`Trainspotting': you'll definitely need a strong stomach for this new film
Once in a while a movie comes along that makes you sway with nausea. And to
clarify, we're not talking about an
Ishtar
or, more recently, a
Kingpin
type of occassion. We're talking about nothing less than an
over-the-head and kick-you-in-the-ass kind of delirium -- a cinematic
experience nothing less than Danny Boyle's
Trainspotting
.
The film deals with a whole spectrum of issues ranging from the ridiculous to the existential; however, the heart of the movie remains decidedly pumped full of the film's main character, heroin. The narcotic not only serves as the impetus for most of the film's action but also facilitates some pretty shrewd social commentary. Puffing on a cigarette and pushing back a couple of pints, one of Trainspotting 's main characters proclaims at one point, "I don't do heroin; I'm not gonna pump my body full of chemicals."
Heroin. Smack. Junk. Whatever you want to call it, this opiate holds the power to wreck lives.
Trainspotting is currently enjoying some attention as it sits at the heart of the current media frenzy about heroin, only Trainspotting doesn't glamorize dead rock stars or models who look like (and are) junkies.
Instead, it focuses on four Scottish lowlifes who have lost their lives to heroin. Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor, a self-proclaimed "bad person," is the central character in this fever dream of a movie. In the opening scenes, he spouts out this now-infamous monologue:
"Choose life. Choose a job ... choose washing machines, compact disc players and electrical tin openers ... or choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfishbrats you spawned to replace you. Choose your future. Choose life.
"But would I want to do a thing like that?"
So Mark freely admits why he and his "mates" start doing heroin -- for the sheer pleasure of it. "We're not stupid," Mark says defensively.
Mark's mates include Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), simple-minded Spud (Ewen Bremner) and violent Begbie (Robert Carlyle).
Boyle expertly juxtaposes the surreal with the banal and the sordid. For example, Mark's hallucinations during withdrawal are like a Salvador Dali painting come to life -- a baby (who died because his smack-addled mother was too high to pay attention) crawls on the ceiling; the room changes size and shape; his schoolgirl lover, Diane (Kelly MacDonald), sings to him.
Boyle successfuly conveys the grime and sordidness of this world by occassionally stooping to the use of written, superimposed words tacked onto people, places and occasions.
If you've been sheltered from the effects of heroin addiction, this movie will wake you up -- and rudely at that. Take, for example, the oft-previewed bathroom scene. Mark, desperate for a hit, has purchased heroin-containing suppositories. The dreamy and disgusting scene -- Mark swimming in the sewer -- may be fantasy, but it is all too illustrative of the lengths a junkie will go to get his next fix.
Trainspotting is not a movie for the faint of heart. It is a movie with a message, and you probably will not consider doing heroin after seeing this brilliantly, brutally honest film. Take a hint from two people who know; walk in with an open mind and definitely an empty stomach.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the August 30, 1996 issue.
Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights
Reserved.
This document may be distributed
electronically, provided that it is distributed in its
entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted
without the express written permission of:
The Rice Thresher, Rice University, 6100 Main, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA.
The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu