Review of Trainspotting (1996) by Manolo P — 16 Apr 2017

Drugs inevitably lead to problems, of which there is no doubt. Day by day we fight against their presence, we know they will be found across the door, we know people who use them, some to a greater extent than others and some drugs will be stronger than the rest, expensive or not so, but related towards one thing as their use points to combat destinations, anxiety, disintegration, and of course, the serious consequences of damage to one's own health.

Why mention this? It sounds so repetitive that it hurts to annoy, however, we have to know the implications of drugs, as there are millions who use and cannot leave them. Judging from the outside is always easy: do not get drugged and end of the conversation. But addictions are more than that, and even if you paint this issue in a thousand different ways, perhaps there is no better way to analyze it than from the own perspective of an addict. These people, their daily rituals, the life they lead and what they are going to, seeing it as realistically as it is in this film is a very indicated way to depart from testimonies and modify criticism.

Once hooked to the world of addictions, in one way or another, things change for you and your context. Worse still, if your friends are involved in, the experience gets more complex. It becomes shared and experiences ranging from the pleasurable to the mundane are already situation not of one, but of several. Even the non-detachment of drugs despite the different lives that all may have, being apparently isolated roads, is attributed to the simple fact that everyone need them and everyone must seek and try to obtain them. All are bound to the same and they will go back, even if they try to escape.

Trainspotting is criticized. Its speech is very broad and approaches the subject from different positions. Basically, what is important to rescue beyond that the analyzes acquire a certain perspective is that 1) if you get drugs, this happens. 2) If you do not, this may be for you. 3) If you get tired and want to leave drugs, be careful with this. Then the film alludes to a list of cases where actions and consequences are connected to warn the public. To do this, the film enters the world of addicts, questions them and puts them in harsh confrontations towards their relationships with other people, and with themselves. The routine and "normal" life is often criticized with an initial speech of "I rule my life", the same with which the film is concluded. Is this true? Do you really rule your life like this, or being addicted, is the drug the boss?

Incredibly uncomfortable and brutal, the film does not go about trying with discrete images, playing with subtlety these issues. It is direct, it is rude, energetic, and quite violent. Filled with a picture sometimes grotesque, but with all realistic intent, many issues are shown as they normally are and without makeup, but neither looking to impress. Instead, everything moves with a high degree of entertainment, speed and that will certainly make you start shaking with nervousness. A group of five friends, Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Tommy (Kevin Mckidd), Begbie (Robert Carlyle) and the fifth and star of the name Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) coexist along their young experience with the drugs.

The facts are devastating and full of intensity, however, Renton, with whom the story focuses, decides several times to get out of his hectic world, trying with ferocious and desperate attempts to leave the stormy environment of drugs along with the heartbreaking process that this implies. Renton narrates his own life, that of his parents, acquaintances and loves, and how roles regarding drug use change and influence them. He is involved in a duel that faces at all times his own convictions and desires. Not only is Renton but also his friends. Will and desire are at stake throughout the film and seemingly all go to the same fate. Here the real human capacity to make good decisions and the moral conflicts that are involved are questioned - its hallucinating world is demolished all the time and things are broken down to the degree that, in the wake of one of the friends, mourning ends with a promising heroin deal. Again, the interests of acquiring and consuming or reselling illicit substances are above what would normally matter.

The artistic domain of the work team of the film has an organized direction and aims to revive the experience of drug addicts as it has rarely been observed. The result is challenging and makes you sigh. The shots are so close to what it is to consume a drug and feel it until the disappearance of its effect, that it does not matter if you had or not an experience like that, the film will make you live it in a striking and agitating way. Sound effects ensure this exploration, and music and visual effects are a portrait that allows a glimpse into a realm of pain and doom. For instance, the scene in which Renton feels the need for the drug while he is locked up by his parents in his room is such a surreal mirage that I consider it as one of the more accurate crises of insanity in the world of cinema for his agitated and overwhelming shudder.

Edinburgh in Scotland and England reacted to these contents. Many approved the project and many others did not, because of the approach which discusses an issue that by its means transcend from the time when it was created. The feeling of each character regarding their despair, desire to leave, the exchange between pleasure and curiosity about the force for trying to improve their lives is a task that until today is only comprehensible, but will continue to impact for many more generations.

The rhythm of the film is very fast, it might make you feel tired despite its entertaining function that does not release to the one that observes it. The language of the dialogues is extremely convincing and implies that these kinds of stories are not linear. The life of these boys is caught in cycles and always goes from reaching the bottom or the limit until a new beginning. What is the purpose of living during the short period we have here? Our control of what we do and want is under the magnifying glass not of others, but of ourselves. The story does not conclude with something decisive, and giving a verdict would be to make sense of something that was not really intended to prove. Everything is only to explain and go into detail in these young lives that run on the edge of a cliff and for a subject of such strength, great events are not required at all. 84/100.