Scum (1979) review

After assaulting an officer, Carlin (a very young Ray Winstone) gets sent to a youth detention center (called a borstal, which was "supposed" to be educational) where he finds that not only are the other teenage inmates hopelessly cruel (the leader of the wing is called "the Daddy"), so are the individuals that run it.  It makes its point within the first ten minutes or so - I'm being generous here - and then proceeds to hammer at the same note the rest of the way (it's all dehumanizing) before concluding with a rape of a boy, that boy's suicide, a mini-revolt over the incident and then the quashing of that uprising (it's bleak and there is no hope for salvation).  It takes until a half hour before Ray goes full Winstone, and the barefooted Archer (well played by Mick Ford) is wonderfully smarmy, particularly in a 'philosophical' conversation with Mr. Duke (Bill Dean).  I've taught in some scrappy schools, but that is the most violent gym class I've ever seen....