MovieChat Forums > Bad Boys (1983) Discussion > Has it's similarities with the British f...

Has it's similarities with the British film Scum (1979)

posted 4 years ago by mitzibishi (2013)
1 reply | jump to latest

Similar kind of deal. A young Ray Winstone is sent to borstal or young offenders prison.

He beats up the racially divided gang leaders one by one until he becomes the "Daddy".

One of the beatings happens in the pool room. He walks calmly in, pulls a sock out his pocket and starts putting pool balls in the sock.

Ray finds one of the bosses henchmen and he gets a sock to the face. Similar to Sean Penn putting coke cans in a pillow case.

The film goes on, a kid gets raped while the officials turn a blind eye, the kid kills himself then Ray and the inmates smash the place up with a riot to end the film.

Its a lot more gritty than Bad Boys, Ray Winstone looks a bit more capable of holding down being the daddy than Sean Penn does. The officials are uncaring, clock in and earn the paycheck, where they think the kids are a waste of space and don't bother trying help and there's a lot of racial back biting.

It sums up England in the 70's and early 80s. Dirty, grimy and harsh.

I definitely recommend Scum and also a film called Quadrophenia about the mod gang scene in the UK.

Somebody made a compilation of best bits from Scum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2QvN17Ue4Q

Full movie on Youtube. Good quality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE7YjbpEHV0

[–] BourbonKing (5788) 4 years ago

I watched it on Youtube several in full form before the account was trashed. Glad to see that it's intact even though split up in sequential scenes.

Bad Boys was more Hollywood trope than a reflection of a strong social commentary imho. There was a documentary in the early 80s similar to "Scared Straight" but they didn't shoot it from an angle of putting the fright into troubled kids who could potentially end up in the prison system. It just showed the reality of prison life. I think it was shot in either the East Coast or in California, but I can't remember the name. It featured some interesting and real young people who's lives were doomed from the second they were born.