SCUM

UK, 1979, 92 minutes, Colour.
Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Phil Daniels.
Directed by Alan Clarke.

Scum is technically well-made, generally economical and vivid. It is also well acted - the youthful prisoners' characters are well developed. The treatment is deadly (literally) serious. In fact, the film is angry and rouses extremely strong feelings of disgust and anger in the audience. The picture is completely grim, a picture of brutality, power clashes and struggles and degradation of human dignity. One hopes that the screenplay is very much contrived and that this is a picture combining all abuses and crises in prisons rather than a realistic picture. The audience shares the final revulsion and protest - which mans that the film is an ugly, persuasive critic of harsh systems.

1. The tradition of films about prisons? The focus on English borstals? The difference in style between American and British prison films? Explicit violence of the '70s and its incorporation into this film? Audience expectations from the film?

2. Entertainment value, information, moral message? The purpose of the film? For what audience? The brutality of the treatment and its effect on an audience? Sharing rage, indignation, critique, calls for change?

3. The visual presentation of the borstal? The interiors of the prison, cells, dormitor.fes etc.? Outdoors? The presentation of the way of life, sets and decor? Editing to give the pace of prison life as well as the impact and impetus of the drama?

4. The partlcular slant of the film: attitudes towards authority and authoritarian behavIour, the corruption of authority? The personality of the governor, his contact with the warders, with the prisoners? His supervision? His rules, examination of prisoners brought to him, punishments and their administration? Loss of privileges? Severity? The presentation of the police? The warders? Their control, punishment, their personalities and personal whims in dealing with prisoners? Violence, corruption? Domination? Their training? Attitudes towards the prisoners - imprisonment, control, hard work? Rehabilitation? The importance of the bias of the film?

5. Audience sympathy for the prisoners? The oppression? The importance of the crimes committed? The proportion of punishment for crimes? Initial sympathy? Shifts in sympathy? The system having its effect on the prisoners and corrupting them? Exploitation?

6. The importance of detail in the film: the arrival of the prisoners, their interrogation, the initial beatings and humiliations? The strict discipline and control? Clothing, possessions? The rooms, dormitories and privileges? Strict regulations and legalism? Meals? Recreation? Work - indoors and outdoors? Useful work, maintenance? Entertainment? Exercise? Audience response to these sequences and building up an understanding of prison life?

7. The abuses within this context: the warders and their personal whims, violence, favouritism? The blind eye? The violence exercised by the warders? The controls amongst the prisoners? The various gangs? The inability to question, criticise? The injustice and the feelings of injustice? Sexuality, homosexual rape? Madness, violence, suicide attempts, successful suicides? The repercussions for the prisoners, the warders? The range of abuses presented in the film - contrived, put strongly for the purposes of the message?

8. The focus of attention on Carlin? His being transferred from other prisons, initially sympathetic, his being subservient to the warders and to the Daddy? His scheming and moves to take over? Brutality? The challenge by the black prisoners and the beating? His character, dominance? Insight into a prisoner and his contributing to the further corruption of the system?

9. The portrait of Davis - young, inexperienced, his room, fears and grief? His being used by the others? Their ridicule? His sensitivity? The homosexual rape and the horror for him? His nightmares, appeal to the warder and the abuse? The suicide and its violence and ghastliness? The dramatic impact of this suicide and its repercussions for the message of the film?

10. The contrast with Archer - his eccentricities, using his prison to torment the warders? His smart answers, his vegetarianism, his control? The interviews with the governor? Solitary? A goad for the authorities?

11. The presentation of the black prisoners - racial prejudice within the prison? The Importance of the black prisoner who went mad, suicide?

12. The dramatic effect of the rape and suicide at the end? The repercussions for the warder, the governor?

13. The background of the interviews, the rules, supervision? The abuses and the finale and the reaction to the suicide with the protest in the dining room? The outbreak of violence? The audience sharing this outbreak?

14. The fact that the film was based on a banned B.B.C. play? The strong point of view - and the validity of the comment on human nature, society, prison as a microcosm of society? The significance of the title - to whom did it refer?