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1996, Heather M. Ross (Valley Vantage)
"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a f--king big television. Choose a washing machine, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers … Choose DIY and wondering who the f--k you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit crushing game shows, stuffing 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, f--ked-up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life … But why would I want to do a thing like that?"
Ah, poetry in motion, as well as an amazingly interesting way to start a movie. A young Scotsman is thinking these very words as he runs from lawmen on the streets of Edinburgh to being Miramax Film's Trainspotting.
This little soliloquy actually sets the tone for the film, which gives audiences sight into the world of a handful of heroin addicts, living day to day, hit to hit. Based on the novel of the same title by Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting isn't yet another preachy movie about the evils of drug abuse or not living up to parental expectations. Instead, this story shows life in all its disgusting and loud-mouthed vitality, which is exactly what director Danny Boyle wanted.
"One of the refreshing things about this book is that it refuses to take on board any particular stance that makes other people feel comfortable," says Boyle. "Most [people] don't have anything to do with Heroin so it makes us feel comfortable to take an anti-drug stance, but it's pointless of course because anybody who's going to get involved in that world is not going to listen to you really. The book is deliberately anti-moralistic, it doesn't take up any more position. [The film] doesn't take any easy options because the young audience, which is what you aim for, have to respect the voice of the film as being something that isn't taking a paternal attitude towards them."
In making this film, Boyle, producer Andrew Macdonald and screenwriter John Hodge looked to prior films that produced similar really smacks for viewers.
"We wanted Ewan McGregor to watch Malcom McDowell in [A Clockwork Orange] because he's a vile character whom you feel very ambiguous about. We also got him to watch Alfie because Michael Cain again is the same, and the character is Goodfellas too," explains Boyle. "The book is an extreme book and we didn't want the film to be made in a tepid manner. We wanted it to be a very confident, bold film. We made it for very little money, because there was always the chance that it wouldn't work. If we kept the budget down, we wouldn't have catastrophe with it. We would make its money back in Britain."
This is one director who should not be worried abut flops. Boyle made this film after directing the acclaimed and highly successful Shallow Grave with the Macdonald and Hodge team by his side.
And Trainspotting is another masterpiece under the belt for this star. But while most filmmakers are known for Oscars and Golden Globes, Boyle has a different prize sitting on his mantel--a gold record.
"I can't sing a note of music. I'm completely tone deaf. I can't play any instrument and I've got a gold disc," relates Boyle. "There's all these incredibly talented musicians out there who will never get anything near a gold disc in their lives. There is not justice in the world."
While he is surprised to have that particular bookend, the director is very happy with the way the movie's soundtrack turned out. The hit record, which contains tunes from such artists as Iggy Pop, Brian Eno, Primal Scream, Heaven 17, Sleeper, New Order, Blur, Lou Reed and Elastica, added just the right ambience to this highly charged, often raunchy movie.
"It is very important with this kind of film that the soundtrack was very appealing so that it drives the film and people connect with it at different points."
So just why did this nice, humble gentleman from England make this disturbing of a film?
"The producer read the book first and it was a genuine cult book then, nobody had heard of it. There were like 2000 copies in all of Scotland," says Boyle. "[Andrew] said, 'You should read this,' and John and I read it and it was a phenomenal experience. It's not just a book that you like. It sort of changes your life a bit. It just refixes you on your position. Your natural response to it is 'Can we make a movie out of it?' That's what it is being in the movie business. As soon as you find anything decent you think 'Can I have a bit of that?"
And it does appear that Boyle got "a bit of that." He and the others set out to take this great novel and turn it into an equally great cinematic experience. They read and re-read the book, and even enlisted the help of former heroin addicts to assure accuracy and give the film the distinctiveness it deserved. The trio wanted to entertain, but also make people think.
"I count myself as a liberal and I thought 'I know about smack addicts, I'm sympathetic,'" relates Boyle. "Then the book just slams them straight back in front of you and you realize that you've sort of put them to the side so that they don't disrupt your life anymore. The book is phenomenally entertaining so we wanted to make the film enormously entertaining, because it's a very uneasy balance then for people to take on board. It was very unpleasant but compulsive, which it should be if it's about drugs."
While Boyle polishes his gold record and gets to work on his next project, A Life Less Ordinary (also written by Hodge and staring Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz), Trainspotting has opened in England to rave reviews and big overflowing box offices. Will America be as receptive to this film in the wake of the heroin related deaths of Sublime and Smashing Pumpkins' band members? That is left to see, but the reviews seem to be in the movie's favor and Boyle is confident and adamantly insists that this is not part of an anti-drug campaign.
"We were very clear that we didn't want to set out with this moral tone that said 'Anyone who gets involved in this world is a moron, 'cause they're gonna kill themselves,'" says Boyle. "We wanted to make clear what people get out of this. The beginning of the film is very seductive, very sexy. The adrenaline is a very attractive, very energetic, even though a lot of it actually has nothing to do with heroin, but [rather] the lifestyle."
Boyle doesn't seem to share the views of that scraggly young drug addict who spewed his philosophy of life in the opening sequence, and he has no reason to. With two hit movies, a gold record and numerous offers to direct other projects, he has much more of grasp on life and what it takes to make it. Watch for him to make many more successful films, but you plan on watching Trainspotting, hold off on supper. Reality for heroin addicts is not for the faint of heart, or stomach.
Copyright © 1996 Heather M. Ross
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