Genre: Gritty social realism During the late 1970s controversy raged in the media regarding the brutal nature of Britain's borstal system - the detention centres established to deal with juvenile criminals who were too young to be sent to regular prisons. Alan Clarke's 1979 movie - originally intended for television but considered too brutal to be broadcast - takes a look inside one such borstal and follows a young offender by the name of Carlin (a young Ray Winstone, establishing his hard man credentials very early in his career) as he finds himself forced to use violence and intimidation to rise through the pecking order. Scum doesn't pull its punches - from bullying and beatings to rape and suicide it's about as harsh a depiction of life in a youth offenders facility as you can get, with as much emphasis on the brutality of the institution itself as the inmates who reside within. Winstone in particular delivers a brilliant performance - after trying to keep a low profile he soon realises that the only way to survive is to lower himself to their primal level. But after establishing himself as the top dog and bringing a degree of order and harmony to the borstal, he soon faces a much more powerful and insurmountable obstacle - the prison guards themselves, who laugh as one of his friends is raped and refuse to help when the victim commits suicide. Master dramatist Alan Clarke pulls no punches with his portrayal of life inside the borstal, and Scum is an unforgettable harrowing slice of gritty realism (of the kind British film makers perhaps do the best) which thoroughly earned its controversial status. See also: Borstal Boy
