Product Details

• Actors: Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Firth, John Blundell, Phil Daniels
• Directors: Alan Clarke
• Writers: Roy Minton
• Producers: Clive Parsons, Davina Belling, Don Boyd, Martin Campbell, Michael Relph
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Limited Edition, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Blue Underground
• DVD Release Date: February 28, 2006
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000096IAA
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #45,566 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #81 in	Movies & TV > Mystery & Suspense > Crime > Prison Films
  #93 in	Movies & TV > Cult Movies > Blue Underground

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The son of a bricklayer who also spent some time as a laborer before studying acting and directing in Canada, Alan Clarke (who died in 1990) got his start at the BBC in the 1960s. By 1977, he had directed his explosive and controversial television feature, Scum, starring Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) as a survivor at a corrupt and brutal juvenile prison. Harrowing, claustrophobic, and deeply tragic, Scum was banned by the BBC for graphic brutality (and, quite likely, criticism of the justice system), leading Clarke to remake it with Winstone and the same script as a 1979 theatrical release. Both versions are included on this disc, and each is a unique experience. The earlier Scum is a lean, low-budget, relentlessly nightmarish drama while its second take is moodier, slower, and intermittently shocking. --Tom Keogh

Product Description
THE FILM THEY COULD NOT BAN!

In the late '70s, director Alan Clarke was hired by the BBC to make a television drama about life inside a juvenile detention center. The program was so relentlessly brutal that the horrified network banned its broadcast forever. In defiance, Clarke and producer Clive Parsons remade the film as an even more uncompromising theatrical feature. Ray Winstone (SEXY BEAST) stars as Carlin, a young thug rising to the top of an inhuman prison hierarchy amidst violence, vengeance and sexual assualt. This is the grim and graphic indictment of the British borstal system that outraged a nation and shocked audiences worldwide. This is SCUM.

Phil Daniels (QUADROPHENIA) co-stars in this infamous and unforgettable shocker, now fully restored from original UK master materials and featuring a candid new audio commentary by Ray Winstone.

2-Disc Limited Edition - Includes the Original Banned BBC Version!

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, September 23, 2008

By	euroyankee (Ar Ramadi, Iraq) - See all my reviews

This DVD was the last of my short lived fascination with British crime. In "Scum" we got to see some of the English Youth Correctional system in action. Apparently this movie was so controversial that it was banned for life by the BBC. It is disturbing but not nearly as haunting as the American version "Bad Boys" starring Sean Penn. Yes us Yanks tend to make things better (or worse depending on who you talk to!) We do take things to the extreme, but this film is already out there.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RAW , HEARTBREAKING AND SCARY, June 2, 2007

By	Oliver Penn (New York City) - See all my reviews

I watched the first version of this film, but had to wait a couple of days before I viewed the latter version of two years later. It was THAT strong -- brutal and vile. "Man's inhumanity to man" fits this film perfectly.

Yes, out-of-control youth must be dealt with, but not by inhuman, depraved authoritarians! The administrators of this borstal (reformatory) were all sick, demented sex perverts, who seem to get pleasure out of watching these young men devour one another.

Both versions are brutal, but the remake went even further, especially the greenhouse rape. In the first version, there were two harmless-looking lads who attacked "James". In the sequel, three toughs were the perpetrators. The attact went on for what seemed, several minutes (screen time). For the victim, it probably felt like hours.

Both films are nearly identical with some of the same actors repeating their roles, especially the lead, Ray Winstone, but the actors were so good, it didn't matter that all of the originals didn't return. It was interesting to see other actors take on the parts.

The latter version does seem more "modern." But the sexual angle was played down. In the second version, Winstone's character didn't seek out a "wife" to take care of his sexual needs. Also, the suicide of the rape victim was more graphic, therefore shocking.

A hardcore version of the movie is now out called "Borstal Boy" and it provides what even SCUM couldn't: graphic sex, which was probably the major activity that went on in these institutions, out-ranking violence.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exceeding Expectations, November 20, 2006

By	Michael Kerjman (The Earth) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Since reading "The Gulliver's Travels", an ancient black and white classic publication, a grey 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.