DVD Movie Rating for: Trainspotting - Ewan McGregor

4 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Trainspotting - Ewan McGregor

A group of disaffected Scottish youths turn to heroin to escape the banalities of modern-day existence. Then, they begin to suffer the consequences and discover that there are no easy solutions to the inherent loneliness and pain of life.

DVD Production Details of: Trainspotting - Ewan McGregor

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner

Director: Danny Boyle

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen

Studio: Miramax

DVD Release Date: May 6, 2003
DVD Features:
Widescreen letterbox format

DVD Easter Eggs

Cast of the movie: Trainspotting - Ewan McGregor

• Ewan McGregor .... Mark 'Rent-boy' Renton
• Ewen Bremner .... Daniel 'Spud' Murphy
• Jonny Lee Miller .... Simon David 'Sick Boy' Williamson
• Kevin McKidd .... Tommy MacKenzie
• Robert Carlyle .... Francis (Franco) Begbie
• Kelly Macdonald .... Diane
• Peter Mullan .... Swanney
• James Cosmo .... Mr. Renton
• Eileen Nicholas .... Mrs. Renton
• Susan Vidler .... Allison
• Pauline Lynch .... Lizzy
• Shirley Henderson .... Gail
• Stuart McQuarrie .... Gavin/US Tourist
• Irvine Welsh .... Mikey Forrester
• Dale Winton .... Game Show Host

Photo Gallery of the movie: Trainspotting - Ewan McGregor

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Trainspotting

Reviews of the movie: Trainspotting - Ewan McGregor

With its hallucinatory visions of crawling dead babies and a grungy plunge into the filthiest toilet in Scotland, you might not think Trainspotting could have been one of the best movies of 1996, but Danny Boyle's film about unrepentant heroin addicts in Edinburgh is all that and more. That doesn't make it everybody's cup of tea (so unsuspecting viewers beware), but the film's blend of hyperkinetic humor and real-life horror is constantly fascinating, and the entire cast (led by Ewan McGregor and Full Monty star Robert Carlyle) bursts off of the screen in a supernova of outrageous energy. Adapted by John Hodge from the acclaimed novel by Irving Welsh, the film was a phenomenal hit in England, Scotland, and (to a lesser extent) the U.S. For all of its comedic vitality and invigorating filmmaking, the movie is no ode to heroin, nor is it a straight-laced cautionary tale. Trainspotting is just a very honest and well-made film about the nature of addiction, and it doesn't pull any punches when it is time to show the alternating pleasure and pain of substance abuse

Money is the power god of heroin
Of course "Trainspotting" is a disturbing film. It is also gross and disgusting, as though Larry Flynt had gotten his hands on something like "A Clockwork Orange." But this Brit production with the heavy Scottish brogue is fortunately more than that; it is original and clever and moves right along. This is partly a cult film with all sorts of indie shibboleths and counter-cultural references; and partly an art film, with splashy sets and studied camera work; but mostly this is a full-blown commercial seduction of contemporary youth, worthy of the talent of somebody at, say, Sony or Pepsi or even the WB.

The opening theme (actually voiced over) is the idea that heroin or any really demanding addiction is preferable to ordinary life, an intriguing but stale notion designed to shock the bourgeoisie. The central theme proclaims that a heroin addict is just another kind of junkie, along with your cigarette, cola, beer, sex, grease, etc. junkies. (Bingo!) Yet at the end we see, as one might discover by watching PBS, that money will out. Kinda reminds me of what Omar Khayyam asked about wine nine hundred years ago: "I wonder...what the Vintners buy/One half so precious as the stuff they sell." Here the answer is clear: money itself. Closing theme: money triumphs over heroin; money is the power god of heroin.

I guess something like that is the commercially correct "message" of this film.

Ewan McGregor is excellent in the leading role as a junkie who is as cute as your brother, with fine support by Robert Carlyle, who plays a bantam who likes to cut people. The script by John Hodge is partly unintelligible, which is good; and the direction by Danny Boyle combines cartoon fantasy with stark realism, slick horror with black comedy, in a manner sure to be imitated. The sound track, "available on Capitol Records," (I rest my case) will sell. Some might say that this is a penetrating critique of modern urban society, but the only thing being penetrated is your pocket book.