trainspotting

[Andrew Dinn]

Montgomery E. Engel writes re Trainspotting:

> ... To say this movie was pro-drug is like saying Apocalypse Now is
> pro-war.

Which is not to say that Trainspotting is anti-drugs either. It is
clearly anti the more disgusting concomitants of drug use.

> Another prevalent media reaction was to pick up on the "Choose
> Life" theme (prominently featured in the previews) and say that this was
> the movies' point and it couldn't possibly be that nihilistic.  The
> previews and trailers were interesting in their own right as the movie is
> played up as a crime movie in which the characters pull off "the biggest
> scam of their lives."  Not once is heroin mentioned.  The "scam" turns out
> to be a plot device in the last quarter of the movie.

> Unsuprisingly, I
> suppose they couldn't possibly have marketed this as a pro-heroin movie.
> Anway the "choose life" theme I took to be the one of the most biting
> critques of "society".  I won't give away the last line of the movie for
> those who haven't seen but I thought it was profoundly ironic.

There's an irony behind the `Choose Life' theme. of course. The only
choice in life that Renton and his druggie mates have (apart from
getting pleasurably wrecked by heroin - while the pleasure lasts, that
is) is to to become lifeless drudges, their options for education and
employment being somewhat limited. For them a life of thieving and
heroin is a positive choice. That may be a very bleak comment on
British society but it is clearly what is intended in the book and the
film (the author, Irvine Welsh, has also stressed this point
forcefully in interviews and he is very pro some drugs, especially
Ecstacy). In Britain the publicity was failry ambivalent about the
drugs stuff and did not attempt to turn it into a crime movie. It was
portrayed as a black comedy about the bleak prospects many British
people face. Such stuff is very welcome in Britain, and not just by
young people - witness e.g. the works of Alan Bleasdale on TV.

> This movie was't trying to present junky culture as good or bad, it
> was showing the similarities of our own "mainstream" culture with
> junky culture. The main character, Renton, says early on that he has
> decided to "cultivate a true and sincere junk habit." In a way he is
> being more true and sincere to a culture that fosters addiction and
> than all the straight people around him who don't even realize their
> addictions.  Being a junky is the most pure form of an addictive
> sickness in our society.  THe irony is that only a junky as the
> sickest form gains the knowledge of the larger picture of societal
> addiction (to booze, to cigarettes, sports,gambling, tv, "love",
> violence, etc.)  This movie sets up a "Them" in a similar way to
> Pynchon.  Perhaps you could see heroin as substitute for paranoia.

Absolutely. Although I don't buy the assimilation of heroin and
paranoia. How about the Kirghiz Light?

> Has anyone read the novel on which it was based?  I think the novelist's
> name is Irving Welsh.

Yes, and that's `Irvine Welsh'. Trainspotting the book is, naturally,
much better than the film although I would recommend the film to
anyone - especially since much of the music is by Underworld, one of
the best of the current UK crop of dance/techno bands. Also see the
movie Shallow Grave by the same director and crew with music by
Leftfield, another great band. The book is, as they say here in Embra,
brullyun. It captures all sorts of details about Brits, working and
middle class and particularly about Edinburgh Scots. After 5 years in
this town I can almost decipher most of the dialogue but most of you
in the US or in the soft South (sorry, Sarf) will find it nigh on
incomprehensible. Apparently, the US version of the film was redubbed
in places to make it easier to comprehend.

Welsh has written 3 other books which exhibit a steady decline. The
second book `The Acid House' has some very clever short stories and an
excellent mini-novel also set in Embra with some overlap in
characters. It switches from the 80s Embra heroin scene to the Embra
and Manchester club and rave scenes of the early 90s and is quite
strongly pro Ecstacy. The third book deals with football specials -
thugs who follow football teams looking for violence. It's less
satisfactory than the others, the plot being being highly melodramatic
and Welsh's obsessions and opinions intruding far too much to allow
the characters to work. But it does have some good scenes in amongst
the dross. The last is complete rubbish, 3 ludicrous smut-obsessed
short stories that would look amateurish in a porn mag. I think he
probably only wrote it to cash in on the film.


Andrew Dinn
-----------
And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.