trainspotting | NASAH.

It is a 1966 film directed by Danny Boyle and written by John Hodge. It is about a young man deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene who tries to clean up and get out although his friends continue to influence him. This film depicted a life among a group of people struggling to survive a grim existence on heroin in late 1980s.

They are Rent Boy, a young man with few prospects and fewer ambitions, lives in economically depressed Edinburgh. Like most of his friends, Renton is a heroin addict who loves the drug’s blissful nothingness; financing his habit also provides excitement and challenges that his life otherwise lacks. Sick Boy, a snappy dresser obsessed with James Bond. Spud, a guileless nerd who suggests Pee Wee Herman’s debauched cousin. Begbie, a borderline psychotic. He loathes junkies even though he drinks like a fish. After one too many brushes with the law, Renton kicks heroin and moves to London, where he finds a job, a flat, and something close to peace of mind and Tommy.

It used Scottish slang and the dialogue is heavy in Scottish accent so I was not able to understand some of the words, good thing there is subtitle on the movie. The characters’ hobby is Trainspotting, which was not actually mentioned on the film.

The film has creative moments and sometimes it can be funny, but the viewer should be prepared for a downbeat experience and should expect to find himself places he would never go of his own accord. At first, I did not understand the movie, what the characters do. Until I found out that they inject such drugs which gives them pleasure more satisfying than sex. Through the usage of this kind of drug, they tend to forget all their problems whether about their love life just like what Tommy encountered when his girlfriend broke up with him because their sex video was lost and assumed that it was given to the CD Company that allows them to rent disc. Another scenario is when the baby died on their hide out, the mother asked for one hit just to soothe the emotional pain.

I understand why they do that. It somehow becomes their escape. We do things that will let us forget our problems and hardships. In our culture, we drink alcohol, smoke, go out with friends, shop for girls, and the last option is to commit suicide. In that short span, we forget what is happening but right after that pleasure we will still come back to reality. We will still face the problems so what these guys on the film do, they hit every now and then until they cannot get enough off it.

Then like Renton, there is this realization whether to choose life, have a family and children, get a job, and get a life or stay where he is. Moreover, he took the opportunity after he was rehabilitated and cured. He looked for a job where he earned enough money and came to point he overcame his weakness until his friends once again. He worked with them but when they closed the deal, he ran and just left a bundle of money for spuds, the lesser evil among his friends.

This movie does not glorify heroin. It glorifies the youth.

In terms with how film was made, on the opening billboard, it used dolly shot wherein the characters are in motion and the camera angle is before them as if as the viewer of the film, they were chasing after you. I did not recognize or knew much who the characters were in real life, probably because it was done several years ago. They are not the superstars renowned in the industry. Nevertheless, the film is very relevant especially to the youth. The influence of sex and drugs of the youth’s lives even nowadays. People who will watch the film even this modern age could relate in the film. I just cannot believe that those kind of film were presented during that year where sex and violence reigns.

Trainspotting looks hard at the alternatives to living in oblivion. They’re not as trendy as stealing and shooting up to a pulsating Brit-pop score, but the film’s flash can’t disguise the emptiness of these blasted lives. Trainspotting is 90 minutes of raw power that Boyle and a bang-on cast inject right into the vein.

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