
A couple of years ago i was in Clydebank library looking for a good dvd. Most librarys now are nearly as good for dvd’s as the main rental chains, and they rent for a quarter the price.
I nearly rented the daft Will Smith film Hancock, but i spotted an obscure Scottish film tucked away that no one had rented for ages. On the front of the box under the title a review said “One of the greatest experiences the cinema has to offer”.
So i took home the Bill Douglas Trilogy and hid Hancock so no one else would get it before i came back the next day.
The first of the trilogy is called My Childhood, which is based on Bill Douglas’s own childhood with a young actor called Stephen Archibald playing Jamie, the young Bill Douglas.
Set in the 1940′s during the second world war the film conveys the harshness of growing up in poverty in a mining village near Edinburgh.
There is minimal dialogue throughout the film, Douglas prefers to use images and does so with great effect. During the long silences my mind wandered in and out of flashbacks to my own childhood which was no where near as harsh, and strangely a voice that was like my own grandfathers started to narrate parts of the film in my mind.
Its powerful stuff, but not overly harrowing, its very watchable compared to hard to stomach films like Sophie’s Choice. There is incredible warmth in the film despite the gritty surroundings.

Jamie strikes up a moving friendship with a nazi prisoner of war who is interned nearby and all through the film Jamie’s facial expressions inspire a spectrum of emotions which no other actor in the world has ever brought out in me. I don’t think Stephen Archibalds performance has been matched by any Scottish actor before or since.

My favourite scene is when Jamie spots a steam train passing through town and runs to the railway bridge to bask in the warm steam as it passes. It was an ecstatic moment, similar to the moment Du Fresne breaks out of Shawshank prison and embraces the rain as a free man.

I believe it is the best Scottish film ever made, and like it says on the tin it is one of the greatest experiences the cinema has to offer.
I will review the other two parts to the trilogy shortly.