Conference bookie::movies

    
    How closely does it follow the book?
    
    
    
    
    
    I.

    
    being Scottish and loving Pulp Fiction,I feel I should check this out.
    Where is it playing.?
    
    					ian

    According to the Ads, March 8th is general release date.  With the hype
    that I have heard together with fake news stories about its portrail of
    drug abuse I would have thought all the multiplexes would want it.
    
    Shallow grave was a classic so I'll be checking this one out.
    
    R. Michael

    Trainspotting is one of the few films I have seen that actually lives
    up to it's hype. It was excellent.
    
    It centres around Renton (Ewen McGregor) and his friends some of who
    are heroin addicts like he, and some who aren't and charts the highs
    and lows of being an addict. It is a rare film indeed. Probably the
    best ani-drugs film I have seen. Instead of preaching on about the
    dangers of drugs it shows the highs and lows of heroin addiction and
    after seeing this film anyone that wants to do heroin is a very sad
    person indeed. The first half of the film is at times very funny. The
    dialogue is quick, sharp and realistic, but then as if to say that is
    the good side now see the bad, the humour stops quite suddenly and
    things take a turn into a harrowing story of rehabilitation and of
    falling back into the habit.
    
    	All of the cast are excellent, the soundtrack is really good and
    adds to the mood of the film and you really can believe in the
    characters. To be honest I don't think I can fault this film except to
    say that it is possibly a little too graphic for it to be a smash.
    Certainly the best British film I have seen in a long while.

    
    This film has only been out five minutes and already people are trying
    to pigeonhole it as a "pro-drugs film" or an "anti-drugs" film.  Have
    any of them actually read the book I wonder?  it isn't meant to be
    sending a message, it just happens to be a story about heroin addicts.
    
    
    I.

    This film is indeed excellent, acting, soundtrack (especially, you can
    more or less feel the film again by listening to the album), dialogue not
    inpenetrable **** out of *****.
    
    Not pro or anti drugs, just like the book, which I have read. If you
    put drugs/war/alcohol whatever in a film, people are going to want to
    pigeonhole it as either pro or anti. The book I think makes a better
    account of the downside of Heroin, which was not apparent in the film,
    as Mr Handley put it, "it just happens to be a story about heroin
    addicts.". Not sending a message?

    
    If you take any film like this, the people who watch will interpret it
    in a way they see fit, some finding a message wether there is meant to
    be one or not.  What I like about this film is that it doesn't set
    itself up as a "don't take drugs fer chrissakes" film and lets people
    draw their own conclusions.
    
    
    I.

I saw this over the weekend and liked it. I don't understand the "Scottish Pulp
Fiction" references, its a linear story on a smaller stage; its strength is
that the POV character, f*ck-up though he is, tells his story with a lot of
intelligence and humor. There are some nice visual touches, too - a cute
reference to the "Abbey Road" album cover, and one scene straight out of Tom
Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow". Makes me want to go rent "Shallow Grave", which
never did make it out to Colorado. 

One problem for U.S. audiences - the accent of one character, Begbie, was damn
near impenetrable to my American ears. Luckily, Begbie apparently had very
little of any importance to say (he is Joe Pesci's character in "Goodfellas"
transplanted to Scotland, and a bit of a jarring note in this movie). 

One, probably dumb, question - what does "trainspotting" refer to? The best I
could figure, it was a wallpaper pattern...

    Well, I haven't seen the film or the play, or read the book, but
    in ordinary Brit parlance, "trainspotting" is the hobby of 
    watching trains.  Like birdwatching but with trains.  People
    spend hours standing on platforms and overpasses tracking the 
    trains (make/model/serial number) in their notebooks and comparing
    sightings.  It is not a hobby that is held in high esteem by
    comedy writers (among others) :-).
    
    How this relates to the subject of the film/play/book, I can't
    say.
    
    Chris
    

    RE: .9
    
    Well, the fact that this is by the director of "Shallow Grave" already
    had me watching for this one.  But the mention of a scene lifted out of
    "Gravity's Rainbow" puts it *way* at the top of my list.  It's perhaps
    my favorite novel, and I'm dying of curiosity now.
    
    - Dave

    "Trainspotting" like taking heroin is an obsessive activity.

    In the book, Trainspotting is a joke made by a tramp at an abandoned
    railway station - 'what you doing, trainspotting?'.  (only in a
    Scottish accent).  I think its some kind of tilt at killing time or
    wasting time (spotting trains in an abandoned railway station).  
    
    Mikef

    If you're a "trainspotter"... it basically means you're a bit of an
    "anorak" !

    
    
    
    re -1
    
    anyone outside the UK most likely won't know what this means either.
    
    Trainspotters are the equivalent of Nerds or Geeks in American
    culture except that instead of pocket protectors , they wear
    rain jackets or Anoraks.
    
    Chris
    :)

    It would appear that I have taken some stick for saying it is the most
    anti-drugs film I have seen. The reason I said that is that it showed
    heroin addiction for what it was, not what it was made out to be. It
    showed the realism of how easy it was to be sucked into the drugs seen.
    I agree there was no "Thou shalt not take drugs" message, nor was there
    a "Go on one won't hurt" message, it just told it like it was.
    
    Graham

    I read today that the film is scheduled for release in the US in July.
    
    It is currently being performed as a play  in San Francisco.  (I
    suspect this was its original form?)
    
    - Dave

    re-1
    
    It was originally a book (and a very good one!).  Then it was made into
    a play, and seperately into a film (the film is not a 'film of the
    play', if you see what I mean).  
    
    I haven't actually gotten around to seeing the film yet, and I'm keen
    to see how they 'non linear' structure of the book was turned into a
    film.
    
    Mikef

  When it is released in the U.S., will it be under another title? I think
sticking with the title of "Trainspotting" will leave Americans totally
baffled.
  I had heard of trainspotting a few years ago. It should not be confused with
the train watching that serious railfans do on both sides of the pond.

    
    It'll probably get a snappy american title....something along the lines
    of "Being Scottish Sucks!"
    
    
    
    I.

    Actaully got around to seeing this at the weekend - great film, with a
    cool soundtrack...
    
    re .9
    
    What was the scene from 'Gravitys Rainbow'?  
    
    
    Mikef

Re .-1: "Gravity's Rainbow" scene...

(Its not really a spoiler but I'll put in a FF anyway)

Its when the point-of-view character loses an item of great personal value (in
the movie a morphine suppository, in GR a harmonica) down a toilet ("The Worst
Toilet in Scotland" - ugh!) and dives in after it into the World Below. In the
movie, the World Below is rendered pretty straightforwardly; in Gravity's
Rainbow it is another setting for some surreal Pynchon hooptedoodle...

    
    
    Saw this on Monday night and thought it was brillaint.
    
    It seemed to depict drug taking very realistically i.e. taking
    the hit was great but the lows were terrible.
    
    Most of the horrible bits were also very funny and I thought
    each character played their part very well.
    
    Next step is to buy the soundtrack.
    
    Anyone recognise Sick Boy? - I'm sure I've seen him on something
    but can't remember what.
    
    Kirsty
          

    
    
    Johnny Lee Miller - he appeared in "hackers"
    
    
    I.

    
    
    I'm very keen to see this asI lived in Leith Walk where the movie took
    place!
    
    old sites etc!8)
    
    						ian

    You'll probably need to wiat until it comes out on video now as the
    film had a cinema release in Blighty way back about March/April time.
    
    
    Stephen

    On the other hand you're probably in the US of A in which case, ignore
    my last mail.
    
    ;-)
    

    I heard it was this decades "Clock Work Orange", is that true?
    
    Cause "CWO" was a bit goofy...good idea...but goofy!

    Hmmm...I can see what people are getting at, but I wouldn't really say
    it was 'the new CWO'.  Its way too rooted in reality.
    
    mikef

    
    I'm in the USA and did ignore the first remark! 8)
    
    
    it's nothing like Clock work orange.I've read the book "Trainspotting"
    and saw the movie "cwo"....both are very different!
    
    
    						ian

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, ~4 seconds have been cut from the
    film for its US release.  This was because the distributor's parent
    company, Disney, will not allow any film to be released with an NC-17
    rating, and these cuts were needed to give it an R rating.
    
    The cuts involved a detailed shot of someone shooting junk into
    themselves, and .....I forget what the other one was, but I believe it
    was sexual.
    
    
    E

    I finally saw a commercial for this one last night and I laughed my
    butt off!
    
    	You know the one where he shoots that pitbull in the ar*e and it
    attacks it owner?   I'm not saying I'll go cause of the one clip, but
    it has caught my attention, which is a start!

Now playing in Boston.

A terrific movie. Great to hear Underworld's "Dark and Long" used so well....

    wider release this weekend.
    
    I saw this on tuesday night in Boston.Definately *not* for the faint
    hearted but it is very good.
    
    slight spoiler...
    
    
    the worst toilet in Scotland! 8)
    
    anyone who has seen this movie will get flash backs and be disgusted
    and laugh at the same time.                 8)
    
    						ian
    						

    I saw this movie when it first came out over here in the UK.. It's a
    tough one to describe.  I can't say I enjoyed it but I can't say that I
    didn't!! It was very different!  Worth seeing but expect it not to be
    very tasteful - coz it's not!!
    
    S..x

    
    the book is waaaay better(as is always the case)
    
    
    						ian

    RE: Ian G.
    
    	I tried to e-mail ya this question but it never made it through!
    
    Where was the movie filmed?  And when and where did you live in this
    "tough" neighborhood?
    
    	J

    I went to see this on Saturday.  It was "better" than I thought it 
    would be.  
    
    Only thing though, I'm used to Scottish accents and even I had
    trouble understanding them at times.  I can't imagine how everyone
    else did in the audience.
    
    Sue 

    I thought that chunks of this had been 're-looped' using other actors
    voices?  And some of the dialogue had changed, so that the characters
    talked about 'semester grades' rather then O-Levels?
    
    mikef

    Oh...interesting ... because I remember when Spus was in for
    his job interview and he was going on a mile a minute, he went
    on about grades he'd left school with (which alludes to the UK
    school system) and I remember thinking I wonder if the (American) 
    audience would get this.  So, I didn't catch him mentioning semester 
    grades, in particular, but that was one of the patches of dialogue
    that I had trouble keeping up with.   
    
    Sue

    I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times and then thought
    about how disgusting the actual situation was - the worst bathroom
    scene started off making my gag and then turned hilarious.  Also, the
    guy who ended up sleeping over at his girlfriends and then had to face
    the parents at breakfast.  You just *knew* what was going to happen but
    it was still very funny.  Very effective use of the soundtrack,
    particularly (Lou Reed?) "A Perfect Day" during Mark's overdose.

    	The video gets released in the U.K. next Monday.A must for 
    anyone who never saw it at the cinema.
    
    
    				Woody
    

This movie is not for everyone, but the story, characters and visuals are
striking. It's a gritty, roller coaster ride similar to 'Pulp Fiction'.

The narratives, which I assume come from the book, were well written. The movie
and the narratives reminded me a lot of 'A Clockwork Orange', even though the
settings and subject were very different.

The message (Choose your future. Choose life.) could be somewhat uplifting if
reality didn't get in the way.

-Jeff

I didn't find this a particularly stirring anti-drug movie at all...
It was funnier than I had expected, indeed, only in retrospect do I
realize how much of it was SUPPOSED to be funny.  I guess I missed the 
humor looking for the substance of the film its billing and previous
noters raised.

The drug links in Pulp Fiction would seem to indicate comparisons
are due, but it was a fundamentally different kind of movie.

- tom]

spoilers:

Renton seemed to be able to drift in and out of his smack habit at will.
Save for his being locked in his room by his parents and having what looked
to be maybe one bad night of withdrawal, he seemed unperturbed.

His ability to easily move to London and get the real estate job
didn't jive with the lives of noisy desperation he and his mates
supposedly lived in Scotland.  What was behind their (apparently frequent) 
decisions to take up and drop the smack habit?

I got a much better picture of life on the UK dole from the Commitments 
and The Snapper (but I'm not from the UK, so how can I tell?).

Re: .48

Neither The Commitments nor The Snapper are set in the UK (both
are set in Republic of Ireland.)