

Scum started out as a television movie made in 1977 for the BBC's groundbreaking Play for Today series.  However, the BBC got cold feet due to the violent content and pulled it form transmission.  Prolific TV director Alan Clarke, who directed the original TV play, and writer Roy Minton decided to remake Scum as a feature film, with most of the original cast of the play returning.  Scum was intended as an indictment of a failing prison system,  Despite the fact that borstal was supposed to be more about rehabilitation than punishment, there is very little attempt at rehabilitation shown, with the staff just as cruel and brutal as the prisoners (or "trainees" as they are called).  The borstal staff are almost all depicted as brutal thugs in suits, the elderly governor is portrayed as a hypocrite who insists that "there is no violence here" despite the fact that violence is almost constant in the institution.  Even the staff who deem to genuinely want to help their charges, such as the Matron (played by Jo Kendall), the film's only female character, don't have the resources, freedom or skill to do anything,  This is a very brutal film, the filmmakers took full advantage of the greater freedom a feature film allowed them to increase the level of violence.  There is a lot of racism and homophobia, frequent violent scenes, a brutal rape scene and a very bloody suicide.  The actors are disturbingly good, particularly Ray Winstone as the film's nominal hero, and Mick Ford as the intelligent, eccentric Archer, one of the film's few likeable characters, whose deadpan humour brings a little light into the darkness.  The film is shot in an almost documentary style, with the stark, white interiors and bleak wintery landscapes outside emphasising the hopelessness of the characters.  In the years since it's release, Scum has become something of a cult film in Britain.  It's worth watching, although I would advise to approach with caution.  It's a harrowing experience.

Ray Winstone in Scum

The Firm (1989)

Year of Release:  1989
Director:  Alan Clarke
Screenplay:  Al Hunter Ashton
Starring:  Gary Oldman, Lesley Manville, Phil Davis, Charles Lawson
Running Time:  70 minutes
Genre:  Drama

London, 1988:  Clive "Bex" Bissel (Oldman) is a 30 year old estate agent, who lives an apparently comfortable suburban life with his wife, Sue (Manville) and baby son.  However when the weekend comes, Bissel is the leader of the ICC (Inter City Crew), a hooligan "firm" (an organised gang who attach themselves to soccer teams and go to matches with the sole purpose of fighting rival gangs).  Bissel has an ambitious plan to unite the rival firms into one for a European championship, with the aim of causing havoc on an international scale.  However the rivalries are not so easily put aside.

This made-for-TV movie was the final work from acclaimed director Alan Clarke, who died in 1990 at the age of 54.  Like much of his work, this is an examination of male aggression and social commentary, which is as much about Britain at the end of the 1980s as it is about soccer thugs.  Hooliganism was a real hot button topic at the time, and these are not the traditional disaffected young men, they are mostly not "victims of society" but middle-class people with good jobs and plenty of money, who commit the violence for the "buzz".  This is an exciting film, shot with a constantly roving camera a times almost shoving the viewer into the middle of these guys, and the film has a real sense of danger (apparently some of the fighting scenes weren't entirely fake).  Gary Oldman gives a terrifying performance as the mercurial Bex, always well-dressed, charismatic and intelligent, but who can turn on a dime and unleash savage brutality.  This is definitely a film about men, and women don't really get a look in, the only major female character is Sue, and Lesley Manville does not have that much to do, but she does appear in a very disturbing sequence that was cut from the broadcast version of the film, but is available in the "director's cut".  Alan Clarke himself was a committed soccer fan and hated the hooligans for ruining the game, the film makes a point of never actually showing any soccer at only one point are any of them seen at a game, and they aren't watching it.  The film periodically erupts into violence, which is sudden, savage and brutal.  It might be a TV movie but it is definitely not for the faint of heart.  A brutal, confrontational work.

Gary Oldman gets bang out of order as the leader of The Firm