Trainspotting (movie) - Definition and Overview

Trainspotting is a 1996 black comedy film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh about a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh and their passage through life. It stars Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald. Author Welsh also has a small role.

The movie's screenplay was adapted from Welsh's novel by John Hodge. Interestingly, the screenplay does not contain any overt references to the non-drug-related hobby of train spotting, although the trailer contained a sequence involving the lead characters at a railway station that does not appear in the film.

It sparked controversy on its release in the United States and in the UK as to whether it promoted drug use. However, it was generally praised as an inventive, highly effective film. In 2004 the magazine Total Film named Trainspotting the 4th greatest British film of all time.

The film's release was supported by an imaginative marketing campaign using flyers inspired by rave culture and posters of each of the main actors. Due to illness Kevin McKidd did not attend the photoshoot for these and as a result his career has not flourished to the same degree as the other lead actors.

Quotes

"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking 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 leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit crushing game shows, stuffing fuckin' junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats that you've spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?" - Mark Renton

See also

• Corrour station is the setting for the "great outdoors" scene in the film.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Trainspotting (movie)

• Trainspotting (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/) at the Internet Movie Database