The original script by
A.F.N. Clarke was a faithful adaptation of his book of the same name which was a memoir about his two tours of duty in Northern Ireland in 1973 and 1976. Director
Alan Clarke was not happy with the script, feeling it would not be possible to make with the limited budget and shooting time he had. So A.F.N. Clarke had to scale everything down in the script and take out a lot of dialogue, something he was not happy with as he wanted to keep the essence of his book intact.
In the end, Alan and A.F.N. had a lengthy discussion about the essence of the book and decided that by taking out the dialogue, it made it a very visceral film in the style of the visceral nature of the book.