TRAINSPOTTING
UK, 1996, 94 minutes, Colour.
Ewan Mc Gregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin Mc Kidd, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald, Peter Mullan, James Cosmo, Shirley Henderson, Pauline Lynch, Irvine Welsh.
Directed by Danny Boyle.
A difficult film to review. It takes us into a squalid Scottish world of twentysomethings and drugs. But the addicts are persuasive when they tells us how much they enjoy the drugs. They don't pretend otherwise. However, as the film goes on, we go deeper into a self-destructive world, with dirt, sickness and death.
The style of the film is black comedy, sometimes surrealistic (as in a lavatory fantasy sequence). Cinematically, the film is clever and imaginative. Verbally, the screenplay has an eloquence (even in its grunge vocabulary) and cadenced rhetoric that seems at odds with its themes. Which means that the film is on the wavelength of younger audiences whose world it mirrors and can be quite alarming for those who wonder where the world is going. Which also means that this is film which challenges values and stances by confronting audiences.
The team for Trainspotting had made Shallow Grave and went on to make A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach, 28 Days Later and Sunshine.
1.The impact of the film in its time? Its status as a film classic? A film of the 90s? The work of Irvine Welsh? His own experience of drugs? The Scottish setting, Edinburgh (with Glasgow location work)? The screenplay by John Hodge and his collaboration with director Danny Boyle? Their later careers?
2.The Edinburgh locations, the authentic streets, buildings, the realism? The blend of surrealism? Fantasy sequences? The world of the addict and the addict’s imagination?
3.The theme of choosing life over drugs? The drug culture, the availability of drugs? Addictions, needs, money? Renton and his comment that the reason for doing the drugs was the pleasure that they gave?
4.The film seen as pro-drugs in its time? How true? How critical? Audiences shown various characters, their lives, non-judgmentally – and audiences responding accordingly?
5.The group, their friendship, life together, growing up, young adulthood? The soccer group? Sean Connery and the Scottish film icons?
6.Mark Renton, Ewan Mc Gregor, his voice-over, his wanting to give up the drugs, the drug experience, cold turkey, the reaction of his friends, his interactions with them, the relationship with the girl? Going cold turkey? Failing?
7.The surreal toilet sequence, Renton and the lavatory, the hand, diving in? Underwater, rising into the sun and out of the toilet?
8.Renton and his friends, the character of Sick Boy, his moods, film icons? Coming off the drugs? Philosophy of life? Shooting the dog?
9.The parents, their jobs, the relationship with their children? Influence?
10.Spud, comedy, the mad interview? The sheets? His behaviour, comic and disgusting?
11.The friendship with Begbie, Robert Carlyle’s performance? Pool, playing, bashing? His attitude towards drugs? His violence towards people? The bars, his outbursts?
12.Tommy, clean-cut, athletics, no lies, friendship, the curiosity about the drugs, the effect of this friendship?
13.The sex video, discussions about sex? Talk about football? Shopping?
14.The character of Diane, her drinking, relationship with Mark, the taxi? The sex and the couples? The lost video?
15.Mark, the fresh air, his friendships, inability to cope, wanting to get off the drugs, anti-government? The baby and Sick Boy? The possibility of family, children? Wanting to go cold turkey – in junkie limbo?
16.The overall effect of the film, audiences identifying with it, the drug culture, drug addiction in the United Kingdom? The reality, humour, tragedy?
