Apr 18, 20217 min read

Trainspotting: High Notes in a Shallow World

Updated: Jan 29, 2023

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Reviews by:

@the_owlseyes
@_lights_cameron_action
@movie_oddity

This movie has defined an era but it's still there, remembering us that things didn't change that much. At the time it wasn't the first movie about drug addictions and junkies, in fact it came after Easy Rider and Scarface, an Al Pacino's movies, and the last one is a cult which has been spoofed to death. But this, this the one which kickstarted a trend and a new approach to the problem of narcotism. After Trainspotting came Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, Requiem for a Dream, Blow, City of God and Maria Full of Grace. The junkie started to being represented as a complex sympathetic character with a believable arch. And it still resonates with the younger generations, now more than ever.

PLOT

"Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends" or "Renton's come of age journey".

SCRIPT

It's pretty simple but pretty effective and it doesn't waste time in self indulging scenes. The characters receive a detailed introduction by Renton, the protagonist, and an explanation, from his point of view, of their sharply defined behaviour. Renton isn't just the protagonist, it's the audience's proxy in a world of poverty and drugs. The script doesn't want to glamourize them, in fact it reminds time and time again that we're watching despicable people. Something similar to A Clockwork Orange and Alex DeLarge, on which is based Renton's character. Only Renton has a conclusive story arch, but this is the point because most of the junkies are recidivist and their environment, Edinburgh, create a static, sluggish life without a possiblity to get out, which is what Renton does and that gives us a sense of hope. In it there are also hints at a changing society, one that's approaching the surge of sexual awakening. The movie, as you understood it, is character driven and I think that the bunch needs to shine here.

Tommy is the one with less screen time but with the saddest arch. He is introduced like the best, the one who is fully integrated into sthe society. He has everything at first: a girl, a job, a house and he isn't deep into heroin addiction. But everything is blown to smithereens after a spiteful choice of Renton. An, after having lost everything, he is slowly killed by AIDS. To me he represent the lamb who set Renton on a journey of growth and the fact that good people don't survive in a toxic environment.

Spud is the bunch's fool but is the kindest. The addiction makes him fail at job interviews and with his girlfriend. He's arrested for shoplifting and drugs consumption but he doesn't grow after it. The character is redeemed by the fact that he lets Renton run away with the money, acquired after a deal with drug dealers, knowing that only him could be really free. He represents the gullibility of who gets into drugs without understanding his choice and the fact that friendship is what matters when you have nothing else to rejoice for.

Begbie is addicitions are sex, beer, competition and violence. He is grumpy, rugged and tactless. There's no redemption for him. He represents toxic masculinity at its peak with the included homophobia. He hates himself when he almost had an intercourse with a transexual, trying to convince himself and Renton that he's not an homosexual. His character represents the past and its generations, boomer and baby boomers, who failed or is failing to adapt to a changing world.

Sick Boy is the well mannered and cultured one. In the movie exposes ideas to the protagonist, to wander with him. He's also the one who prompts the group to do bad things. He's still, like the others above, but he's punished harshly. He shows that culture doesn't make you a better person if you're heavily flawed but deepens your shallowness. Something that emerge from the fact that he cares a lot about what he wears.

Renton is the story's pivot. He's nihilistic and shy with an underlining rage. He represents the motivation which pushes people into drug: society's uncertainty and hollowness. I think that one of his quotes will allow you to understand him well, without a lot of words:

“Choose a life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers... Choose DSY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit crushing game shows, stucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away in the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself, choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?”

Script: 8/10

ACTING

It's top notch from the leads and supporting cast. Everyone grants a good range of emotions and there's a lot of credibility in dope's scene, especially the effects and consequences of it. The scene where Renton experience the aftereffects of withdrawal is amazing and you're able to feel with him the pain and distress.

Acting: 8/10

PHOTOGRAPHY

Clear color but not too brilliant set the stage of the Edinburgh's underworld. For the look of the film, Boyle was influenced by the colours of Francis Bacon's paintings, which represented "a sort of in-between land – part reality, part fantasy". The scene where Renton dives in a toilet is a reference to Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow.Most of the times the doping' s shots are filmed without a clear light but here they shines, creating an unsettling and beautiful dissonance. The lack of light is used only when Tommy, after having contracted HIV, interacts with the other characters as a simbol of death's incoming.

Photography: 6/10

EDITING

It's hallucinating and inventive. It's a stunning mix of "a handheld, hurtling camera", jump cuts, zoom shots, freeze frames and wide angles. This results in a movie well and fast paced. There're a lot of memorable but the one that I think will be stuck into your mind is the toilet scene.

Editing: 8/10

SPECIAL EFFECTS

There's little cgi and that's awesome. It feels more grounded and veritable. You could see it in the toilet scene and the heroine's withdrawal one but there's another one that strucked me: the scene where Renton overdose. You'll find it here because I want you to appreciate the craft of this movie.

Special Effects: 8/10

SOUNDTRACK

It's a BritPop symphony. Every song is well contestualized and the lyrics are intertwined with the narration. The Trainspotting soundtracks were two best-selling albums of music. The first is a collection of songs featured in the film, while the second includes those left out from the first soundtrack and extra songs that inspired the filmmakers during production. We could say that the music is in itself a character.

Soundtrack: 9/10

COSTUMES

Nothing exceptional here. They work in their neatness.

Costumes: 6/10

CONCLUSION

Script: 8/10

Acting: 8/10

Photography: 6/10

Editing: 8/10

Special Effects: 8/10

Soundtrack: 9/10

Costumes: 6/10

AVERAGE: 7,57

A classic evergreen that entertain and inform about a dark world. The social commentary and themes still matter, a lot, in a vague ad dim society which is not able to save the youth from addiction because it pushes them to it. Have we ever chose life?

By @the_owlseyes

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Trainspotting (1996) is a film based on Trainspotting (1993) a novel written by Irvine Welsh. The film is centred on a group of friends Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, Tommy and Begbie dealing with heroin abuse, with the characters constantly in an aggressive cycle of addiction, cessation and rehabilitation. Two of the characters don’t touch drugs including Begbie (who’s addiction is “doing people”) and Tommy the only character with a stable life (well initially). Renton starts the events that lead to Tommy’s death by stealing a private sex tape which causes his girlfriend to leave him, steering him towards depression and a heroin addiction. While not being pro drug the film points towards the fact that some characters have been abusing for years and others not showing that it’s essentially a lottery with life as the odds don’t always add up. It’s easy to think the film is solely focused on drug abuse, it’s also about a group of friends dealing with poverty and unemployment in Edinburgh, deciding exactly where there life will go next. This film has everything, humour, it has tragic scenes that cross into disturbing and weird at times, has an incredible soundtrack including some classic British music, the Ewen Mcgregor narration throughout the film and the ambiguity of the ending makes this one of the best British films I’ve ever seen! #dannyboyle #ewanmcgregor #robertcarlyle #chooselife #irvinewelsh

By @_lights_cameron_action

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【呢部異戲講乜？】

自從老娘上班後，喜歡聽搖滾，覺得有種相逢恨晚的感覺。每天拖著沉重軀殼，聽着Beatles、Radiohead、Oasis、Nirvana、The Killer……我寄望自己逃離生活的種種虛無，於是嘗試在曲子中找到自信的叛逆。搖滾有樣十分迷人的地方，很多曲子都提醒着人生苦短，理應尋找自己的生活，但處處都流露出無力及反抗的矛盾感。村上春村在《1973彈珠玩具》中提及「我」在上班後忘記自己曾經購買Beatles的〈Rubber Soul〉，老娘我有時都害怕忘記進入社會體制前的自己，所以不斷在聽搖滾的曲子。

隨着老娘慢慢喜歡搖滾，發現《猜火車》這部好片子，導演在這部片子的開首配著Iggy Pop的〈Lust For Life〉，一語中的般交代這部片子的中心主題：

「選擇生活，選擇工作，選擇事業，選擇家庭，選他媽的大電視機，選洗衣機、車子、CD、電動開罐器，選擇健康、低膽固醇和牙醫保險、定息低率貸款，選擇房子，選擇朋友，選擇休閒服跟搭配的行李箱，選擇各種布料的西裝，選DIY，懷疑自己是啥？看心智麻痺的電視，嘴裡塞滿垃圾食物，最後整個人腐爛到底，在悲慘的家裡生一堆自私的混蛋小孩煩死自己，不過是難堪罷了，選擇未來，選擇生活，......我幹嘛做這些事？」

《#猜火車》（#trainspotting ），又稱《#迷幻列車》，是一部1996年#英國電影。電影講述五個有毒癮的主角Mark、Sick Boy、Spud、Begbie、Diane生活放浪頹廢，不斷吸食毒品、性愛、暴力和犯罪。片中多次刻劃男主角Mark及其他人物毒癮發作的畫面，Mark 有次不得不伸手到滿是自己和別人屎尿的馬桶裏，摸索剛排出來的毒品，後來鏡頭一轉，導演便以超現實的手法來表現他跌入馬桶後，在藍海裏尋索毒品，呈現出Mark毒癮帶來的執迷及幻想。

後來Mark下決心戒毒，取得了暫時的成功，但好景不常，不久之後他就開始再次吸食海洛因。Mark在Diane的鼓勵下，他遠離了一堆狐朋狗友，他遠走倫敦，並謀得一份房地產中介的職位，但他的好友Begbie和Sick boy迫使他參與到一場海洛因交易之中......

By @movie_oddity

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