Laserdisc Title: "TRAINSPOTTING"
Edition: THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Directed By: Danny Boyle
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremmer, Kevin McKidd. Johny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle
Special Features : ---see footnotes for detail---
Production / Year: 1995 Channel Four Television Corp / Miramax Films
Running Time: 94 Minutes / Color
Audio Format: Digital Sound, Dolby Surround AC-3 Digital, Dolby Surround, Stereo
Video Format: VideoScope (1.85:1), NTSC, CLV (Extended Play
Miscellaneous Features: Closed Captioned
Distributed By: The Voyager Company (First Printing 1997)
Catalog / Spine Number: CC1477L (Spine Number 325)

IMPORTANT: This is a 12-inch Diameter Laserdisc, which is NOT the same as DVD and cannot be played on a DVD player!

Cosmetic Condition:
Disc (s): Excellent - Hardly noticeable to very minor hairline surface swirls, if any
Jacket: Excellent - Normal shelf wear, few creases, slightly worn-out corners or edges but no signs of spines splitting

Synopsis:

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.

While there is definitely a form of macabre humor to this tail, "Trainspotting," one of the most brilliant films to come out of Britain in decades, is no laughing matter. It captures an entire voice--a feeling--a depth of despair among a group of disaffected, addicted, hopeless young men in the slums of Edinburgh. Having been in Scotland many times, and known young men of this age, I found this grim portrait all the more frightening and heartbreaking. They are essentially beautiful young men (some of them, anyway) who are casually and uncaringly dying while injecting themselves unflinchingly with heroine.

No part of the heroine experience is hidden from the viewer, and I advise those who don't want to share the experience to avoid this movie. For the hovels, toilets, dingy bars, and alleys where these mates shoot up, and the close-up of the bloody needles, the mixing of the drug, and every other horror, is unrelenting. Add in the fear of AIDS, some hopelessly mindless and unfulfilling sex, a dead baby, real and hallucinated, and you have some idea of the nature of this film.

So what makes it so brilliant? Everything. From the acting of Ewan MacGregor et al. to the spare script, to the photography, to every last detail, this is the quintessential picture of despair in the true noir sense. It is very hard to watch, very hard to think about--but is an experience not to be missed, and it is one that does not leave you anytime soon.

SPECIAL FEATURES

A new widescreen (1.85:1) digital transfer
Discrete 5.1 channel Dolby Digital soundtrack
The complete, uncut filmmakers' version
Screen-specific commentary by director Danny Boyle, producer Andrew MacDonald, screenwriter John Hodge, and actor Ewan MacGregor
Nine deleted scene with commentary
Video interview with Irvine Welsch, author of the novel Trainspotting
Exclusive liner notes by Irvine Welsh, and an insert including his glossary of terms

ABOUT THE TRANSFER:

Trainspotting is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. This new digital transfer was created from a 35mm interpositive. The digital tracks were mastered from a Dolby stereo print master. The Dolby Digital track was mastered from the original six-track magnetic masters.

THIS IS NOT A DVD!!! THIS IS A 12" LASERDISC AND WILL NOT PLAY IN A DVD PLAYER

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