Trainspotting [1996]

McGregor, Lee Miller and Ewen Bremner play a slouching trio of Scottish junkies; Carlyle their narcotic-eschewing but hard-drinking and generally psychotic mate Begbie. In Boyle's hands, their lives unfold in a rush of euphoric highs, blow-out overdoses and agonising withdrawals (all cued to a vogueish pop soundtrack). Throughout it all, John Hodge's screenplay strikes a delicate balance between acknowledging the inherent pleasures of drug use and spotlighting its eventual consequences. In Trainspotting's world view, it all comes down to a question of choices--between the dangerous Day-Glo highs of the addict and the grey, grinding consumerism of the everyday Joe. "Choose life", quips the film's narrator (McGregor) in a monologue that was to become a mantra. "Choose a job, choose a starter home... But why would anyone want to do a thing like that?" Ultimately, Trainspotting's wised-up, dead-beat inhabitants reject mainstream society in favour of a headlong rush to destruction. It makes for an exhilarating, energised and frequently terrifying trip that blazes with more energy and passion than a thousand more ostensibly life-embracing movies. --Xan Brooks

To recap, Trainspotting follows the lives of three junkies (Renton, Sick Boy and Spud) and a psychopath (Begbie) in Edinburgh (although quite a lot of the film is actually shot in my home town of Glasgow). Having recieved a mixture of acclaim and controversy when it was released, those who make the effort to watch it will realise it is not about glamorising drugs. It is essentially about the break up of friendships between men who have been pals since school and whose lives decay in a furore of drink, violence, sex, and drugs. It also makes an important statement of how mundane junkies' lives are.

The most disturbing aspect of this film is actually the amount of humour: from the bookmaker's toilet to the psychopath Begbie, quite simply a nutter, to use a nice vernacular phrase. Also look out for Sick Boy's great impressions of Sean Connery.

The extras on the DVD are great and a perfect length. Various missing scenes are included on the first disc. On the second disc, there is a mixture of interviews (including one with the author of the book, Irvine Welsh), and good behind-the-scenes material, including some nice multi-angle material.

Admirers of Trainspotting will have already appreciated its pulsating and eclectic soundtrack: from Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' to Sleeper's cover of 'Atomic'; from Iggy Pop's 'Lust For Life' to 'Habanera' from Carmen. This DVD explains the choice of sound, as well as other aspects such as visuals and colour, and was interested to find out the music is designed to move the audience from the 1980s where the story begins to the 1990s. Indeed, Renton, the hero (?) of the film begins as a person with his mind stuck in the era of Iggy Pop, before eventually waking up to the 1990s with Pulp and Damon Albarn. Incidentally, also look out for the vox-pops of Albarn at the Cannes film festival on the second disc, as well as the likes of Oasis and Ewan McGregor himself.

This a film which deals with a controversial subject in a perfect manner with an excellent cast, great visuals, and a racing sountrack. ***** Five Stars! *****


Funny, disturbing and highly entertaining....!   January 17, 2006
Shkandrij
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

Making a good film based around hardcore drug abuse is a tough thing to pull off, however somehow this tale of gritt, violence, sex, betrayal and drugs found its way to international stardom. The acting is A*, you really don't get much better then this, and the script is slick and snappy, along with the plot which is funny and disturbing at the same time, showing us life as a 'druggi' in an almost documentary style way, making it highly realistic.


'Moving on, the day you die'.   October 15, 2006
Mr. A. E. Hall (Liverpool, UK)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Trainspotting is largely responsible for the revival of the British Film Industry and one the finest films of the 1990s. It is also one of my personal favourites.

Set in the underworld of Edinburgh, Renton and his 'so called friends'. Among them are Begbie (a psychopath), Tommy (too honest for his own good), Sickboy (Sean Connery enthusiast and utterly unreliable) and Spud (slimy loser). Renton is desperate to kick his addiction to heroin. But why would he want to choose life? His attempt to go straight goes through many twists and turns, with underage girls, scrapes with the law, re-addiction and even all the way to London, back to Edinburgh and then back again. Despite the horror of the life of the protagonists, the films ends or an uplifting high.

Among the best scenes in the film are (The Worst) toilet (in Scotland), Spud's moring-after-the-night-before disaster, the junkie limbo and Renton abandoning his 'so-called mates'. The final shot of Renton walking away over the Bridge with Born Slippy by Underworld playing is one of my favourites of all time.

Sick, twisted and funny, black comedy, with great acting by all, impressive directing by Danny Boyle and a wonderful soundtrack, Trainspotting is a great buy.


A high octane thrill without the needle   February 28, 2001
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

A highly energetic adaption of the Irvine Welsh bestseller, following the misadventures of a group of Edinburgh drug addicts whose dependency and downward spiral is offset by a pumping soundtrack and visually stunning photography. Lauded as counter-culture and following hot on the heels of director Danny Boyle's hit Shallow Grave, this is in fact a very traditional and very funny story, told by lead character Renton (Ewan McGregor) of a rites-of-passage tale aided and abetted by a junkie's needle. Four of the main characters are all heroin addicts, with the exception of Robert Carlyle's wonderfully psychotic Begbie, who is so completely barking no drugs are needed to send him wildly off his tree. Renton (as the film's main focus and narrator) is determined to kick the habit and does cold turkey, only to find the temptations from his friends too near at hand as he is sucked back into their world with both horrific and hilarious consequences. Pulling the rug of sympathy from under Renton's feet however, the film shifts confusingly from our hero searching for his next desperate heroin fix halfway through the film to a suddenly transformed young suit popping up in London as an estate agent. Such an action belies his apparent mental frailty and begs the obvious question Why on earth take the drug if life is as easy as this? From early on the script adopts a commercial crowd-pleasing tone (there are endless references to Sean Connery and Iggy Pop, a la Tarantino) thus enabling most of the cast to at least become coherent to a large section of the audience (a feat that seemed to escape the novel). Violent and hugely entertaining in its approach, this is a film that, despite its reputation, avoids the underbelly of the drug world, neatly side-stepping the more painful aspects in favour of a glossy sheen on the media's favourite theme: twentysomething angst, a move that promises handsome returns at the box office. This is a film with intelligence, wit and a notable debut from the very, very promising Kelly McDonald; talent and beauty in equal measure. Proof that Britain, or should that be Scotland, has more than enough bite at the box office.


Choose This!   December 22, 2002
David Carling (London, United Kingdom)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Still boasting one of the most spectacular opening sequences of contemporary movie history, Trainspotting remains as one of the more finer pieces of British cinema to grace our screens in recent years. Filmed in an disused Cigarette factory in Glasgow on a 1.5 million budget, Trainspotting is based on the best-selling book by Irvine Welsh, author of other drug-fueled novels such as 'Ecstasy' and 'The Acid House', John Hodge's near faithful, toned down script is one to savor and relish within, as we are taken through the back streets of the human breed.

Starring Ewan McGregor as the young, unemployed junkie Mark Renton, Director Danny Boyles' disturbing vision of a crime-controlled Edinburgh, is ruthlessly displayed with incredible confidence and effortless brutality as we are shown the way before the eyes of Renton. Following the lives of Mark and his disturbing friends Sick Boy, Spud, Begbie and Tommy and their crusades into violence and addictions, and the price their fun will cost. With nothing left to imagination, the film skips from Drug-use to cot death, from sexual frustration to underage sex, but stays alive long enough to tell a very poignant tale of how life can change where return to the norm is no longer an option. Even though the disturbing use of harrowing imagery remains the key player of the films make-up, an agonizing soundtrack which underplays the powerful leads, rests as an odd mixture of golden oldies and modern pop.

A Classic in a new era of film-making