I think the recent 28 Years Later sequel release made me remember Danny Boyle, and while he's one of the largest UK directors we have, I don't think I've ever actually fully seen Trainspotting. Now that is something I hate to admit given the massive impact it has had throughout the years. And I think that recently it has had a bit of a resurgence as people look to the past for more comfort, where nostalgia is the world's greatest interest as misery becomes the present's. It's not just the film, but the music it holds. The themes that speak on society and its illnesses that are widespread. I mean, Trainspotting's first few scenes even detail the contradictory nature of society as people talk about how they'd never fill their bodies with such horrible chemicals as they chug down beer and smoke all day in a pub. Films like these are rare, and I think that's because there's only so many unique times a film can tell a story like this. Speaking on wasting your life as you sit inside doing nothing but playing Pool.
Perhaps it's some nostalgia for the chaotic days of running around decayed economically struggling England. Witnessing the many backgrounds and stories unfolding at once within the spaces I grew up within. Looking back, I think everyone was mutually lost somehow, but dealing with it in their own ways. From the people I went to school with or the people I would stumble across throughout the teen years. Trainspotting is a film that manages to capture that economic and industrial decay that became so widespread after the 1980s across the UK. Where everyone was struggling somehow, and so many would just immediately fall into finding coping methods rather than trying to figure a way out. Where opportunity was thin. And the usual way of life just seemed like a waste of time to pursue. I think Trainspotting is a film that not all will connect with to such a level, I do think you have to grow up in that sort of time and environment to really understand it. The culture, the setting, even just the decade.
Trainspotting is one of those stories on how a young man within Scotland is a victim to that economic and industrial decay. Where life is grim and there's little to do other than drink, smoke, and become an addict to cope with it all. Though this addict has finally told himself enough is enough, and the story is about his attempts to fix himself. To get off of the drugs and see where he can take his life from there. Though, of course, things aren't that easy. With the attempts to come clean come the boredom, the attempts to find other methods of joy in life. And in Scotland that's not going to be so easy for troubled youth. The emptiness of its landscape. The boredom that follows as existentialism comes into question, even down to what it means to be Scottish, when it's a nation heavily controlled and colonised. Naturally, that brings back the question of drugs. How easy it is to return to the coping methods. To resort to theft and wasting away in dark rooms.
While the film is often dealt with in a comedic effect, even down to its directing style and narration, there are parts of it that still speak on the tragedy of being a drug addict. The 'piles of misery upon misery' that build as they find new ways to make a living and pursue the drugs. Where babies die in drug houses, and their bitter lives grow more bitter. I think this adds some contrast to the film sometimes, where it finds some moments to be light and comedic, but all that does is make those moments of shock feel more shocking. What Trainspotting manages to do though is maintain the humanity within its addicts. It shows them still capable of feeling guilt, still having wants and needs. Still feeling capable of wanting to take responsibility for their actions. It allows us to feel sympathy for them, to see them as people despite some of their more questionable self-destructive and cruel actions.
What I really liked was the film towards the end, that third part in which we watch how our protagonist finally gets things together. He moves to London, finds a regular job. He manages to avoid the drugs. Though he speaks on how he's only almost content. There is still something missing within his life. And how society itself is something that doesn't quite speak to him, never has.