Taking place in a British borstal, a youth detention facility designed supposedly for rehabilitation and education rather than punishment, Carlin and two other new arrivals to the center are exposed to verbal and physical abuse from both the guards and the other detainees. Carlin, previously the “daddy” of his previous facility, finds it hard to maintain a low-profile as Banks, the leader of the wing, targets him specifically because of his previous internment. He meets another “trainee” named Archer, who sets out to passively cause trouble for the guards by refusing to eat meat, wear shoes, or attend chapel declaring he is an atheist vegetarian. After being sent to solitary for “fighting,” Carlin strikes back at Banks and his cronies to become the new daddy with control over the other inmates and the contraband trade.
I suspect Clarke’s intention in making this movie (actually a remake of a banned made-for-TV production) was not so much to entertain but to educate about the horrors of the borstal system. This is a movie that although it is very well done, it is not very pleasant to watch because of some of the more graphic aspects of it. The abuses of power is the film’s main point of contention as even though it is billed as a rehabilitation facility, there is very little of that present as the guards turn a blind-eye away from vicious acts against some inmates but condemn others. Archer remarks in the film that he thinks they are trying to break his will through the rigid structure, punishment, and backbreaking work. But without any corresponding positives, all the system does is breed violence inside the detainment walls as surviving the abuses takes precedence over staying out of trouble and fulfilling the sentences.
Using most of the same cast and crew from the TV version, Clarke commits to showing the atrocities against the detainees in a brutally realistic way. With several scenes of vicious fighting, two suicides, and the rape of a young boy, I can see why this film was targeted in the UK’s parade of censorship in the 1980s. Yet, unlike other films with graphic violence, Clarke’s film serves a purpose. In a place where speaking out against abuses or questioning the rules will only lead one to more trouble with the other inmates or even with the guards, many of the boys have no way of protecting themselves other than preemptively lashing out. Think of the immortal line in Office Space: “kick someone’s ass the first day, or become someone’s bitch.”
With a physical appearance not befitting his eventual role in the borstal, Ray Winstone plays Carlin as appropriately timid when he first arrives only to become more enraged as he takes over as the “daddy.” Winstone has a calm and calculating look as he is being reprimanded by the head of the borstal only to give way to sheer anger when he lashes out. Mick Ford is good as well playing Archer with a smug, sardonic attitude to subtly piss off the guards. I liken my personality to his sometimes. The rest of the cast members are important to the story as a whole, but only select few really stand out from the mass of oppressed, beaten down inmates. If I had any fault with the movie (other than the sometimes indiscernible, thick accents) is that some of the supporting characters are one-dimensional to the point that it is almost hard to keep up with what is happening to whom.
Perhaps Scum served its purpose to expose the true underpinnings of what happens in borstals. Or perhaps the shuttering of the program a few years after this movie is unrelated. Regardless, for a movie that was at one point banned and is now seemingly popular among the unintentional visitors to the site, Scum is quite a powerful film. And now I hope to either make Google blow up or bring us a ton of traffic.
Comments
Post a Comment