LTTP: Trainspotting

A modern classic or is it all style over substance, does it glamourise the use of hard drugs and the junkie lifestyle?

I found it similar to Alfie, a perspective-based story narrated by a protagonist whom the audience may not necessarily sympathise with. There aren't many examples of that type of film, and the direction goes even further to emphasise the perspective, so it's interesting at the very least.

I prefer this trailer. Warning - lots of swearing.

Brilliant movie. An eye opener into the smackhead lifestyle. I don't think it glamorises it in anyway. Afterall, not much good happens to him or his 'friends'.

Originally Posted by Azog 150

Brilliant movie. An eye opener into the smackhead lifestyle. I don't think it glamorises it in anyway. Afterall, not much good happens to him or his 'friends'.

He does escape with a lot of money. And you have to admit the toilet diving scene looks fun.

it's nitty gritty to the extreme Trainspotting, which is what makes it such a great movie. It's probably the most realistic depiction of drug culture in film

A 90's classic not glamorizing anything.

I love the opening monologe

Originally Posted by Renton

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a ing big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of ing fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing ing junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, ed-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?

Absolutely not, it is a fantastic film, it's educational, I think it should be shown to children if they want to teach them about heroin or whatever. Because one one hand it's describing the experience being fantastic, it just shows how you can lose everything.
And I'm sure the withdrawal bit in the film would scare alot of people.
But it doesn't just you use direct fear and statistics, it tells you exactly how it is. And it isn't nice.

I don't think this movie glamorizes drugs at all. There are some scary as hell scenes, like the scene where the baby dies or where the main character feels like he's buried alive when he OD's.

I would have preferred a tragic ending, but then again the film could have come off like an afterschool special if the main characted died or goes to jail for 20 years.

The thing I liked most about Trainspotting is it nails why people become addicts - the feelings of not being connected to society, the self-loathing, the desire to not just be yet another nameless clone barely living in the suburbs. I've never done drugs but I used to drink pretty heavily when I was in the military. I first saw this movie back when I was binge drinking every weekend, and it was a bit of a wakeup call.

^^^^^^

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sure, the ending isn't tragic, but its not exactly happy either. He gets £16 grand but looses all his so called mates, ends up alone and lets face it, £16,000 (14 if you include the £2,000 he gave away) is hardly going to completely change his life

Originally Posted by Azog 150

^^^^^^

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sure, the ending isn't tragic, but its not exactly happy either. He gets £16 grand but looses all his so called mates, ends up alone and lets face it, £16,000 (14 if you include the £2,000 he gave away) is hardly going to completely change his life

It is a happy ending actually, one that takes you back to the very first monologue. He rejects heroin and the drug culture, and he chooses life.

@ Azog - not to ruin the ending for anyone, but by happy ending I mean the main character doesn't die in absolute degradation.

Not to get too off-topic here, but here's a link to a series one of the Seattle papers did on the problem of heroin addiction in the Northwest. I guess cities like Seattle and Vancouver are ground zero for a resurgence in heroin use. All of the stories featured are of people who should have lived promising lives - the star athlete, the dedicated businessman, the beloved mom - who died horrible deaths.

http://www.seattlepi.com/heroin/

^^^^I'll have a read. Heroin is certainly one ed up drug

All the heroin addicts from the 1980's here in Britain (Particulary in places like Glasgow and Liverpool where there was mass heroin use) are all dying out at the moment, most in their early 40's.

^Here in Berlin its the same story, if they didnt die in their teen/twen years.

However my fathers best friend used to be a bad bad heroin addict, is now clean for some decades and runs a scoobadiver school in Honduras. My father never gave up on the friendship, which helped him allot getting clean.

I remember how we picked him up from the street and went to a diner so he gets something to eat for once (when I was 6 years old or so). Later driving home I asked my father why this guy looked so awful, he replied wisely "thats because he drank to much cola".

Never got to like all the sugary soda's....

Theres two great documentaries on youtube about heroin called "Dope Sick Love" that follows two couples addicted to heroin living rough on the streets in New York in the early 00s, the other great documentary is called "Black Tar Heroin" following the lives of several heroin junkies in San Francisco in the mid 90s.

It's pretty crazy stuff.

The abuse of heroin died down a couple years ago thanks to the Taliban stamping out all heroin production in Afghanistan. Now that has ended I think the next big thing will be a resurgance of heroin on the streets (if it hasn't started already). The production of heroin is now greater than ever and because of this, production methods of heroin have improved. Purity of heroin in the past could have been 10-40%, now it's being reported that it could be as high as 80-90%, it's being calling "White Heroin".

Obviously the "high" from the stuff will be insane but the downside is that it drastically inscreases the likelihood of overdose and addiction.

Anyway, watch those documentaries on youtube, well worth it.