“How can you build character in a regime based on deprivation? It’s a one-way contamination. Good, fine minds thrown in with crazy, perverted people. What am I doing here? Why aren’t I on another wing with somebody to talk to, where I could be civilised? I’m always looking over me shoulder. If it’s not a screw, it’s a con.”
The fact that BBC banned it only proves the film’s point and shows how institutions react when confronted with themselves. I couldn’t decide which version to watch first and I’m so glad I started with this one. It’s raw and bleak, Alan Clarke didn’t soften a thing. That’s cinema as defiance. That’s punk. I can’t wait to see the 1979 theatrical version next!
“How can you build character in a regime based on deprivation? It’s a one-way contamination. Good, fine minds thrown in with crazy, perverted people. What am I doing here? Why aren’t I on another wing with somebody to talk to, where I could be civilised? I’m always looking over me shoulder. If it’s not a screw, it’s a con.”
The fact that BBC banned it only proves the film’s point and shows how institutions react when confronted with themselves. I couldn’t decide which version to watch first and I’m so glad I started with this one. It’s raw and bleak, Alan Clarke didn’t soften a thing. That’s cinema as defiance. That’s punk. I can’t wait to see the 1979 theatrical version next!
