DVD REVIEW: Cinema Cult – SCUM

Shane | 20 March 2015 | Reply

DVD REVIEW: Cinema Cult – SCUM
Shock Entertainment
Directed by Alan Clarke, 1979
Starring Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Phil Daniels
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
9/10

The harrowing tale of a group of youths detained in an English borstal which is full of corruption, degradation, power struggles and no attempt is made to rehabilitate the inmates, Scum remains as shocking now as it was upon release in 1979.

Setting Ray Winstone and Phil Daniels off on impressive careers, the film bleakly shows that whilst the inmates or guards may change with time, the regime and hierarchy of such institutions remain the same.

In a movie chock full of rape, suicide and sadistic beatings, the closing scene is the most shocking of all. Following a suicide and riot by the inmates, punishment beatings are doled out by the guards and as a new day dawns the inmates are back in their same routine. For them, there is no hope of change, no future.

A dark, terrifying classic of British filmmaking.