Customer Reviews:
Exceeding Expectations.......2006-11-20
Since reading "The Gulliver's Travels", an ancient black and white classic publication, a gray color is being associated with too many UK masterpieces.
This movie depicting a brutal ignorant juvenile correction institution has definitely exceeded my expectations by cynically exaggerated screening of human life meaningless and oppressive state employees of whom the major factual task highlighted is annihilating even a shadow of intelligence and individuality of inmates.
Bushing, same-sex gang raping and in-charge deployed voyeurism, suicides, explicit provocations to suite the wards and masters of wards at all governing levels in exchange for own perverted gratification and miserable-in-outer-world benefits, are shocking testimony to a movie authors' reality for viewers worldwide.
A most engrosing epistle!.......2005-10-25
Scum is an excellent portrayal of the brutalization of young offenders in a borstal. There is way more to this film than violence though with some very entertaining and even funny scenes. Watch out for Archer taking the mick out of the ultra religious governer by converting to Islam. Look out for the "most 70's punch" depicted in any film, delivered by the warden with sideburns on Carlin right at the start. And also ponder on the effectiveness of snooker balls as an offensive weapon. A out and out classic!
Scum - Heavy Movie!.......2005-05-04
This film was fantastic, considering how old it is. It was very moving and even though it's based at Borstel you start to feel for the inmates, how they were bullied, tormented and even raped. Help didn't arrive in time for one boy which was upsetting. Typically British movie which makes it a classic.
A very powerful and graphic movie.
Bleak, Gripping and Superb.......2004-10-14
Alan Clarke's provocative and controversial film must be seen by anyone interested in British cinema and its history.
Not only do we see imperious performances from some of the great British actors of this era (including the unforgettable Ray Winstone), witness a realistic portrayal of 1970s youth detention systems, and observe a film that shocked and worried contemporary British society, but we are also entertained by a gripping and classic story line.
Through Ray Minton's powerful screenplay we are transported into the private world of a 1970s borstal that is compelling in its bleakness, savagery and violence, to witness the struggle of one man (Carlin, Winstone) to assert his authority in a system that is absolutely corrupt. It is only by affirming his pre-eminence that Carlin can survive in a world that is against him. In this sense, Scum is fundamentally a study of masculinity, power and control. Minton uses the setting of borstal, in which life is lived at the most base and bleak level, to examine the very essence of masculinity and male power structures.
Intriguingly, at the same time as presenting a damning indictment of state power and its reform systems, Scum delivers a message that very much fitted its age. The notion, so graphically and harrowingly displayed in this film, that only the strong swim while the weak sink (or, in this film, are beaten, sodomised and bullied) is in some senses a chilling echo of the values of Thatcher's Britain.
If You'd Been There, You'd Know.......2004-03-02
Ok, so it's not the greatest acting that we are ever likely to see, but it does come across pretty acurate of the atmosphere and feelings you would get in this kind of evironment, yes they are amplified because most of the viewers havn't been there so the amplification is for their benefit. But it is a good, entertaining and above all classic movie. Ray Winstone plays a great part and all TV fans will enjoy the parts played by other (by Now) classic British actors. It is cold, hard hitting, and unsettling in places but all in all a great british movie-- If you want to know what your mates are talking about when it's mentioned down the pub (and it is - frequently) buy this movie
Customer Reviews:
great movie; poor sound quality.......2005-10-11
This is an amazing, timeless picture. A typical english movie by the quality standards, supberb iterpretation from the kids. They manage to give a psychological depth in the level of "...cuco's nest". I can't recomend this enough.
Some down points though, but they have nothing to do with the art object itself: the sound quality is quite poor, as it is too low (and as everybody's aware PSP sound power is far from good...), and another issue, but that has to do with Amazon: I'm portuguese, and although I have no problem with the english language I like to buy movies that has subtitles (even in english) to give me some support in case of some hard accents (wich is the case). Amazon doesn't usualy state in the site whenever a movie has subtitles or not, and this hasn't got (almost every movie has the "english for the impaired", and I thought this one had too).
Customer Reviews:
Exceeding Expectations.......2006-11-20
Since reading "The Gulliver's Travels", an ancient black and white classic publication, a gray color is being associated with too many UK masterpieces.
This movie depicting a brutal ignorant juvenile correction institution has definitely exceeded my expectations by cynically exaggerated screening of human life meaningless and oppressive state employees of whom the major factual task highlighted is annihilating even a shadow of intelligence and individuality of inmates.
Bushing, same-sex gang raping and in-charge deployed voyeurism, suicides, explicit provocations to suite the wards and masters of wards at all governing levels in exchange for own perverted gratification and miserable-in-outer-world benefits, are shocking testimony to a movie authors' reality for viewers worldwide.
A most engrosing epistle!.......2005-10-25
Scum is an excellent portrayal of the brutalization of young offenders in a borstal. There is way more to this film than violence though with some very entertaining and even funny scenes. Watch out for Archer taking the mick out of the ultra religious governer by converting to Islam. Look out for the "most 70's punch" depicted in any film, delivered by the warden with sideburns on Carlin right at the start. And also ponder on the effectiveness of snooker balls as an offensive weapon. A out and out classic!
Scum - Heavy Movie!.......2005-05-04
This film was fantastic, considering how old it is. It was very moving and even though it's based at Borstel you start to feel for the inmates, how they were bullied, tormented and even raped. Help didn't arrive in time for one boy which was upsetting. Typically British movie which makes it a classic.
A very powerful and graphic movie.
Bleak, Gripping and Superb.......2004-10-14
Alan Clarke's provocative and controversial film must be seen by anyone interested in British cinema and its history.
Not only do we see imperious performances from some of the great British actors of this era (including the unforgettable Ray Winstone), witness a realistic portrayal of 1970s youth detention systems, and observe a film that shocked and worried contemporary British society, but we are also entertained by a gripping and classic story line.
Through Ray Minton's powerful screenplay we are transported into the private world of a 1970s borstal that is compelling in its bleakness, savagery and violence, to witness the struggle of one man (Carlin, Winstone) to assert his authority in a system that is absolutely corrupt. It is only by affirming his pre-eminence that Carlin can survive in a world that is against him. In this sense, Scum is fundamentally a study of masculinity, power and control. Minton uses the setting of borstal, in which life is lived at the most base and bleak level, to examine the very essence of masculinity and male power structures.
Intriguingly, at the same time as presenting a damning indictment of state power and its reform systems, Scum delivers a message that very much fitted its age. The notion, so graphically and harrowingly displayed in this film, that only the strong swim while the weak sink (or, in this film, are beaten, sodomised and bullied) is in some senses a chilling echo of the values of Thatcher's Britain.
If You'd Been There, You'd Know.......2004-03-02
Ok, so it's not the greatest acting that we are ever likely to see, but it does come across pretty acurate of the atmosphere and feelings you would get in this kind of evironment, yes they are amplified because most of the viewers havn't been there so the amplification is for their benefit. But it is a good, entertaining and above all classic movie. Ray Winstone plays a great part and all TV fans will enjoy the parts played by other (by Now) classic British actors. It is cold, hard hitting, and unsettling in places but all in all a great british movie-- If you want to know what your mates are talking about when it's mentioned down the pub (and it is - frequently) buy this movie
UK DVD:
- Sense And Sensibility (Collector's Edition) [1996]
- Shogun [5 Disc Box Set] [1981]
- Shooting Dogs [2005]
- Shortbus [2006]
- Somewhere In Time [1980]
- Stomp The Yard [2007]
- Tenko : Complete BBC Series Box Set
- The Emperor And The Assassin [2000]
- The Fountain [2006]
- The Good Shepherd [2006]
UK DVD List
UK DVD
![Scum [1979] (Ray Winstone)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21N5M9KEG4L.jpg)
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