From the first moments of hearing the
words of Mark Renton’s opening monologue, you know you’re in for a hell of a
ride. From the title Trainspotting,
you’d be understandably forgiven for assuming that this film was about a man
who looked at trains for a hobby. (Ok, just me then), well the film in
actuality is something quite distant and remote from that and altogether
different. During the film opening, the viewer is faced with a hard hitting
assault of the visual senses of what life is like for a minority of working
class citizens in Scotland, or at least aims to be. As mentioned in an earlier
post, this for me is a film that captivated my attention towards the genre of
Social Realism, as I believe there is little else that can topple this ‘David’
budgeted, but ‘Goliath’ executed masterpiece of a film. Directed by Danny Boyle, the film really
explores with great depth and detail the negative connotations and poor
influences that a drug inhabited area can manifest into an area. Both addiction and dependency on the drug
heroin is shown to spread like a crippling virus bringing with it unemployment,
danger to life and unpredictability, all of which are issues explored in the
film throughout its duration. It also opens the eyes of viewers into the lives
of the ordinary working class citizens who, perhaps financially insecure and
unstable in their relationships, need another anchor in their lives; a sense of
dependency and a release that will always be there for them to turn to in a
time of need. This dependency for Mark Renton and his peers is shown to be that
of drug taking and substance abuse at a dangerous level, with the director
effectively allowing the audience to experience the effects of hard hitting
drugs through the explorative techniques used in the camerawork. A good example
of this occurring is a scene where Mark is seduced by the drug Heroin and subsequently
begins to feel the forceful and convulsing after effects. This is
particularly effective through Boyle’s masterful deployment of his directorial
skills, where the viewer along with Renton begins to experience feelings of
inertia and a ‘sinking’ feeling in a literal way as a low angle POV shot is
used to effectively demonstrate Renton’s constraints placed on him by the
drugs. This camera technique has also been used effectively by Boyle to allow the
audience an insight into Renton’s experience of the drug and the beastly
effects that the taker must endure to ‘ride out’ the experience, such as
diarrhoea.
It is through the gritty representation
of the urban populace’s living conditions that is one of the film’s many and
various appeals as it is upon a wider platform of the film medium that the
working class is represented on.
This film is a huge inspiration for me
as this film, along with This is England
really raised the bar and introduced a whole new genre in the case of Social
Realism to a far wider, more diverse and wide reaching audience. I think that
this is mainly due to the fact that up until the emergence of this film into
the public eye many people had never experienced such a realistic confrontation
of drug issues that inhabit society presently and society at the time.
Part of the film’s appeal is the fact
that many audience people were easily able to relate to the various situations
that the characters find themselves in even if they themselves had not
experimented with or experienced the effects of drugs, many people have been a
witness to the effects and the negative influence the drugs can increase onto
individuals who partake in the activity of recreational drug use initiated for
pleasure.
Part of the success attributed to the
film is Boyle’s immersive camera techniques and his rigidity of sticking to the
codes and conventions of the Social Realism genre, and his risk taking by allowing
relatively unknown actors to adjourn the film screen to showcase their talent
that ultimately complement the overall enjoyment of the piece for the audience.
Perhaps it is through the generally agreeable assumption that Trainspotting is such a realistic
portrayal of everyday working class civilian life that have captured the hearts
and minds of so many fans of this film both on a national and international
scale that contribute so much to its success.
I believe that through the use of just
pure camera film and the minimal usage of special effects and the absence of
CGI, Boyle has created a masterful piece of film that is pure brilliance, a
film that is not poisoned nor detracts in its effect on the audience by the use
of CGI.
For me, only three words can sum up the
quality of this film: Pure, gritty genius. If the viewing for Trainspotting was
a drug, I’d be instantly addicted, unquestionably an addict for life, of that I
have no doubt.
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