Popular Nostalgia

Rate This Nostalgia

How Nostalgic does Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh make you feel? Rate below.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Trainspotting was incredibly famous for being really disgusting and nearly getting banned. You get to see Ewan McGregor’s tackle and a baby’s head spinning round like on the exorcist. It was like gold dust to young teens at the time – the most horrifying film available. My friend managed to one-up us all by reading the book and declaring it more controversial than the film.

Everything that could invite censorship was in there – drug taking, guns, fights, underage sex, defecation, stealing, the death of a baby from neglect and all the weird drug-induced hallucinations you could imagine. Renton, the narrator, claims to be opting out of the boring, pre-determined “good life” whilst demonstrating all the horrors of drug addiction and violent associations. The juxtaposition of the awful scenes with the smug comments about “choosing life” show how a boring life may well be preferable. The anomie in Trainspotting is very similar to a speech made at the end of “How to Get Ahead in Advertising“:

“Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family.
Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars,
compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good
health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed
interest mortage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your
friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a
three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics.
Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning.
Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing
game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose
rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable
home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up
brats you spawned to replace yourself.

Choose your future.

Choose life.”

Here it is on the trailer:

This was the heyday of Ewan McGregor and Johnny Lee Miller (who went out with Angelina Jolie). Robert Carlisle has since had some equally excellent parts.