Post by Dirty Epic on Jan 19, 2016 10:43:13 GMT
I’ve recently got this very powerful film on DVD and enjoyed it. Please note this may contain spoilers.
Before I review this I don’t consider Jimmy Boyle to be a hero figure. A bit like John McVicar he is a controversial/divisive figure who had little or no regard/remorse for the people he terrorised in his criminal past and the life he led. Still A Sense of Freedom is a tough and uncompromising account of Boyle’s early criminal career as a money lender, extortionist, robber, standover man and all round hard man gangster in Glasgow’s Gorbal’s in the mid/late 1960’s. It’s a complex paradox of fear, hate, admiration and respect which run’s through A Sense of Freedom.
David Hayman is absolutely electric as Boyle. Although not showing his childhood A Sense of Freedom begins with Boyle a leading figure in the ‘Cumbie’ gang after seemingly growing up in back then in a world where in order to survive he’s had to fight, steal and deal with rivals quickly and violently. Although A Sense of Freedom doesn’t show exactly what (?) from his childhood made him anti-social he does seemingly have a good relationship with his mother, peer group and members of his community – even giving money to the street kids whose parents don’t have it. But also has a lot of hate for authority figures (police) and rival crime gangs and after his violence goes one step to far Boyle ends up doing a minimum 15 year life sentence in 1967 for murder (he may/may not have committed). But Boyle is too hot to handle.
Prison if anything increases the violence and hate Boyle has for authority and after many years of solitary and extreme violence against the system Boyle is sent to Barlinnie prison’s Special Unit in 1974. Unlike the authoritarianism, regimented and violent regime of his previous prison experiences the ‘special unit’ does have a positive affect on Boyle who was released and went on to become a successful artist and (to some degree) social campaigner in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Adapted from Boyle’s book by writer Peter McDougall and directed by John MacKenzie it’s both a stunning insight into the razor/crime gangs which operated in Glasgow, Scotland and (some) North of England cities in the 1960’s/70’s and how their members like Boyle sunk into deeper criminality and darker crimes. I won’t lie the violence in A Sense of Freedom is extreme at times and I don’t see Boyle’s stubborn, rebellious and lawless nature at the time as anything to be proud of. However much of what is shown in the film is in my opinion is very relevant and it’s a shame television companies don’t take the same risks these days and make a modern day versions of something like this. I also don’t know whether it got banned for television when originally made by STV in 1981 as HandMade Films picked it up and re-released it for the cinema with a comical polished Scottish English re-dub. Luckily the original STV version – with Glaswegian dialect, is included on the DVD and look out of many well known faces from Scottish film and TV in this including Jake D’Arcy, Fulton Mackay, Sean Scanlan, P.H. Moriarty and from Taggart/The Sweeney Alex Norton – who has a bit part as a factory worker owing Boyle money and Hugh Martin (Selected Target) as the prison governor Boyle attacks when he's first sent to prison.
If you like McVicar you may well like A Sense of Freedom too.
Before I review this I don’t consider Jimmy Boyle to be a hero figure. A bit like John McVicar he is a controversial/divisive figure who had little or no regard/remorse for the people he terrorised in his criminal past and the life he led. Still A Sense of Freedom is a tough and uncompromising account of Boyle’s early criminal career as a money lender, extortionist, robber, standover man and all round hard man gangster in Glasgow’s Gorbal’s in the mid/late 1960’s. It’s a complex paradox of fear, hate, admiration and respect which run’s through A Sense of Freedom.
David Hayman is absolutely electric as Boyle. Although not showing his childhood A Sense of Freedom begins with Boyle a leading figure in the ‘Cumbie’ gang after seemingly growing up in back then in a world where in order to survive he’s had to fight, steal and deal with rivals quickly and violently. Although A Sense of Freedom doesn’t show exactly what (?) from his childhood made him anti-social he does seemingly have a good relationship with his mother, peer group and members of his community – even giving money to the street kids whose parents don’t have it. But also has a lot of hate for authority figures (police) and rival crime gangs and after his violence goes one step to far Boyle ends up doing a minimum 15 year life sentence in 1967 for murder (he may/may not have committed). But Boyle is too hot to handle.
Prison if anything increases the violence and hate Boyle has for authority and after many years of solitary and extreme violence against the system Boyle is sent to Barlinnie prison’s Special Unit in 1974. Unlike the authoritarianism, regimented and violent regime of his previous prison experiences the ‘special unit’ does have a positive affect on Boyle who was released and went on to become a successful artist and (to some degree) social campaigner in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Adapted from Boyle’s book by writer Peter McDougall and directed by John MacKenzie it’s both a stunning insight into the razor/crime gangs which operated in Glasgow, Scotland and (some) North of England cities in the 1960’s/70’s and how their members like Boyle sunk into deeper criminality and darker crimes. I won’t lie the violence in A Sense of Freedom is extreme at times and I don’t see Boyle’s stubborn, rebellious and lawless nature at the time as anything to be proud of. However much of what is shown in the film is in my opinion is very relevant and it’s a shame television companies don’t take the same risks these days and make a modern day versions of something like this. I also don’t know whether it got banned for television when originally made by STV in 1981 as HandMade Films picked it up and re-released it for the cinema with a comical polished Scottish English re-dub. Luckily the original STV version – with Glaswegian dialect, is included on the DVD and look out of many well known faces from Scottish film and TV in this including Jake D’Arcy, Fulton Mackay, Sean Scanlan, P.H. Moriarty and from Taggart/The Sweeney Alex Norton – who has a bit part as a factory worker owing Boyle money and Hugh Martin (Selected Target) as the prison governor Boyle attacks when he's first sent to prison.
If you like McVicar you may well like A Sense of Freedom too.
