Diagnosed with an aggressive cancer of the right lung on my 58th birthday (14th July) So not really ...
Diagnosed with an aggressive cancer of the right lung on my 58th birthday (14th July) So not really in the humour for writing much at the moment, although I *WILL* be back before too long...Ken
Member since:06.12.2000
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~ ~ I was looking forward to the movie Trainspotting, as I had read the novel by Irvine Walsh on which it is based, and while Walsh’s novels can be disturbing, they are always amusing, and always full off very funny dialogue. The fact that it was based in my home city of Edinburgh, and that I could relate to many of the settings, while at the same time having no problem with the thick Scot’s dialect and slang terms, also made me want to like this film. So the fact that I didn’t enjoy it very much at all surprised me a little. But even I wasn’t prepared for some of the totally gruesome and horrible images portrayed in this movie about a group of young Edinburgh heroin addicts.
~ ~ Directed by Danny Boyle, whose only previous film was Shallow Grave, another dark comedy set in Scotland, the main character is a teenager called Mark Renton, played by Ewan McGregor. We get a clue as to what direction the film may be heading with his opening remarks at the start of the movie. "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a starter home. Choose dental insurance, leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose your future. But why would anyone want to do a thing like that?" It soon becomes apparent that Mark’s main pleasure and abiding passion in life is “shooting up” heroin, along with a motley collection of mates who revel in the drug scene in Scotland’s capital city.
~
~ Trainspotting focuses mainly on the closed culture of the druggies, and on their off-beat and somewhat twisted humour. Much of their effort goes into avoiding the awful possibility of gaining useful employment, as they are occasionally sent for interviews by the local employment exchange. They accomplish this objective by being as repugnant and repulsive as is humanly possible, so that no one would even remotely think of hiring them. Money to feed their habit is gained from a combination of taxpayer’s money (the dole) and thieving from shops, cars and people.
~ ~ So is there anything about this film that I liked? One scene I must own up to enjoying thoroughly takes place in an Edinburgh bar. Mark and his crew are in having a bevvy (partaking of alcohol) when the local hard man Begbie, played to total perfection by the great and extremely versatile Scottish actor Robert Carlyle, (The Full Monty, Hamish McBeth) throws his beer glass off the upstairs balcony, whereupon it lands on the head of some poor, unsuspecting patron below causing them severe injury. To cover his tracks, and divert suspicion away from himself, Begbie immediately informs the bar in his own inimitable fashion, that no one is leaving until the person responsible for the awful deed is uncovered. Mayhem then ensues, with skin and hair, not to mention feet, bottles and even more glasses flying!! I thoroughly enjoyed this scene, as I could relate totally to the Begbie character, most Scottish towns having a character very like this in their midst.
~ ~ Another amusing scene is when Mark and another of his friends “Sick Boy” (Jonny Lee Miller) are shooting the breeze up in the Meadows, an inner city park in a fairly upmarket part of Edinburgh city. Sick Boy is obsessed with the Scottish actor Sean Connery, and more specifically with his role of James Bond, and is carrying an air rifle which he fantasises is a sniper’s rifle similar to his heroes. They spot someone out exercising his pet Pit Bull Terrier, and when Sick Boy (from a distance) despatches an air pellet into its rather tender nether regions, you can perhaps imagine the anger the dog then vents on its unfortunate owner!!
~ ~ But these two scenes apart, Trainspotting, for me at least, goes way over the top in most of its scenes, with the end result that I just couldn’t enjoy the film no matter how hard I tried. Let me give you a few examples of scenes I considered OTT. Yet another of Mark’s friends, Spud (Ewen Bremmer) passes out from overindulgence, and ends up spending the night at his girlfriend’s house. The constant drug taking has played havoc with his metabolism, and he has developed almost uncontrollable diarrhoea, with the result that when he awakens from his stupor the following morning, he discovers to his horror that the sheets are quite literally covered in runny s**t. He then enters the dining room clutching the filthy sheets, where his girlfriend and her family are sitting enjoying a pleasant breakfast. A tug of war then follows with her mother, that ends up with the only too realistic s**t flying everywhere, both into the food, and all over everyone’s faces. As if this isn’t bad enough, the Director then decides to give us some lingering shots of the aforementioned faeces dripping down people’s faces. You may have a different sense of humour to me, and have found this scene hilarious. I personally found it totally repugnant.
~ ~ In another scene, Mark dives into a public toilet appropriately called, "the worst toilet in Scotland", in order to recover his lost suppositories. Even in my worst nightmares I have never witnessed such a filthy hole of a toilet, and I found this scene completely stomach wrenching. I’m sure the Director thought he was being very clever and symbolic about the lengths some drug addicts are prepared to go to in order to feed their habit, but he was sadly mistaken. This scene is simply awful, and should never have been allowed to hit our cinema screens. (my opinion)
~ ~ And as for the scene where the teenage druggy’s baby dies while all the addicts are so spaced out that they don’t even notice!! I really didn’t see the point of this, and felt it was only put into the movie purely and simply for the shock factor with the audience. At this point I found myself thinking what are we going to have to endure next in the cinema, in the search for ever more extreme ways of “amusing” an audience.
~ ~ So I’m afraid that this over rated piece of self indulgent tripe, which in no way measured up to Irvine Walsh’s book, doesn’t get any sort of recommendation from this “mad cabby”. As well as the too frequent and lingering scenes of youngsters using heroin, there is the extreme violence, constant use of foul and abusive language, full frontal male and female nudity, and sex scenes that leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. I go to the Cinema to be amused and entertained, and very occasionally to even be made to think seriously about something. This film does none of these things. (at least for me)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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
You know when I first saw the film I would have totally disagreed with just about every point you make here (I was an ex-Film Studies student and everyone knew it!! How far up my own ass was I?!!!!) but I rewatched it not so long ago and I wasn't impressed! I totally agree with you on everything...it's nice when there's someone here that shares you pov!!! Thanx, Kez x
timmyotoole 13.07.2001 21:25
I concede I haven't seen it, but this is an excellent, informative opinion and the film sounds totally repungant to me. Cheers, Timmy.
Gwenick 10.07.2001 11:21
Brilliant op. I'm afraid I enjoyed this movie - each to our ouwn I guess - :-) Gwen
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: 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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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Trainspotting (DVD)
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Jul 10th, 2001
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