‘Perfect Day’ by Lou Reed, is the soundtrack used when Renton suffers from an over-dose of heroin and is dragged out on to the road by the Mother Superior, waiting for a taxi to take Renton to hospital. The camera angle is seen from Renton’s point of view, appearing as if he is in his own Grave. This signifies his near death experience as when he is injected in hospital, he returns back to reality, and to life. Underworlds ‘Born Slippy’ is played while Renton embarks on his betrayal towards his friends. This provides him with the opportunity to escape. He realises this is what he needs to do and ultimately ‘choose life’.
Karl Hyde, writer of ‘Born Slippy’ completed this song after a night of heavy drinking and states this song was in fact, a cry for help. The overall resulting soundtrack was very well suited to the film’s mood and tone, promoting the sense of popular culture in Britain at that time. With regards to style and colour, red and green are used throughout. The colour red dominates each of the heroin sequences, symbolic for the lust, love and ultimate danger of their use of the drug. This can be seen in the nightclub in Edinburgh, of Diane’s coat followed by the interior of her taxi and of Swanney’s flat.
With regards to Swanney’s flat, the use of bright red and green also symbolises a sense of enhanced awareness associated with the effects of drugs. In the withdrawal sequence concerning Renton, his parents lock him in his bedroom and imply his need to go cold turkey. The cinematic style includes sharp cuts, strange angles, and non-diegetic sounds. Metaphorical shots in consequence to Renton’s actions about choosing heroin are also used. In this sequence, reality and fantasy are blurred as Renton’s past choices put him through a terrifying ordeal at the time of his incoherent state of mind.
A range of styles are contained, similar to that throughout the film. There is a close up shot that draws attention to the bedroom door’s lock and the only light seen here is from the top of Renton’s bed, in contrast to the rest of the dark room. Renton constantly adjusts his position, knowing that the sickness will soon start to take place. As Renton’s withdrawal begins, a head shot shows his preparation in having to face the effects of withdrawal. From behind Renton’s bed, the perspective is created where his bed seems to be pulled away from the door.
He hears the sound of Diane singing, and she sits on his bed in her school uniform, smiling and appearing in light compared to the dark background. As her voice fades, Renton is awakened from his illusion by his mother and father and begs to return to the clinic. Begby is then seen lying under the bed sheets beside Renton and threatens him with violence if he doesn’t come off the drugs. As this dream-like state turns to reality yet again, Renton pulls his bed sheets down again before hearing the sound of Alisons’ dead baby. The baby crawls on the ceiling towards Renton, who is trying to differentiate between his hallucinations with reality.
Renton then hears the sound of an organ which draws his attention to an apparent TV quiz show. The presenter questions the contestants, Renton’s parents, about AIDS. The hallucinations begin to come faster, and the baby progresses crawling along the ceiling. The baby’s cries can be heard and Renton holds on desperately to his pillow. He then sees a long shot of Spud in a prison costume, sitting on top of his wardrobe with chains banging against it. A close-up shot of the TV quiz show is then shown where a ghostly looking Tommy is standing near Renton, answering the question correctly about AIDS.
He then tells Renton about the ‘benefits’ of heroin. Renton continues to see the baby still crawling towards him, turning her head right around towards him. The scene intensifies by Renton’s screaming for everything to stop. Each of the shots are fast paced and intercut with the hallucinations, followed by the baby falling from the ceiling towards Renton. His mother and father awaken Renton as they urge him to take an HIV test. He is then shown sitting amongst his parents and friends, appearing to be in a depressive and ‘bored’ state. This is captured in fast motion in contrast against Renton sitting still.
Trainspotting offers an image of Scotland but conforms to an international audience. The film was created on a ? 1. 5 million budget and was considered highly likely to earn the production cost. It made a huge success with a figure of ? 12 million in the national market, and $72 million internationally. Hill proposes Trainspotting “combines an interest in social issues (drug-taking, AIDS, poverty) with a determinedly self-conscious aesthetic style reminiscent of the French and British ‘new waves’. In experimenting with cinematic style, however, is also plays with the inherited imagery of England and Scotland” (2002: 172).
London is portrayed through tourist imagery, for example, signs of Oxford Street and Picadilly Circus. This sequence also uses cliche images of ‘Britishness’, for example the London buses. These images are edited in such a way that the cuts are angled differently, and are fast paced. London is shown in daylight in comparison to the greyish and bleak Edinburgh. London is shown as a unified city, marked by multi-culturism and also shows subcultures such as the group of bikers. This is in contrast to Edinburgh with its portrayal of cultural homogeneity. London is where Renton ultimately finds his escape.
McArthur and several other contributors drew the conclusion that cinematic images of Scotland and Scottish identity had effectively been colonised by filmmakers from Britain and Hollywood. ” (2005: 4) This was partly due to the result of Scottish filmmakers finding it challenging to make films about Scotland, within Scotland. This engages with questions of political and cultural power as globalisation results in smaller nations subjected by the colonial gaze of higher powers. Andrew Higson states Trainspotting as, “embodying a new post-national cinema that resists the tendency to nationalise questions of community, culture and identity.
The concept of a post-national cinema surely better describes films that embrace multiculturalism, difference and hybridity” (2013: 38). However, the notion of ‘identity’ cannot be reduced to nationality. Each of the characters within the film have different identities. Some representing the image of the ‘Scots’, and the likes of Begby primarily fixated on his urge for violence, at any opportunity. Renton seeks to renew his identity through passively accepting his being of Scottish, but making change by moving his Scottishness to England, the represented ‘unified’ city.
At the end of the film, Sick Boy plans a drug deal earning ? 16,000 which offers Renton to leave behind his friends and start a new, clean life. At the end of the film Renton lists the materialistic properties again, as stated in the opening sequence. He moves to London where it is evident that he wants to positively change his life around and to follow society’s rules and expectations. As he walks in the direction of freedom, his face is blurred as he aims to become a typical and anonymous consumer in society, ‘just like you’.