Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31859 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-03-25
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 118 minutes

Amazon.com
With its hallucinatory visions of crawling dead babies and a grungy plunge into the filthiest toilet in Scotland, you might not think Trainspotting could have been one of the best movies of 1996, but Danny Boyle's film about unrepentant heroin addicts in Edinburgh is all that and more. That doesn't make it everybody's cup of tea (so unsuspecting viewers beware), but the film's blend of hyperkinetic humor and real-life horror is constantly fascinating, and the entire cast (led by Ewan McGregor and Full Monty star Robert Carlyle) bursts off of the screen in a supernova of outrageous energy. Adapted by John Hodge from the acclaimed novel by Irving Welsh, the film was a phenomenal hit in England, Scotland, and (to a lesser extent) the U.S. For all of its comedic vitality and invigorating filmmaking, the movie is no ode to heroin, nor is it a straight-laced cautionary tale. Trainspotting is just a very honest and well-made film about the nature of addiction, and it doesn't pull any punches when it is time to show the alternating pleasure and pain of substance abuse. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Certainly a classical insight into addiction
Having witnessed many forms of addiction throughout my life, I have to say, this film excellently portrays the sorts of lives addicts lead and the challenges they face. It's unusual mix of horror and humor make it difficult to classify, but its storyline and characterizations are heavily engrossing and keep you glued throughout. In a way, you participate in your own "trip" as you identify with the characters and follow their exploits, like a joyride into another life. Certainly this is great film making.

interesting
i wasn't old enough to know this existed when it came out, but after hearing some good things about it i gave it a shot, and it was a pretty good film. i can see how it could have a cultish affect on people, it's one of those films.

it's about this guy who's a heroine addict and how he struggles with his addiction, but it isn't a depressing movie. it can be kind of funny, a sick kind of funny. it isn't a movie about how drugs are bad and how they can destroy your family and mess up your life, just about how they can mess up your life. and this is passed off as both something to pity and something to laugh at... but it is also not a light hearted movie fluffing off the issue. it is a raw look at the life of a guy who goes in and out of heroine addictions.. but doesn't really care. in his eyes it's just another aspect of his life at the moment. worth the watch.

You definately want to stay off drugs after this movie!
WOW!!!! If you ever think about getting hooked on heroin watch this movie first!!! You will appreciated your (regular & boring) life so much after this movie that you definately don't want to get into drugs! I think that is is the BEST Drug Prevention movie ever made!!!!!!
Very harsh, very true, very good!!!!