Choose life. What does that exactly mean? Well, to me it means a lot of things but if you want to explore what "choose life" doesn't mean to some people, you should experience Danny Boyle's cult classic "Trainspotting". In a way, all these characters seem to have chosen a way of life, but apparently see it as something closer to death.
'Trainspotting' is like modern-day "Clockwork Orange" in terms of temperament and setting, as it were. There are a few scenes that are somewhat reminiscent of 'Clockwork Orange' but aren't necessarily identical. In essence, its a film about youth culture as well as drugs. (ex: 'The Man With The Golden Arm', 'Drugstore Cowboy', 'Down to The Bone' and 'Requiem for A Dream' immediately come to mind), "Trainspotting" joins the list.
a technical standpoint, the camera-work and cinematography are fluid, inventive and original. The music is interestingly diverse and always fitting. The story itself is nothing new but is written and executed in such a wild fashion that everything seems fresh rather than recycled.
Trainspotting is one of the best British films ever made and my favourite film of all time. It's gritty, edgy, unrelenting and is secure in it's status as a cultural phenomenon.
Based on the incredible novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. Trainspotting chronicles the lives of a bunch of friends immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene.
Ewan McGregor gives his best performance to date as troubled protaganist Renton and Ewen Bremner equally incredible as his dopey yet loveable best mate Spud. Robert Carlyle gives easily the best performance as quick tempered egomaniac Frank Begbie and in my opinion is one of the best and most entertaining characters although not likeable ever seen in film.
From all the films of his I have seen, Trainspotting remains Danny Boyle's finest hour, it's a daring work of art which was a breath of fresh air to british film-making.
This is film that must be seen. The characters are brilliant and especially the conversations they carry out with each other (a personal favourite of mine is Sick Boy's theory of life). Filled with memorable scenes, great use of black comedy and a perfect soundtrack, Trainspotting is the ultimate experience.
a self-affirming, honest film about the highs of heroin addiction and the lows of drug withdrawal featuring ewan mcgregor at his most bare performance. the visual creativity of director danny boyle is comparable to that of requiem for a dream's darren aronofsky; but the film is not as depressing as the latter. trainspotting is filled with hip gen-ex characters, witty voice-overs and a soundtrack conscious of the events happening. the story (based from irvine welsh's novel of the same name) revels and pokes fun at drug use with great care that the characters become likable even if they are just assholes trying to get the next big fix. same sentiment goes for the film in general: it knows how to be both honest and entertaining in portraying a sensitive topic such as drug use that it didn't make me feel gloomy after watching it.
esta pelicula demuestra que terribles son las drogas, pero tambien, mostro al mundo cosas para ese entonces, desconocidas, Ewan McGregor en el mejor papel que ha hecho, el gran Robert Carlyle no deja de sorprender en cada escena, el guion y la direccion del director de culto, Danny Boyle hacen de esta pelicula britanica, una joya unica e irrepetible.
This type of movie isn't really my thing. Years ago I tried to watch "Trainspotting" and ended up turning it off twenty minutes in. There's something so offputting to me about a film that makes itself stylish and cool when dealing with drugs. I hate how the characters in this film become cult icons, and the fanbase almost "admires" the people as if they're the group they want to hang out with. Of course, you can't have a completely dead and pathetic world as then you eliminate the temptation of the drugs themselves... but in a world where things are so joyous, full of energy, and hip - then what's the real message you're sending? An out-of-place image of a dead neglected child doesn't offer much rebuttal for the relentless style added to heroin addiction. To me, the film's biggest achievement was it's flashy direction... but, that was at the cost of a well-paced and consistent movie.
The narrator of "Trainspotting" is Renton, played by a young Ewan McGregor. At the beginning of the movie he seems absolutely desperate and willing to go to any lengths for his fix. In one infamous scene near the begging of the film, Renton literally dives into a toilet to find his suppositories. That is just one of the many surrealistic touches Danny Boyle adds to his film. Renton's group of friends is a familiar gang - there's a harmless goofball in Spud (Ewan Bremner), the con artist who happens to be obsessed with Sean Connery in Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), the "clean" character in Tommy (Kevin McKidd), and the out-of-control Begbie (Robert Carlyle). In fact, these characters were so familiar that it was as if Boyle decided that character development wasn't needed whatsoever... we've already seen these people hundreds of times. For an "edgy" film, a lot of it's characters and plot devices are rather textbook.
I can't say that this is a completely horrible film, but I certainly didn't enjoy it as much as many other people do. In fact, I hated a whole lot about it. I found the first half to be nearly unwatchable. As a film that's only been described to me as "hilarious", I certainly wasn't amused with poop joke after poop joke. Also, I can't say it's exactly funny to watch people desperate to the point of digging through their own feces for drugs... no matter how surreal and exaggerated you make it, it's still a pathetic character doing shameless and humiliating things. For a film that tries to be a comedy, all I could do was pity the characters. And after we find that there's not a single one of them that's in any way redeemable in the long run, you give up feeling pity.
What is especially odd is the last half of the film. There was a lot of it I really enjoyed, like the half hour or so after Renton and Spud are arrested. At that point, you almost feel like this film is turning into "A Clockwork Orange" where now it was time for Renton to face all of his demons. But, of course not, shortly thereafter he's back with heroin and involved with drug deals. I thought the third act of this film was one of the strangest and most out of place epilogues i've ever seen. For what is essentially nothing more than a low-budget dark comedy, it suddenly turns into a mediocre at best crime thriller with a handful of guys in over their heads making a big drug deal in a shady hotel. It's predictable, and rather stupid.
I don't believe i've said a single positive thing in this review so far, but I must once again state that I didn't necessarily hate this at all. I thought a lot of Boyle's direction was very clever and extraordinarily innovative for it's time. I liked the little touches like Renton essentially "digging his own grave" and then seeing only through an obscured camera with red carpet on either side. The scene with Renton hallucinating in his parent's house was an absolutely wonderful sequence that really managed to capture the horrific themes the film set out to do. And although the stylish and hip dialogue get's tiresome fast, there are some really clever exchanges.
"Trainspotting" is a film that just doesn't know exactly what it wants to be. It's energetic, frantic, and remarkably bold - however, it really doesn't manage to say much. Although it attempts to "redeem" it's character in the last act of the movie, I found the character unlikable and even worse, uninteresting. We've seen all of this material before, the only difference is that this film "prettied" things up a bit with it's direction. While all films don't need to be groundbreaking and make powerful statements... I think it's fair to expect a little bit more than "pooping in bed" jokes. Overall, i'd give it a thumbs in the middle... maybe an extremely unenthusiastic thumbs up.
I didnt like this movie as i taough i would like it...
this movie adaptations doesnt fit as well as the book...it has really good secuence and great funny parts but beyond that..not a big dial
Directed by:Danny Boyle Distributed by:Miramax Films (USA)
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (worldwide) Cast:Ewan McGregor
Jonny Lee Miller
Robert Carlyle
Ewen Bremner
Kevin McKidd
Kelly Macdonald
Trainspotting is a 1996 British film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. The movie is about a group of heroin addicts in late 1980s Edinburgh and their passage through life. It stars Ewan McGregor as Mark Renton, Ewen Bremner as Spud, Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy, Kevin McKidd as Tommy, Robert Carlyle as Begbie and Kelly Macdonald as Dianne. Author Irvine Welsh also has a brief appearance as hapless drug dealer Mikey Forrester.
The Academy Award-nominated screenplay, by John Hodge, was adapted from Welsh's novel. It does not contain any references to the non-drug-related hobby of train spotting. The title is a reference to an episode in the original book (not included in the film) where Begbie and Renton meet "an auld drunkard" in the disused Leith Central railway station, which they are visiting to use as a toilet. He asks them, in a weak attempt at a joke, if they are "trainspottin'"
A wild, freeform, Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life, focusing on Mark Renton and his attempt to give up his heroin habit, and how the latter affects his relationship with family and friends: Sean Connery wannabe Sick Boy, dimbulb Spud, psycho Begbie, 14-year-old girlfriend Diane, and clean-cut athlete Tommy, who's never touched drugs but can't help being curious about them...
What took me soooo long to watch this! What a breakthrough performance by McGregor! Another impressive performance came from Robbie Carlyle! Wow. This movie definitely is keeping me from trying heroin... Also Requiem for a Dream. Just a fun movie thats also fun to quote. "In a 1,000 years there wont be girls or boys, just a bunch of wankers..."
Freaking LOVE this movie!!! Ewan McGregor is AMAZING. This movie makes you want to try heroin... but don't worry I won't. I've seen Requiem for a Dream.
I had no idea what to expect from this movie, and I got it!
Once I realized it was about a guy on heroin, I thought I wouldn't like it. But this movie was entertaining from beginning to end. Little did I know that some of my recent favorite actors are in it. Of course you have Ewan McGregor, who looks good even if he weighs 100 pounds. Then there is the guy from 'Eli Stone' and the guy from 'Journeyman'. Cool.
Now that I know what "Trainspotting" is, I know I don't want any part of it. This was so interesting to me, in a morbid kind of way. I really enjoyed the music. I recommend this to people who enjoy innovative drug movies and those who can understand a heavy Scottish accent.
Choose 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 good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?
One of the best films ever seen. The first time I saw it I was amazed.
Well done to Danny Boyle for creating such a masterpeice, and to Irvine Welsh who wrote the book. and to McGregor for pulling his role off. Was definetley his best performance.
There's just so much to say about this film.
The soundtrack is brilliant aswell.
Favourite scene is where Begbie throws the glass and starts a fight it's class. Gotta love Robert Carlyle.
One of my favourite quotes:
I hate being Scottish. We're the lowest of the fucking low, the scum of the earth, the most wretched, servile, miserable, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization. Some people hate the English, but I don't. They're just wankers. We, on the other hand, are colonized by wankers. We can't even pick a decent culture to be colonized by. We are ruled by effete arseholes. It's a shite state of affairs and all the fresh air in the world will not make any fucking difference
pretty good! a lot less pretentious and annoying than that hokey pile o' shit requiem for a dream, at least. kinda poppy and obvious at bits though. acting's good.
A junkie's "epic"...peace and love y'all! I especially loved the scene wherein ...na-ah, I won't tell you - you have to see it for yourself! Hehehe! A movie that will make you high...but it will also make you clean and sober, eventually. ^*^
What an absolutely fantastic British film. It is probably one of the best of the British. The screenplay of this film is very well written but for me it was too complex. This is a film based on drug addiction. The main drug in this film is heroin. As heroin is used in this film, a gang of 5 drug dealers use heroin to have sex with women. These guys sort of treat heroin like a person. They say it has a great personality. Like it has a will of its own. This film starts to get really deranging after 45 minutes. There is an obvious lot of drugs involved but there is a lot of foul language but most of all there is a lot of nudity and sexuality. You see naked men and women, Ewan McGregor included. Ewan McGregor makes an excellent film debut has Mark Renton. He uses his Scottish accent which I never heard him use before. I don?t understand why this film is called a black comedy because I don?t find this film funny at all. There is a scene that I thought was pretty damn weird was the toilet scene. I?m not going to go into detail because it will spoil it for you viewers. This film is excellent for people who like Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Requiem For A Dream and This Is England. This isnt the best British film but still a really good enjoyable film.
''Take the best orgasm you've ever had... multiply it by a thousand, and you're still nowhere near it.''
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.
Ewan McGregor: Renton
Danny Boyle's Trainspotting is a film in which it all clicks and comes together in a dizzying array of drugs and characters. The film starts off startlingly realistically with Renton chastising that he wouldn't do drugs if he didn't enjoy it. With this, we learn in a headlong rush that the world of drug abuse that we've been taught about and steered away from is like any other addiction and that to an extent, we the audience, are no better than the people on screen. Very light-hearted and fantasy is the first quarter of the film, common sense seems to evapourate and it's not made entirely open why drugs are considered bad in society. But the enjoyable scenario that you settle comfortably into doesn't last for long and soon it's apparent that director Danny Boyle is showing the good and the bad, the two extremes, the black and white. Whilst viewing Trainspotting you're in junkie paradoxical limbo.
Not many movies are lucky enough to be made at the right time and place then continue to steal the world by storm as Trainspotting did, but the ultimate proof of this film's mastery is that if you watched it alone or in a mass, in the far future or back in 1996, it still has the same effect of absolute hold over you in it's depiction of what it is to be a drug addict. Trainspotting is nothing short of being among the most effective, the most perfectly executed artistic works ever committed to film.
I mean Renton going fully into a toilet and swimming around before re-emerging is a perfect example of how warped and deliciously disgusting to watch this film is. Or his fantastical visions of a baby on a ceiling with Dale Winton on TV really is bizaare as if you are experiencing the drugged up state that hes in alongside him. Ewan McGregor does a fantastic job in the role of Renton and quite easily makes us believe he is quite simply, a druggie. The appearance of a young Kelly Macdonald as Diane was fun. So was the fact in finding out Diane is still at school, which had my mouth ajar, and the fact that Renton finds this out after. Highly amusing. Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy shows us another Brit film part he pulls of nicely. But Robert Carlyle as the maddened Begbie with his terrible temper was a compelling character to see with an uncontrollable rage. He really made the part his own and gave a performance that remains for me memorable.
The soundtrack is a perfect blend with some catchy and songs everyone with a bit of British origin knows. Accompanied with the narration by Ewan and it becomes hypnotic. From a technical standpoint, the camera-work and cinematography are fluid, inventive and original. The story itself is nothing new but is written and executed in such a wild energized fashion that everything seems to have a fresh feel.
For a film ironically called Trainspotting Danny Boyle gives us something that shows what a talent he truly is. He shows us a serious yet comical drug movie which doesn't glamorize the use of drugs nor does it dismiss or damn them.
Trainspotting is a film for anyone who wants to take a trip to the dark world of Heroin but also see the spark and rush that keeps people there. For anyone who's not scared to cross the border on morals and what's right. Trainspotting is for anyone who chooses life, and unlike Requiem for a Dream it gives us an ending of positiveness, and of hope.
MCT:August 6, 2008
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