Trainspotting

BFI Film Classics

by Murray Smith

In 1996 Trainspotting was the biggest thing in British culture. Brilliantly and aggressively marketed, it crossed into the mainstream despite being a black comedy set against the backdrop of heroin addiction in Edinburgh. Produced by Andrew Macdonald, scripted by John Hodge and directed by Danny Boyle, the team behind Shallow Grave (1994), Trainspotting was an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's barbed novel of the same title. The film is crucial for understanding British culture in the context of devolution and the rise of 'Cool Britannia'.

Murray Smith unpicks the processes that led to Trainspotting 's enormous success. He isolates various factors – the film's eclectic soundtrack, its depiction of Scottish identity, its attitude to deprivation, drugs and violence, its traffic with American cultural forms, its synthesis of realist and fantastic elements, and its complicated relationship to 'heritage' – that make Trainspotting such a vivid document of its time. Although it heralded a false dawn for British film-making, Trainspotting is, Smith concludes, both authentically vernacular and yet transnational in its influences and ambitions.

In his afterword to this new edition, Murray Smith reflects on the original film 25 years after its release, and its 2017 sequel Trainspotting also directed by Boyle. Smith also considers Danny Boyle's subsequent directorial career, with highlights including Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Criticism

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Charles Maurice Smith

Reviews

[Patrick McCoy]

Murray Smith's BFI: Trainspotting (2002) is a comprehensive look at a seminal 90s film by the production team of director Danny Boyle, producer Andrew Mcdonald, and screenwriter John Hodge. The book is divided into nine sections. The first section, "Arriving," gives the context in which the film was made as inspiration from Irvine Welsh's inventive, ground-breaking novel from which it was adapted. Section 2, "Young Americans", discusses not only the American stylistic influences within the film, but also the regional and national aspects of the film-being Scottish and British. Section 3, "The City's Ripped Backside", looks at the importance of the setting of Edinburgh in the film. Smith identifies friendship and loyalty as key themes in section 4, "Like Friends." In section 5, "Bad Person", Smith analyzes Johnny Renton, whose self-criticism in the film self-identifies himself as a bad person.This is something that Murray questions if we can take this analysis at face value or not. Smith identifies and discusses rapid-speed and propulsion forward as key visual elements in section 6, "Speed of Life." The next section 7, "Scoring Trainspotting", argues that the popular and eclectic soundtrack adds great value to the effectiveness of the film overall. Another original aspect of the film, called "black magic realism" by Smith is discussed in section 8. in section 9, Murray argues that Trainspotting is a modern classic-it is my estimation as well. I thought this was one of the better BFI film books, I tend to prefer these thematic and stylistic discussions of films rather than the production history types of film discussions.

[Ava Stern]

Thanks josie

[Michelle]

“Whin ye feel like he did, ye dinnae want tae talk or be talked at. Ye dinnae want any fuckin fuss at aw.” (7)

“Sometimes ah think that people become junkies just because they subconsciously crave a wee bit ay silence.” (7)

“Ah’d walk oan ma hands and knees through broken glass fir a thousand miles tae use to use the cunt’s shite as toothpaste and we baith know it.” (20)

“A powerful rage gripped us, seemingly coming fae nowhere. No, not fae nowhere. Strong emotions ay this type can only be generated by junk or the possibility of its absence.” (22)

“Ma problem is, whever ah sense the possibility, or realize the actuality ay attaining something that ah thought ah wanted, be it girlfriend, flat, job, education, money and so on, it jist seems so dull n sterile, that ah cannae value it any mair. Junk’s different though. Ye cannae turn yir back oan it sae easy. It will nae let ye.” (90)

[Sophie White]

Murray Smith dives into the British classic “Trainspotting” ,this book has been a massive asset to my knowledge of Danny Boyle’s use of creative and expressionistic techniques and has massively helped me with my studies. I would’ve preferred more scene analysis instead of the large amount of sound analysis he’s included, although I do understand why he’s selected to research into that as it was a massive cultural influence.

[Thomas]

A brilliant study of a brilliant film, down to aspects of Boyle's film language as well as the social and cultural contexts of a Scottish film on the eve of devolution and the British film industry itself.

[Alex Bailey]

Great insight into film

[Matt]

Reprinted updated, a great piece of work on a great work . 4.3

[Thursday Caustic]

Citita pentru atestatul la engleza. Interesant, dar nu impresionant de interesant.

[lucy ☆☆]

if i read this when i was doing alevels i would have gotten at a* in film studies

[Christopher]

While this is not my favorite of the BFI Film Classics/Modern Classics series (I prefer the books that are heavier on production history than film theory), Murray Smith's take on Danny Boyle's 1996 film is nevertheless a decent companion to the movie. Smith provides enough cultural and historical context to expand one's understanding of why the film resonated so much with Scottish, English and international audiences.

[John]

I'm glad that there exist such wonderful publications on movies. It adds a new medium for understanding and interpreting film.