Documentary on Trainspotting

Today we consolidated some our own opinions and feelings about the film by looking at a documentary on the film.

I thought this was quite interesting as it showed the importance of the production team (led by producer Andrew MacDonald, writer John Hodge, and director Danny Boyle) in making the project of the film a success.

It also gave some interesting background into casting decisions – in particular the fact that actor who was to play Spud in the film (Ewen Bremner) was mildly disappointed as he had successfully played Renton in the stage version which preceded the film.

I think that what was also interesting was the role of the marketing and PR machine in the selling of the film.

Again, the issue about the degree to which the film glamourises came up: film critic Barry Norman claimed that “not to condemn was to condone” drug abuse.

But Ewen Bremner, on the other hand, claims that it was the first film to break the taboo about heroin addicts by portraying them as human beings.

If anyone has anything to add based on the documentary, please have your say …