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Summary: You'll love it!!!!
Review: Trainspotting is a film that remind me of the time when we were young, and not so green. Plaesure to watch and compare your life with what it could've looked like, if you made a step away from the path. It's not violent and agressive, it's just a piece of art that makes all us, British People be proud of. Knowing that the comparison is not quite acuarate, I'll say that it's like having Grease for the Americans.
I definately advise everyone to see it, you'll just love (and not only because of the scene when Ewan McGregor dives into the toilet), but because of the scence that this film gives you: if you're older a scence of regret and nostalgia; and if you're young- it's just a must see movie, you'll find out why....
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Summary: the secret joke of Trainspotting
Review: The giant joke of Trainspotting is hidden in plain sight, obscured by the loaded topic of heroin. Certainly heroin culture is everywhere in the movie, but the heart of the film is what the narrator, Ewan MacGregor's character, sees as the obvious link between heroin addiction and working. The central passage of the film is the scene where MacGregor and his mates sprint through the streets, with MacGregor doing the voice over:"Our only response was to keep on going and [*] everything, pile misery upon misery, heap it up in a spoon and dissolve it with a drop of bile, then squirt it into a stinking purulent vein and do it all over again-keep on going getting up going out robbing stealing and [*] people over, propelling ourselves with longing towards the day that it would all go wrong, because no matter how much you stash, or how much you steal, you never have enough, no matter how often you go out and rob and [*] people over, you always need to get up and do it all over again." It's a passage that sums up the twin futilities of heroin addiction and working class life, and it's no accident that this scene begins with a sprint from a store and ends in a courtroom, marking the twin pillars of a free-market economy. Or that the motive for the sprint--an habit-inspired shoplifting attempt--turns the chase itself into a kind of rat race. It's also no accident that the unrepentant Sick Boy escapes, the cleverly insincere MacGregor gets off easy, while unwitting Spud is nailed to the wall in court. Or that when MacGregor gets clean, his debauched heroin-culture skills of lying, stealing and hustling make him well-suited to a job as a rental agent. Or that the only sincere character in the film is the one undone by deceit, heartbreak, and drugs. In MacGregor's heroin world, the successful cheat as a rule, and they do it overtly; in his exposure to the working world, the same rules apply, everyone knows it, but no one admits it. In this conceit, Trainspotting emerges as a cynically perfect epitaph for American free-market culture spreading across Europe, with its heady mix of genuine aspiration, barely concealed greed, and deep denial--all neatly paralleled by heroin pleasure, heroin addiction, and the brain-addled values of the heroin culture. So while being terrifically stylish and funny on a number of levels, Trainspotting's foundation is what makes it a great film--a disaffected, disillusioned narrator, trading one socially rejected role (junkie) for a socially acceptable one (hardworking young man) and failing to see the difference between the two. It's a fabulously clever movie with an unnerving argument rifling through every scene, and you should get this DVD.
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Summary: "Just say no"---choose "LIFE!"
Review: I've now seen this film about 10 times, and it stays fresh every time. The acting, dialogue, music, cinematography, script...everything works together beuatifully. The opening scene is especially unforgettable, probably the best marriage of music and film I've seen in a long time. Instead of seeing this as a film about heroin addiction, a much better way of viewing this movie is examining WHY the central character played by Ewan McGregor, does heroin and WHY most mainstream people DON'T turn to chemical drugs. Hint: listen to McGregor's voice-over at the beginning and at the end of the movie, when he goes into the rant about all the everyday addictions of "normal" people: materialism, conformity, mindless pop culture. At the beginning of the film the narrator reads this laundry list of all our modern "necessities" with scorn; at the end, he reads it again but with mock enthusiasm as he flees the UK with a couple grand stolen from his buddies and promising to turn over a new leaf by embracing mainstream capitalist culture, affirming that he *will* indeed "choose life." The genius of the film is that at that point you not only suspect he's just going to continue his drug life overseas but also you almost sympathize with him---look at the lame excuse for a "life" that most of us on the straight-and-narrow have.
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Summary: Unbelievable
Review: i fell in love with this movie the first time i saw it. It's unbelievable in a creepy sort-of way. Yes, the toilet scene is disgusting and yes, their addiction is un-nerving and you want to hate the characters, but at the same time, you fall in love with them. The wit and acuity of the film and dialogue is amazing; it's impossible to say too much about this movie. Although it's not made for everyone, it's a great view on young un-hopefuls in the spinning circles of addiction and life. A GREAT film!
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Summary: IMPRESSIVE FILM
Review: i bought this dvd about 6 months ago and it was my first time seeing this movie so i didnt know what to expect but i watched it and loved it. it's one of my favorites now.it's a very unique funny film but also sad, strange, and some parts disturbing. it's about a group of young drug addicts in scotland and thier life and trying to kick the habit of heroin. this film is so diffrent than any other movie ive seen before. its so much fun in one way but in another way it's dreary and sad but its a great watch. you should buy this movie.
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Summary: The College DVD Fan's Collectable
Review: I view this film as being on the same level as "High Fidelity"; far too calculating to be brilliant, but so well-crafted, I can't help liking it. There's no question it's disturbing, and given the subject matter, it's not surprising it wasn't the big hit Mirimax's marketing department expected it to be. But all that aside, some solid performances by Ewan MacGregor, Robert Carlyle, and Kevin McKidd. It's endlessly quotable, which lends to its perpetual cult status, and despite being a bit long, is definitely worth a rental.
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Summary: Another fine UK made film!
Review: I just bought this DVD yesterday and I finished watching the whole thing again and I have to see I love this movie! It's not your average 'druggie with a plan' movie but instead it shows a group of heroin addicts living a really dirty life in a town that looks like it was painted all in a rust colour varnish. The acting is great as you can see the actors' portrayal of thier addictions as they sweat perfusely and go all crazy and on the edge just to get a hit. If you have the chance to watch the film I suggest you do because the narration done by Ewan McGregor in the film goes great with the trials and tribulations that him and his friends go through daily. In all if you want to see a movie that was 'groundbreaking' when it was released in theatres and now not even played once on any television show except those really type of sophisticated channels that show woman eating poo! Just kidding but this movie is not an elegant one and it gives you the muddy vision that the broken down town consumes of their lives. A true gen-X classic! I suggest also Shallow Grave starring Ewan McGregor which is another good film but I can't find any copies of it so I can't say anything about it!
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Summary: A Total Frenzy with a Foundation of Chaos
Review: This film is pandemonium. Disorder, Confusion, Turmoil, and Discord could very well be considered the supporting cast. The plot is a complete frenzy. Amongst all the craziness is the interest that you will find most enjoyable. This movie will make you laugh, it will make you gasp, and it will make you imagine yourself in the main character's shoes. The foundation of this film is a struggle between adolescence and adulthood. This film will be most enjoyed by those who find themselves fighting the same struggle. It will be most understood by those who realize that they are leaving the teenage years and need to find they place in society as an adult. Whether you completely understand or not, this film is still fun. You may not get the most enjoyment out of it if you don't truly understand it, but it is entertaining to watch nonetheless. I rate this film four out of five stars.
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Summary: How can we transform escape into integration
Review: This film is in a way a masterpiece that gives a vision of how young men influenced or organized by older men live in the margin of society, on the fringe of normalcy. They practice drugs as if it were some kind of hobby, not really to experience some drug-produced hallucinations but a drug-induced escape from real society, from fear, from hunger, from thirst, from their basic needs and impulses. Yet they reduce themselves to those very basic impulses and live an experience that has nothing else to propose, to offer but suffering from and amplifying those impulses. They find the morbid pleasure, at times deeply wrapped up in scatological regression, of experiencing these impulses without any limitations. This of course leads them to activities that have nothing to do with intelligence, the intellectual understanding of their alienations, but everything to do with considering society as a field for their hunting, even scavenging. But what do they hunt ? Money, adventure, the power of doing what is forbidden, the thrill of getting into supposedly unexplored feelings and intense emotions. Their life becomes a jungle where emotions and feelings are driving forces and fascinating objectives. A baby dies because of the lack of care and love that is needed for it to survive or to live, but that death becomes the center of some « pleasure », the « pleasure » of suffering in the hands of death. One will thus die in this search by getting used to starving and finally passing away because this experiment has no other exit. One will be forced by his parents to go cold turkey and establish a distance between himself and that morbidity. Another will be sent to prison and forced to cut off from those extreme habits. And strangely enough it is those two who will manage to get some profit out of it, hence the means to cut off the umbilical cord that attaches them to this alienation. This epiphany will be reached through betrayal but it is seen by the two as some kind of a new beginning, as a door leading to another life, the life they have been longing for for so long, the life of normal people blending in the social mass around them, even if they have to escape to some other niche where their strange past can be unknown and forgotten. This is the dilemma of so many young people who want to experience adventure and a wilderness that does not exist naturally in our societies. They create with their own hands a wilderness in which they can experience the fear and dangers of a jungle that is more a creation of their own than real. And yet we have to come to the conclusion that our societies do enable such young people to find and build this jungle. Maybe this jungle is part of our societies, even if it is mostly invisible. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan
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Summary: True To Life Depiction of Heroin Use
Review: I saw this movie in the theatre when it first came out. I was an active heroin user at the time, but also found the movie extremely good (what I could remember of it). Of course when I did see it, I was also under the influence of the drug, so i wasn't constantly conscience through parts of it. For the past 3 years i have been in recovery, and could NOT bring myself to watch it,(although I did want to see it again) on account that I feared bringing heroin back into my thoughts, and perhaps thinking of only the "good things" it did for me. But anyway, I did decide to rent it just recently, because my wife, who is also in recovery, wanted to see it for the first time. The experience I got from it this time was not of glamour, but of the absolute, gut-wretching, not wanting to go on anymore, just wanting to end the pain and die attitude, and the dead-end street in had brought to my life. This movie is truly a wake-up call, and a remember when for me. Something I would NOT ever want to go back to, but also something I want to keep up front to remember what it really did do to my life and the depths it brought me down to. The junkie-life in Scotland, is the same there, as it is here or anywhere else in the world for that matter. The movie doesn't flinch from depicting the horrid consequences of heroin use, but it never lets you forget that most people do it because it feels better than anything else. It's surrealistic and speedy, in a rock video kind of way. It approachs the dead-end scene of heroin use.The movie is NOT for everyone. And as I read from one reviewer, probably not for most. But if you are interested about what this crap does to ones life, or have a friend or family member hooked on it, it's a good movie depicting what these people go through on a day to day basis. Highly Recommended
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