Review: Trainspotting
(Originally reviewed in 2012)
To throw it out there, I love Trainspotting. Everything about this film is fantastic, the direction, the acting, the soundtrack. In fact I can’t think of anything to fault with it.
This was Danny Boyle’s second film back when he was just a bright spot on the British Indie Scene and already the talents that would win him an Oscar over a decade later are obvious. He uses several quick cuts and odd angles to show the drugged up nature of the characters, during Mark’s cold turkey scene the camera is right in his face with him going crazy. He also has a keen ear for the film’s soundtrack which I’ll get to later on.
Each of the four main actors are great in their roles, Ewan McGregor plays Mark Renton, a long-time heroin addict that’s trying to get clean but his ‘so-called mates’ are holding him back. Despite being the protagonist Mark is not a good guy, he’s hypocritical, he blames his friends for all his problems and his actions get a formally clean friend on drugs, contracting AIDS and eventually dying.
Jonny Lee Miller is Sick Boy, another junkie and a scam artist, he’s always looking for a way to get rich, even if it means ripping off a mate. The only things he’s known for are being a morale-less arsehole and knowing a lot about Sean Connery. Ewen Bremer plays Spud, a child-like individual and the only one that has any claim to being a half-way decent human being. You get the sense that Spud got into drugs by accident and as a result the others treat him differently, like he was a little brother or their own son. When Mark betrays his mates he offers Spud to come with him but Spud is too scared so instead Mark leaves him some money behind.
And finally Robert Carlyle plays the foul-mouthed, psychotic Francis Begbie, the villain of the film. Francis isn’t a junkie but he’s a possible alcoholic. He’s definitely addicted to violence, always looking for a fight. Francis is a terrifying man who, if he threatens to kill you, means it.
The film is an extremely black comedy with humour coming from the strangest of places, ‘The Worst Toilet In Scotland’, Sick Boy’s Sean Connery fetish, The Heroin Restaurant. All of it shares the same twisted sense of humour that it’s drugged fuelled creators have when their smacked up. However there are some incredibly dark moments, Mark’s come down scene as mentioned earlier is terrifying and the sudden death of Baby Dawn. In fact that scene shows the true nature of a junkie, where days are interchangeable and you can’t tell if someone’s been screaming for an hour or a week.
Finally, the soundtrack. This is far and away the best soundtrack I’ve ever heard in a movie, it fits the tone and setting of the movie perfectly. The opening blasts with Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust For Life’ as Renton delivers the famous ‘Choose Life’ monologue. Heaven 17’s ‘Temptation’ when Renton looks for a possible mate in the club that changes seamlessly into Blondie’s ‘Atomic’ when he spots Dianna – a very young Kelly McDonald from Boardwalk Empire. Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ adds an odd sense of contentment to Mark’s overdose scene – another part that’s well shot with Mark’s P.O.V. boxed by the red carpet he’s sunk into. And then the whole film ends with the utterly brilliant ‘Born Slippy’ by Underworld, I cannot stress how great the song is in and out of the film, the pounding drums representing Mark’s heartbeats as he steals from his mates, the yelling of ‘Lager, lager, lager’ mirroring Begbie’s drunken rampage after he finds Mark gone with the money.
In conclusion, one of the best films ever made, quite possibly the best British film ever made and definitely my favourite film ever, great acting, realistic characters, fantastic directing and an amazing soundtrack. See this film.
10/10