Wannabe writer/critic currently selling PCs - and my soul - at PC World. Spent a lot of time crashi...
Wannabe writer/critic currently selling PCs - and my soul - at PC World. Spent a lot of time crashing intellectual parties in Prague. Now being nice on Ciao! UK.
Member since:13.12.2000
Reviews:116
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When Trainspotting was first released five years ago, it was hailed as the film that resurrected the British film Industry. Before that, it was Shallow Grave, and before that, Four Weddings and a Funeral. One of these crops up every few years, makes a big splash, causes a spate of inferior copies and cash-ins, then bobs back under.
In hindsight, Trainspotting is far weaker than Boyle's debut, Shallow Grave. Due to the episodic nature of Irvine Welsh's acidic cult novel, it can't help but wane towards the end...curiously, the attempt to add some kind of plot with the boy's drug deal actually weakens the movie.
As it is, Renton (McGregor) and his friends live a life of squalor in Edinburgh's run down council estates. All they care about is the next hit, begging, stealing and borrowing to gather the capital needed. The episodes veer between hilarious, disgusting, tragic, and just boring.
This film made Ewan McGregor and others stars, and deservedly so. With his manic leer and pent up energy, McGregor holds the movie together as the narrator. Ewan Bremner gets loads of laughs as the pathetic Spud, and Johnny Lee Miller is calm and assured as the Sean Connery fixated lothario Sick Boy. Kelly McDonald has a nice role as Renton's underage girlfriend, and Kevin McDonald is the tragic Tommy.
Most visible, however, is Robert Carlyle as the diminutive psycho, Begbie. With slicked back, ratty hair and moustache, he makes the role his own, munching on the filthy scenery at every opportunity.
Viewed five years on, the film thrills and irritates in equal measures. The first irritation is that innovative poster design when you open the video box - how many times was that line up idea recycled? Even the Coen Brothers masterpiece The Big Lebowski ended up using it.
Then thrills - the energetic opening set to Iggy Pop's 'Lust for Life' is the perfect opening for a movie - but the closest the rest of the film gets to this perfection is the funereal overdose scene set to Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day'. The rest is puke, shit, swimming in toilets, drugs, dead babies, punch ups, underage sex and great tunes. Just like a holiday in Magalluf, then. (Without the dead babies.)
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2003 - Drama - Director: Michael Winterbottom - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Om Puri, Jeanne Balibar
I disagree with your overall rating (I'd give it 4 star, or 5 star for when I first saw it 5 years ago) but I take your point on the 'dating' of the film. It just doesn't seem to work these days to try to, I suppose in some ways, 'glamourise' drugs (albeit in a hideously un-glamorous way!). It's just not seen as all that 'cool' anymore I don't think. Strikes me the film is really little more than an exploration of all things rank - funny you should mention 'dead babies' because I always think it's similar in some (superficial) ways to the excellent if stomach-churning novel Dead Babies by Amis. It comes out in film-version on Friday 26th Jan (2001!) if you want to see it -- and review it!
jambo6 06.01.2001 14:32
Excellent op, one or two things I'd disagree slightly on though (Although it's ended up like an essay:-) I think it's a bit unfair to blame Trainspotting for the inadequacies of other films. It does die a bit at the end, but to follow the book properly would have been very difficult, as the book is a collection of soundbites. I lived in Embra in the 80's and would say a lot of the gritty Magalluf stuff you seem squeamish about is pretty realistic, even though it's surreal. Drugs were coming out of the trees at you and I saw loads of serious kickings involving knives, glasses, baseball bats (I was on the end of a couple). My sisters friend got glassed one night because she looked at another girl the wrong way. Having lived very near Craigmillar, I think he was spot on with the robbing, puke and shit. I don't know about your thoughts on it being a dated zeitgiest (Did you just mean the packaging or the concept?) but people I speak to now say its far worse than it was in the 80's. Having said that it's still a great place.
EnglishPatient 06.01.2001 13:58
Your reviews are always worth checking out...they offer a point of view not usually found in the media. It's refreshing, and unbiased. Great stuff. I also think in some ways, despite the initial feelgood factor and success, Trainspotting was to blame for all the terrible imitations that have blighted the British Film Industry over the last few years, so I agree with you there. Much like the way the Spice Girls spawned the resurgence of calculated, insipid teen-pop. They were good, but the copies just get worse every year.
The film that effectively launched the star careers of Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor and ... more
Jonny Lee Miller is a hard, barbed picaresque, culled from the bestseller by Irvine Welsh and thrown down against the heroin hinterlands of Edinburgh. Directed wit...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The film that effectively launched the star careers of Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor and ... more
Jonny Lee Miller is a hard, barbed picaresque, culled from the bestseller by Irvine Welsh and thrown down against the heroin hinterlands of Edinburgh. Directed wit...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The film that effectively launched the star careers of Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor and ... more
Jonny Lee Miller is a hard, barbed picaresque, culled from the bestseller by Irvine Welsh and thrown down against the heroin hinterlands of Edinburgh. Directed wit...
Postage & Packaging: Check Site. Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The film that effectively launched the star careers of Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor and ... more
Jonny Lee Miller is a hard, barbed picaresque, culled from the bestseller by Irvine Welsh and thrown down against the heroin hinterlands of Edinburgh. Directed wit...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: Simply and excellently crafted movie that will make you both laugh and cry Disadvantages: Strong language, some sex, occasional brutal violence, scenes of drug taking may offend some people
brianbarnes 06.07.2001 ·
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Review of Trainspotting (DVD)
Advantages: Sublime and raw, a potently must-see eye-opener for the public. Disadvantages: Blotches of the disgusting capability of human anatomy - lots of faeces and the likes.
ikeaholic 11.07.2004 (11.07.2004)
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Review of Trainspotting (DVD)
![Trainspotting [DVD] [1996]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78551594.jpg "Trainspotting [DVD] [1996]")
![Trainspotting [DVD] [1996] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/116083763.jpg "Trainspotting [DVD] [1996] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]")
![Trainspotting [DVD] [1995]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/75200850.jpg "Trainspotting [DVD] [1995]")
Jan 6th, 2001
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![Trainspotting [Special Edition]-DVD](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/103252867.jpg)
