Great movie overall

Rating: 8/10 (24 February 2014)

Danny Boyle's 1996 film Trainspotting presents a wildly entertaining yet moderately disturbing look into the toils of living life with a drug addiction. An array of recurring patterns and themes throughout the movie present a viewer with the honest truth about drug addiction and a number of the horrors that accompany such a lifestyle. Though drug addicts are often looked down upon in society, and many will agree that they should be, Boyle's film represents a sincere and almost sympathetic point of view regarding the path down which many individuals travel in the pursuit of an unhealthy but ever powerful drug addiction. Despite the fact that the movie contains a number of disturbing scenes and scenarios, they are an attempt to force a viewer to face the reality that drug addiction is a sickness of its own that holds many captive against their will. Ultimately, it is through the use of interesting character development and subtle symbolism that the 1996 film Trainspotting presents a disturbing, yet brutally honest depiction of the horrors of drug addiction and the consequences that result from choosing such a path in life.
The first, and perhaps most terrifying message illustrated within the film is the idea that despite all that may result from living this particular lifestyle, a drug addict never seems to have enough. Trainspotting (Boyle 1996) highlights the lengths to which addicts will travel in order to feed the monster inside of them that is a powerful addiction. The opening scene, along with many others in the film, displays the characters robbing, fighting, and running from the police simply in an effort to pursue their next hit. One scene that caught my particular attention regarding this message is when we see Mark Renton sneaking into his parents' bedroom to steal money from under their mattress. The idea presented here is that a drug addict and a normal human being are simply incomparable in terms of moral values. Once the addiction has grown to the point that is highlighted in the film, all moral values become inexistent, and as Renton describes in his narration of the film "Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?" (Trainspotting 1996). This idea is the driving force behind the actions illustrated within the film, and leads to the infinitely long downward spiral that is a drug addiction. The movie also utilizes a number of symbolic scenes to highlight the fact that an addict is always chasing their last hit. After Renton procures the suppository pills that, at the time of the scene are his alleged last dose, they fall into the disgustingly dirty toilet presented in the beginning of the movie. The following scene, in which Renton climbs into the toilet to find them, is a hallucination that is very significant to this idea. As he swims through the water in this strange hallucination, the idea presented is that Renton is chasing his last hit before he will quit for good; a process that we later find out never ends for most. Although his plan to stop using for good fails, this strange scene depicts this idea perfectly. Steven Rea writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer that "Brian Tufano's agile cinematography captures the stoned-out, gut-churning experience of hardcore addiction with hallucinogenic acuity." which I find to be a perfect depiction of this message. Another important message that illustrates the terrors of such a horrible addiction is the theme that choosing heroin means not choosing life. Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune describes Trainspotting (Boyle 1996) as a "guided tour of a specific hell" in his review of the movie, which is certainly an accurate representation of the lives of the characters. The movie begins with Renton's satirical narration that encourages the audience to "choose life" (Trainspotting 1996), as he sarcastically mocks the commodities that accompany such a decision. However, as Renton explains towards the beginning of the movie, when he is not using heroin there is simply too much to worry about. The characters are presented with a startling revelation that they are in fact human with the death of Allison's baby, yet react in a very inhumane way. As Renton stands there observing the dead baby, he explains that he cannot think of anything "human" (Trainspotting 1996) to say in such a situation. Instead of offering sympathy or compassion, Renton simply utters "I'm cooking up" (Trainspotting 1996) and offers Allison a hit as well; a symbolic representation of the fact that heroin is the only outlet they have to deal with the many stresses of living a drug-free life. In my opinion, this is one of the most startling aspects of the life of addiction: the fact that a combination of chemicals has the power to cover up the pain of life, and death in this situation. While many will argue that Trainspotting (Boyle 1996) is a groundbreaking film that will certainly be remembered as a classic, in my opinion it is simply a grotesquely honest representation of the lives of drug addicts. While Danny Boyle's character development and use of symbols throughout the movie effectively illustrate the horrors of drug addiction, Trainspotting does not do much else. As a whole, I would give Trainspotting (Boyle 1996) a rating of four out of five stars although I do not believe the individual aspects of the movie would receive such a high rating. Trainspotting (Boyle 1996) is certainly worth watching for those that are interested to learn more about the lives of drug addicts, but may not be as entertaining to those who are not.