Trainspotting (BFI Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Murray Smith (Author)

Book Description

Series: BFI Modern Classics | Publication Date: January 22, 2008

In this book, Murray Smith unpicks the processes that led to the enormous success of Trainspotting. He isolates the various factors that make Trainspotting such a vivid document of its time.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Murray Smith is Professor of Film Studies, University of Kent at Canterbury. He is co-editor of Film Theory and Philosophy (1997) and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (1998).

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: British Film Institute (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0851708706
• ISBN-13: 978-0851708706
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #776,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Deserved Classic Examined, May 8, 2011

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Dash Manchette - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trainspotting (BFI Modern Classics) (Paperback)

Trainspotting is one of those movies that everyone who sees it kind of remembers. With the exception of the myth of the horror of withdrawal (which in reality is no worse than a bout of the flu, see Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy by Theodore Dalrymple), it provides, as far as I can tell, a fairly realistic look at the life of the junky. Disengaged from society, criminal in orientation even independent of the drug (that heroin use leads to crime is an example of putting the cart before the horse), and having made the conscious decision to continue using heroin and even getting back on it after withdrawal, Trainspotting provides viewers with a difficult to accomplish mixture of both realistic psychopathy and genuine humor.

As Murray Smith states in this monograph on the flick, such pieces rarely come together all at once (though he missed the mark about director Danny Boyle, who, like star Ewan McGregor, did go on to do other equally good movies). Here, Smith examines some of the elements that made Trainspotting pull away from the pack of mundane British cinema and become a modern classic.

Smith unfortunately lapses into too much of the pretentious jargon common among film analysis, and it was no surprise to read on the back cover that he, unlike the authors of the best in the BFI series, is a film professor. My rating would have been a star higher if plain speaking had been used instead. But underneath the academic lingo, he examines some important themes. The book begins by placing the movie in the wider context of modern Scottish society, segueing immediately thereafter into the, often unequal, influences between Britain and America and the symbiotic relationship between their cultures.

Personal themes explored include the intense friendships between the characters and the influence that the larger relationships have on the individuals involved, the question of what constitutes a bad person and whether Renton (the main character) fits the bill, and Renton's change in relation to his fellow junkies. In addition, Smith explores themes particular to the movie itself, such as the importance and implications of its wonderful music as well as Trainspotting's use of, for lack of a better term, non-realism interspersed throughout the realistic actions of its characters.

In all, this monograph is far from the best I have read from BFI. But it is far from the worst, as well. I would not recommend this for a non-fan of Trainspotting. But for a fan, yeah, go for it.