A Commentary : Trainspotting

A Commentary : Trainspotting

This striking film says just about everything there is to say about British drug culture. It is the seducer of the young, the golden fairy tale that results in horror upon horror and for some even death. It is perhaps one of the film's central ironies that the innocent baby is the victim of drugs, dying from ingesting something noxious lying around amidst their lackadaisical lifestyle. Begbie, Sick Boy, Spud, Renton and Dianne are central characters in the drama. At the beginning Renton decides not to choose life which is a starter home, mortgage repayments, a three piece suite etc., but rather heroin. Apparently it is better than sex. One wonders if the film is in fact pro drugs; maybe it is this which makes the film controversial. Certainly both sides of the picture are presented and this only underlines in the end the film's integrity. There is plenty of suffering going on too. Renton gets really ill in cold turkey when he decides to stop taking drugs. He pleads for one more hit but his parents are adamant. He must show true grit, there is no way out but through suffering.

Ewan McGregor is excellent as Renton and very convincing in his portrayal of a young lad faced with important choices. He ends up before magistrates at one point for we know that however much you thieve to pay for this crap you will always need more; it is something which never stops. It can only end in disaster. When handed out a suspended sentence Renton says "with God's help I'll lick this terrible affliction". There is an overtone of innate insincerity here, an emptiness and a falseness associated with any drug fiend. Maybe they never want to give up - that is the very nature of the habit. The joke about Mother Superior being so called because of the length of his habit is just one of many comic touches. When Spud has an accident and brings his problematic sheets downstairs we are similarly amused. Hugging onto them for dear life they are snatched off him to devastating effect and then the shit does quite literally hit the fan: walls, faces, clothes are all splattered by the foul stuff. This is laugh out loud stuff. When Renton finds Dianne at the Volcano and goes home with her, he gets a shock in the morning. The parents don't seem bothered which is amusing when Renton appears for breakfast, but he is shocked to find her in school uniform. Threatening to leave because of her age, she threatens back 'do and I'll tell the police'.

The film is full of satire and irony. Sick Boy gets the gun out in the park and together with Renton try out some pot shots. Hitting a dog in the arse it then mauls its owner. This is great fun for two evil sadists. Begbie is sadistic too and often violent. Played by Robert Carlysle his character is menacing and overbearing. He will take anyone on and in the pub scene shows just how aggressive he can be. When Renton enters the worst toilet in the world it is all pretty sordid, but swimming down through the toilet bowl and into a sea of water is quite surreal. When he gets all his paraphernalia for his drug trip together we know this is serious stuff; three buckets, paracetomol, magnesia, soup, mouthwash, TV set, porn, etc. This is a way of life with a completely different set of values and a different way of existing.

Pleasure lust is what drives our hero on and he is in and out of the culture throughout the film, at one point even going straight and taking a job in an estate agents. In the end Renton takes Begbie's money from him and leaves Begbie so annoyed he destroys his hotel bedroom, in much the same way as wayward rock and roll artists. It all seems part of this destructive drug culture.

The film therefore says much about youth with Renton prognosticating that in future there'll be no boys and girls just 'wankers'. That seems to be OK with him too, highlighting his seduction to all things pleasurable. You become someone degraded and lose all sense of reason when inured to a wreckless drug crazed state. There is only one way out and that is hard and we do wonder if Renton will ever really be free of drugs.

For all the ending is upbeat and a choice has been made for 'a starter home, mortgage repayments, a three piece suite,' will this be a final reality? Knowing the nature of drugs and their terrible lure we really do wonder. The sense of insincerity is unnerving and a trifle sinister,and we question if it can all be that simple that Renton can suddenly choose 'life'. This film gives it as it is - the terrible things that can happen as well as a sense of pure pleasure. Danny Boyle has made a great film which should stand as a monument in social satire for decades to come. It has it all, comedy, tragedy, irony, sex, violence, a sense of the absurd, a sense of hopelessness, yet all the time it is entertaining and very much a film of our time.