Choose Life.

February 19, 2016 1:56 PM

Twenty years of Trainspotting

Trailer
Trainspotting - the complete behind-the-scenes history
'Trainspotting' 20th anniversary: Irvine Welsh on the movie's impact
Kermode Uncut
The real-life addicts who inspired Trainspotting
Test your Trainspotting movie knowledge ahead of 20th anniversary
‘Trainspotting’ Sequel: Danny Boyle Planning For It To Be His Next Movie

posted by fearfulsymmetry (50 comments total)

Mark "Rent-boy" Renton: OK, OK, so what's the point you're trying to make?
Sick Boy: All I'm trying to do is help you understand that The Name of The Rose is merely a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory.
Mark "Rent-boy" Renton: What about The Untouchables?
Sick Boy: I don't rate that at all.
Mark "Rent-boy" Renton: Despite the Academy Award?
Sick Boy: That means fuck all. Its a sympathy vote.
Mark "Rent-boy" Renton: Right. So we all get old and then we can't hack it anymore. Is that it?
Sick Boy: Yeah.
Mark "Rent-boy" Renton: That's your theory?
Sick Boy: Yeah. Beautifully fucking illustrated

I'm sure Boyle will bounce back from Jobs though.
posted by Artw at 3:00 PM on February 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

Pitchfork: How the Trainspotting Soundtrack Resurrected Iggy Pop.
posted by Kabanos at 3:04 PM on February 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

if you need a soundtrack for reading these links...

other favorite bit of trivia:

The setting for "It's shite being Scottish" scene is probably even more remote than the movie portrays it as being. The train station is located 10 miles from the nearest road (and has more frequent service than most of the places that Amtrak serves, if you want some perspective for how amazingly horrible America's public transportation system is). The surrounding area itself is gorgeous, but Corrour itself is pretty dismal. Don't go there.

Also don't do heroin. Just in case the movie didn't make that clear.

posted by schmod at 3:05 PM on February 19, 2016 [12 favorites]

And after that, well, the game was mine.

*tosses mug over shoulder and the railing*

Aw. Only scored 8/15 on the quiz

Great post!

I was blown away by the movie when it came out. Then I went down an Irvine Welsh rabbit hole.

Marabou Stork Nightmares might be my favourite, but goddamn I don't know if I could handle a reread.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:06 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

That one is a bit rough, yeah.

Porno is worth a read. Be interesting to see how much Trainspotting 2 ends up like it, my guess is not that much.
posted by Artw at 3:08 PM on February 19, 2016

It can't be 20 years.

6/15

Okay, I guess it is.
posted by Splunge at 3:18 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Of my favorite movies, this is the movie where I don't know a single real-life person that enjoys it.

I don't feel the sickness yet, but it's in the post.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:22 PM on February 19, 2016

Cool Papa Bell: "Of my favorite movies, this is the movie where I don't know a single real-life person that enjoys it."

"Enjoys" is a bit of a weird word to apply to a film like this one. Do people "enjoy" Schindler's List?
posted by schmod at 3:24 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Nobody mooooove!"

I'll stop now, with that particular scene.

But the opening scene is what turned me on to Iggy Pop. Yeah, I knew Iggy Pop was a thing, then "Oh. THAT'S Iggy Pop."

It's the only movie soundtrack that's ever been on the front of my cd shelf (now phone playlist), I guess now for...oh, 20 years. Oh, shit.

"Enjoys" is a bit of a weird word to apply to a film like this one.

That's a tough one. I'd say this ranks somewhere in my favourite movies because I...enjoy it? But yeah, that's not quite it. But I like it?

It's about some of the worst things. But at the end of the film Renton makes what is a fairly "moral" decision. All things considered. I dunno. It humanizes addiction in a lot of ways and makes it relatable. And none of the laughs come cheap. There's a human toll taken behind them, and you feel that. It's a dark, dark comedy.

I saw Marlon James give a talk last night, and he was talking about how influenced he is by Greek tragedy.

One thing he said was that the Greeks "got it," in that their tragic heroes could be flawed in the worst ways imaginable, but for them the lowest moment wasn't defining. "It was just Thursday," he said.

That got a laugh.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:43 PM on February 19, 2016 [6 favorites]

I always stop and watch Trainspotting when flipping channels waiting for the final scene. Perfect. Never gets old.
posted by wherever, whatever at 3:44 PM on February 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

Also don't do heroin. Just in case
the movie didn't make that clear

But at the end of the film Renton makes what is a fairly "moral" decision.

oh wow. this is the movie/book where "choosing life" means ripping off everyone around you to become a self-motivated yuppie scumbag.

you can watch/read it and turn it around 180 degrees if you want.
posted by ennui.bz at 4:00 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ripping off Begbie doesn't seem so bad.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:03 PM on February 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

DRIVE BOY DOG BOY DIRTY NUMB ANGEL BOY IN THE DOORWAY BOY SHE WAS A LIPSTICK BOY
posted by Sebmojo at 4:06 PM on February 19, 2016 [15 favorites]

SHOUTING
posted by Artw at 4:07 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

NIGHT CLUBBING.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:08 PM on February 19, 2016

...ATOMIC
posted by Artw at 4:09 PM on February 19, 2016

just a perfect day.
posted by wabbittwax at 4:14 PM on February 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm sure Boyle will bounce back from Jobs though.

I enjoyed that bounce
posted by philip-random at 4:20 PM on February 19, 2016

"Enjoys" is a bit of a weird word to apply to a film like this one. Do people "enjoy" Schindler's List?

Let's put it this way: I would watch Schindler's List a second time.

But come on. Who among us doesn't enjoy watching Robert Carlyle tear up a hotel room?
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:26 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

The lift is always full of piss,
The fifth floor landing smells of fish,
Not just on Friday, every single other day!

Below the kids come out tonight,
They kick a ball and have a fight,
And maybe shoot somebody if they lose at pool.

Ooh, it's a mess all right, yes it's
Mile End.
posted by A dead Quaker at 4:36 PM on February 19, 2016 [6 favorites]

I haven't watched it in years, but I saw it *twice* the day it was released. I'll probably never do that again.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:52 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also, the book makes the movie look like Local Hero.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:53 PM on February 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

I've lived in Mile End. It was even more grim than the Pulp song makes it out to be.
posted by doop at 4:54 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

But come on. Who among us doesn't enjoy watching Robert Carlyle tear up a hotel room?

I still could never quite buy him in Stargate.
Or as Rumplestiltskin because of a movie I saw (and enjoyed) once 20-odd years ago.

And I can't remember much about Trainspotting usually, except every so often, like an acid flashback, a scene will pop into my head, or I'll not recognise Spud in something, and I will be glad I never tried heroin.
posted by Mezentian at 4:55 PM on February 19, 2016

Of my favorite movies, this is the movie where I don't know a single real-life person that enjoys it.

This movie has long been one of my favorites, and I've watched it more than anyone probably should. I've also read the book cover-to-cover at least three times. I don't know that I say I find great joy in watching it, but it's weirdly comforting. I always feel better after watching it until the end, kind of in the same way people feel better after crying. I'm not sure what that says about me.

At any rate, I'm probably gonna watch it again tonight.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 4:55 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

I bought this film on VHS from a car boot sale when I was 12 years old. The seller glanced questioningly at my mum, who said it was fine, id seen 18s before. She watched with me until the toilet diving scene, where she decided to go to bed.

I remember laughing when someone else's parents suggested that Trainspotting might be "glamorising drugs".
posted by threetwentytwo at 4:57 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

I remember hearing tons about it, and how it was an utterly fantastic film, but it took forever to get states side release, and by the time I finally saw it in the theater, somehow I came away underwhelmed. But then I saw it again on vhs, and somehow it became the movie that my roommates and I always had on. We'd be in our dorm room, doing other stuff, not really watching tv, and someone would put in on. We'd continue doing things, but it was a constant background. Over time, I came to love the film, and also, finally figure out what Begby was saying.

I can see having a hard time seeing Carlyle as anything like a good person after that, which maybe made 28 Weeks Later more terrifying. Not just Begby, crazy running zombie Begby.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:10 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

For all the good that FPP has done me, I may as well have shoved it up my arse. (grin)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:21 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

This FPP is ideal for your purposes. Custom-fucking-designed for your needs
posted by wabbittwax at 6:09 PM on February 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

Twenty years of trainspotting. Oh that Trainspotting! I thought it was gonna be something else.
posted by technodelic at 6:14 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes, I'd say one can genuinely enjoy Trainspotting. For all the tragedy that happens (that the characters mostly bring onto themselves), they maintain a sense of hope, of faith in the future, of optimism. And a great deal of humor as well. I thought it had this in common with Slumdog Millionaire.

The last scene, with Renton striding out into the unknown, is less about the money than it is about burning a bridge, disconnecting from his old friends in a way he can't undo, so that he's free to remake his life.
posted by Western Infidels at 6:29 PM on February 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

In tribute to Trainspotting's 20th anniversary, I had a job interview today that I think went very much like Spud's leisure centre interview.


I do need to get off the fookin' gyro, though. It's fookin' shite noo.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:51 PM on February 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

The theatrical adaptation of Knuffle Bunny has a G-rated homage in which Daddy has to dive into the bowels of the dryer to battle the laundry demons (which includes the one of lost socks).
posted by brujita at 6:56 PM on February 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

Also:


LAGER LAGER LAGER
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:56 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

The setting for "It's shite being Scottish" scene is probably even more remote than the movie portrays it as being. The train station is located 10 miles from the nearest road...

Wait, what? The page on Wikipedia shows a car in the parking lot. How can it possibly be ten miles form the nearest road?
posted by trackofalljades at 7:21 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've never actually brought myself to watch it. I even rented it once and it's been on my dvr a few times but I've never been in the right space to sit through it.
posted by octothorpe at 7:35 PM on February 19, 2016

I went on a high school trip to Europe with thirty or so peeps from around the county in the summer of 1996, and posters for this were everywhere around London. It looked exciting. I didn't see it until 1998 in college on vhs.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:07 PM on February 19, 2016

Cool Papa Bell: "Of my favorite movies, this is the movie where I don't know a single real-life person that enjoys it.

I don't feel the sickness yet, but it's in the post."

I very much enjoy this movie. I will be watching it again tonite. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'm a real life person. I haven't been a real life person since I kicked the heroin. OTOH, yes. The sickness is real. Even the second hand sickness is real. Trust me, as a second hand person. Who may or may not be real.
posted by Splunge at 8:34 PM on February 19, 2016

And yet still no movie of Marabou Stork Nightmares?
posted by meehawl at 9:02 PM on February 19, 2016

To be clear: Having once been in the grasp of morphia, life will always be different. Even though it has been well on 25 years or more without it, heroin will always be part of my life. Heroin will always be in the back of my mind. Or the front. It never goes away. Never will. I don't expect it to do so. I see it as an old acquaintance. I can watch it in a movie. I can see TV reports about it. I especially love to watch people on news shows cooking up. It's always there. Hard to explain.

Imagine if a friend of yours was killed in a car accident. You were in the car. But you survived. Years later you see the same car accident on TV. How would you feel? You would certainly feel bad about your friend. But you finally have moved on, see? The part that still moves you, that affects you, is that you have survived. And when you see the accident, you think, I survived.

That's heroin to me. I have finally moved on enough that I can say, there's the spoon. There's the needle. I remember those things. I was there. Isn't that funny? That was me.

I was that person. I'm that person now. A real life person. Which person is me? Who can tell? I can't.
posted by Splunge at 9:04 PM on February 19, 2016 [13 favorites]

I don’t understand time.
posted by bongo_x at 11:59 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

As a great Scottish man once said:

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff.
posted by Mezentian at 1:33 AM on February 20, 2016

LAGER LAGER LAGER
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:56 PM on February 19

MEGA MEGA EPONYSTERICAL THING
posted by Elizabeth the Thirteenth at 1:44 AM on February 20, 2016 [5 favorites]

I saw it at the Pasquino cinema in Rome (apparently now defunct) in ’96. While I was queuing to get in, an infeasibly cool-looking jamesdeanalike Italian youth stepped off his motorino and approached an acquaintance in line ahead of me and established he was there to see Trainspotting: «un gran bel film» the boy pronounced, in serious voice, «un gran bel film».
posted by misteraitch at 2:24 AM on February 20, 2016

I've read most of his work, and just finished Glue. It was absolutely wonderful.
posted by emf at 3:02 AM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

I lived in Edinburgh in the mid-nineties. One afternoon I met an American couple in a bar on Leith Walk. They were on their honeymoon, doing the European grand tour. We had a nice conversation, and then they asked me for a recommendation for somewhere to get dinner - I suggested the St James Oyster Bar on Calton Road. We arranged to meet again later and went off to our respective dinners. When we met again, I asked them how their meal had been.
'Great,' they said, 'but it took us a while to get in there. The road was closed for a movie shoot.'
'What were they filming?' I asked.
'Something called Trainspotting,' they said. 'We met a guy at the barriers who told us it was based on a novel by a local author. We asked who the star was and the guy we were talking to laughed and said "Well, I guess it's me."'

They were filming the iconic shoplifting chase - the St James Oyster Bar door is visible over McGregor's shoulder in this image.

I imagine the couple told that story a lot after Ewan McGregor was cast in the Star Wars prequels.
posted by HastyDave at 3:31 AM on February 20, 2016 [11 favorites]

McGregor directed a film in my neighborhood last year and I didn't manage to see him but the neighbors who rented him some space for the shoot said he was charming and down-to-earth.
posted by octothorpe at 4:41 AM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Put me down as another one who enjoys Trainspotting. Yeah, their lives are shite and there's no happy ending, but (though often not as extreme as this) that's what life is like. There's such humour and wit and sharp observation to all of it (evenmoreso the book) that it really is enjoyable. Spud's interview is just hilarious.

Also, apart from the bit mentioned by HastyDave and the bit on Rannoch Moor, it was all filmed in Glasgow.

I don't know if enjoying it has more to do with familiarity? I've a lot of friends in Leith, and while it has definitely gone up in the world you'll still find your Sick Boys and Spuds, though these days they're injecting bath salts rather than heroin.
posted by Vortisaur at 5:23 AM on February 20, 2016

Put me down on the entertained side. I've watched it dozens of times, that last a couple of months back... always see new stuff in it, never board. Obviously there's grim stuff in it, horror film level stuff... but in a way that only adds to it. (And I like horror films.)

Always found it hilariously ironic that the flagship film for Cool Britannia was about scummy druggies where the lesson was rip off your mates before they rip you off and the ultimate choice is the gutter looking at opiate stars or boring convention with three piece sweet etc. Or may be it's just about friendship in adversity with a bit of fun along the way until you can get out of town. Then again you don't need reasons when you've got heroin.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:12 AM on February 20, 2016

It's not at all surprising that people are entertained by this movie. It's entertaining as hell. And it does that while also taking its grim subject matter completely seriously. The way Boyle transitions between scenes, his framing, and just the way the characters interact with the world and each other; it's all very fast-paced and quirky and darkly hilarious. To say nothing of a perfectly curated soundtrack that augments and undercuts the narrative as needed. And it knows its audience: the prime example being the scene where we are told about Tommy's death. After the description of his horrible end, we are told, very deliberately: "the kitten was fine." This, despite the fact that earlier we saw a baby die from neglect.
posted by wabbittwax at 3:32 PM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]