Trainspotting

Trainspotting

“Over the years, heroin and addiction have provided the subject matter for more than a few noteworthy films.” The cult film Trainspotting, based on Irvine Welsh’s book of the same title, offers an attractive case study as it represents a wide view of British youth culture by considering a large number of issues such as the critiques of consumerism, Thatcherism, class stratification and gender identities. The film portrays the lifestyle of a group of young drug addicts which places its emphasis on youth culture and links it to the drug subculture, and while also involving female characters in this drug subculture it manages to successfully relate the issues of drugs and gender. Therefore I will attempt to trace the links between youth culture, gender issues and drug subcultures in order to reveal their relation to the dominant class culture in Britain.

The film begins by introducing us to each character individually whilst also revealing the setting of Edinburgh in the early 1990’s. The main character Mark Renton (Ewan MacGregor) enters the film in the middle of a stealing trip to the town center which immediately gives us an insight into a typical day in the life of a twenty-something heroin addict living in Britain. He is shown throughout the film to be someone who has rejected the culture of a nuclear family, material possessions and a paying job, instead rebelling, in not the average youth fashion, but through a culture he views as sick and stifling. The other main characters in the film represent varying problems that are prominent in the working class