Synopsis
Powerful, uncompromising drama about two boys' struggle for survival in the nightmare world of Britain's notorious Borstal Reformatory.
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Cast
- Ray WinstoneCarlin
- Mick FordArcher
- Julian FirthDavis
- John BlundellBanks
- Phil DanielsRichards
- John JuddMr. Sands
- Philip JacksonMr Greaves
- Peter HowellGovernor
- Bill DeanMr Duke
- John GrilloMr Goodyear
Recommendations
- 90
Village Voice
One of the great films about boys and violence, about the allure and horror and inevitability of young toughs seizing power by smashing some skulls — and replicating, in their own private hellscape, the societal structures that have ground them down. - 80
Empire
It has lost none of its power: Scum is, in the final analysis, horrific. - 80
The Guardian
This grim picture of borstal life packs a real punch. And kick, and headbutt. [13 Feb 2010] - 80
Los Angeles Times
In Scum, one of only three features he directed for the big screen, Clarke finds a bleak beauty in an institution devoted to controlling, yet also propagating, all manner of human ugliness. - 80
The New York Times
If some of the plot seems familiar, the intelligence with which Mr. Clarke dissects the flaws of Britain’s “borstal” system is not. [15 Jun 2017] - 80
Time Out
A toughened docudrama (schools of BBC/old Warners/Corman) that carries the same force as the improvised weapons Ray Winstone uses to bludgeon his way through the Borstal power structure. - 75
The A.V. Club
A straightforward prison flick, basically, honoring all of the genre’s many conventions, from the sadistic screws to the wars between rival cell blocks to the innocent who gets brutally gang-raped. - 75
The Film Stage
Scum lives up to its title to this day, its manic energy balanced with an assured and naked openness that creates a searing level of realism and, as such, savagery.
