Capsule/Summary ****
Trainspotting is an inventive, visceral, and harrowing adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel of the same name concerning a group of young men caught up in the Edinburgh drug scene. It is presented on this Blu-ray disc in its slightly censored R-rated US theatrical cut with audio and video that matches the intended gritty character of the original film. Extras are largely the same as those included with the 2004 Collector's Edition DVD with the addition of a digital copy of the film.
Trainspotting
Directed By: Danny Boyle
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Kelly MacDonald, Peter Mullan
Studio: Lionsgate/Miramax
Year: 1996
Rated: R
Film Length: 94 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Release Date: September 13, 2011
The Film ****
Trainspotting is a cinematic adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel of the same name concerning a group of young men caught up in the Edinburgh drug scene. It is largely episodic in nature, but is held together primarily via the story of Renton (McGregor) a young man who drifts in and out of heroin addiction while experiencing a series of misadventures with a group of friends including Spud (Bremmer), Begbie (Carlyle), Sick Boy (Miller), and Tommy (McKidd) who are sometimes as toxic to each other as the narcotics they consume.
No description of the plot can accurately capture the flavor of the film that is constantly mixing euphoria and pathos in a way that feels both cinematically unique and completely appropriate for a tale of impulsive and directionless youth. In adapting the book, the filmmakers jettisoned large sections while imposing a more solid plot through-line, but somehow managed to find visual analogs to the harrowing and exhilarating text of the novel.
As with the source novel, the filmmakers neither shy away from graphic illustrations of the appeal of heroin nor spare the viewer the gruesome consequences of addiction. This opened up the film to criticism from viewers who casually dismissed the stylized visuals and descriptions of opiate-induced bliss as a dangerous glamorization of narcotic use (inclusive of at least one major party US Presidential candidate in 1996). Taken on balance, though, the net effect of the film makes addiction look a far cry from glamorous. A fantasy sequence early in the film that takes place deep within "The Worst Toilet in Scotland" captures the dichotomy of gruesome and serene in one memorable piece of visual invention. Over a decade later, director Danny Boyle would turn dropping a character into a pit of excrement into Oscar gold with Slumdog Millionaire.
Despite the parade of personal atrocities that are intesperesed throughout the film, it remains compulsively watchable thanks to a propulsive editorial pace, the appealing visual stylization of director Danny Boyle, Cinematographer Brian Tufano, and Production Designer Kave Quinn, and the charisma of the deep and impressive cast who are able to embody the picaresque characters vividly regardless of screen time or the intelligibility of their thick Edinburgh accents.
Note: While previous US video releases of Trainspotting from Buena Vista/Miramax presented the uncut international version of the film, this blu-ray release from Lionsgate includes two brief instances of censorship that were made to secure an "R" rating in U.S. theaters. This includes a brief shot of a character reaching between their legs during a sex scene and a shot of a needle going into the arm of a drug user. Both shots were replaced by substitute footage, so the running time and soundtrack are unaffected. I subtracted a half-star from my film assessment since while the net effect is minor, it never should have happened.
The Video ***½
The video comes courtesy of an AVC encoded 1080p presentation slightly letterboxed to the film's original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The look of the film is stylized and frequently quite appropriately gritty and grey. There were a surprising amount of minor film artifacts (mostly small specks of negative damage) for a relatively new film, but they were not overly distracting. The presentation is not marred by any obvious digital video artifacts.
The Audio ***½
Audio comes courtesy of a DTS HD-MA lossless 5.1 track. The two main selling points of the soundtrack are the music, which consists largely of classic glam/punk, britpop, and electronic music, and the creative sound editing which matches the kinetic visual style. Outside of the music, surround and LFE use are minimal with most of the audio mix anchored to the front hemisphere of the 5.1 sound field. I did not notice the expected improvement in fidelity during the non-musical scenes that I would normally expect from a lossless encoding versus the previous DVD's lossy DTS track, but perhaps it was my brain struggling to decipher the thick accents that affected my perception of the audio. No foreign language dubs are presented, but the audio selection menu includes a DTS-HD MA "Sound Check" feature which can be used to check the placement and relative phase of a viewer's speakers.
The Extras ****
When the disc is first played, the viewer is greeted, in the Lionsgate tradition, with a rather large series of promos that are chapter skippable, but are not skippable in their entirety via use of a menu button. They are presented in AVC-encoded 1080p video with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
Proper special features are largely recycled from the 2004 DVD release, which in turn repeated a lot of materials from the earlier Criterion Collection laserdisc. As these were all of generally high quality, this is not such a bad thing. Where they are identical to the 2004 DVD, I have enclosed the assessment from David Boulet's comprehensive review of that title in shaded quote blocks with minor editorial revisions (primarily adding running times and removing references to "Disc One", "Disc Two", and "Disney/Miramax").
Note: The only special feature not carried over from the 2004 DVD is a collection of text pages with biographical information about the film's cast and crew. A 40 min feature, ‘Memories of Trainspotting’, with Director Danny Boyle, Producer Andrew MacDonald, Screenwriter John Hodge, Ewan McGregor ("Renton"), Ewen Bremner ("Spud"), Kelly MacDonald ("Diane") and Robert Carlyle ("Begbie") was produced in 2009 and included on the UK Blu-ray of the film, but it is not included on this disc.
All features are presented in 4:3 MPEG-2 encoded standard definintion video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio.
Since I *do* have time (thanks to reproducing David's notes from the earlier review), here is a list of the included scenes:
Under the heading of Trainspotting Retrospective are a number of featurettes. Many of them are broken up into separate "THEN" and "NOW" featurettes, with "THEN" being from sources contemporaneous with the original late 1990s film and video releases and "NOW" being from the circa 2004 Special Edition DVD release.
Sound of the film:
Interviews: This feature side-steps the “Then and Now” formula and simply gives us four interviews with:
Even more casual viewers will find these interviews interesting and I encourage everyone to check them out. Hey, I’m starting to bore myself reading this…let’s get movin’!
Behind the Needle: [6:23] This feature also breaks the “Then/Now” formula. There are 3 shorts that study a scene where an injection is taking place—namely a close-up of a needle penetrating the skin of an arm. I was amazed to find that this scene made use of a prosthetic (it looked very real in the film). I was a bit confused by the 3 “angles” here which all include identical audio but with slightly different video presentations. If you can figure it out tell me.
The first angle is Director Boyle in front of a monitor watching some behind the scenes video footage of the prosthetic arm in action. The second angle is the video footage Boyle is watching on its own. The third angle is a split screen of the first two. These are not technically encoded as "angles" on the Blu-ray disc, but are separately selectable menu items.
Theatrical Teaser (1:11) includes unique footage not included in the film featiring McGregor in character as Renton and is definitely worth watching even if one normally skips over trailers.
Theatrical Trailer (2:01) is a full length trailer that is not edited for general audiences.
The Special Features Menu also includes Also from Lionsgate which is the same collection of promos as when the disc is first played, and a Bookmark Feature that allows the viewer to create custom bookmarks to directly access favorite scenes or resume from a saved point at a later viewing.
Finally, a second DVD-ROM disc is dedicated entirely to a Digital Copy of the film that is compatible with either iTunes or Windows media. Both versions are the same US censored cut of the film as appears on the blu-ray. The iTunes version is presented at 853 x 460 resolution with a choice of either 2.0 or 5.1 audio. The Windows Media version is available at both 720x390 resolution for PC viewing and 320x176 resolution for portable devices with only 2.0 audio in either case.
Packaging
The disc is enclosed in a standard sized Blu-ray case with hubs on both inner walls to hold both the BD and the digital copy DVD-ROM. The case has die-cut holes to reduce plastic use and the only insert is the digital copy instructions and access code sheet.
Trainspotting is an inventive, visceral, and harrowing adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel of the same name concerning a group of young men caught up in the Edinburgh drug scene. It is presented on this Blu-ray disc in its slightly censored R-rated US theatrical cut with audio and video that matches the intended gritty character of the original film. Extras are largely the same as those included with the 2004 Collector's Edition DVD with the addition of a digital copy of the film.
Trainspotting
Directed By: Danny Boyle
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Kelly MacDonald, Peter Mullan
Studio: Lionsgate/Miramax
Year: 1996
Rated: R
Film Length: 94 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Release Date: September 13, 2011
The Film ****
Trainspotting is a cinematic adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel of the same name concerning a group of young men caught up in the Edinburgh drug scene. It is largely episodic in nature, but is held together primarily via the story of Renton (McGregor) a young man who drifts in and out of heroin addiction while experiencing a series of misadventures with a group of friends including Spud (Bremmer), Begbie (Carlyle), Sick Boy (Miller), and Tommy (McKidd) who are sometimes as toxic to each other as the narcotics they consume.
No description of the plot can accurately capture the flavor of the film that is constantly mixing euphoria and pathos in a way that feels both cinematically unique and completely appropriate for a tale of impulsive and directionless youth. In adapting the book, the filmmakers jettisoned large sections while imposing a more solid plot through-line, but somehow managed to find visual analogs to the harrowing and exhilarating text of the novel.
As with the source novel, the filmmakers neither shy away from graphic illustrations of the appeal of heroin nor spare the viewer the gruesome consequences of addiction. This opened up the film to criticism from viewers who casually dismissed the stylized visuals and descriptions of opiate-induced bliss as a dangerous glamorization of narcotic use (inclusive of at least one major party US Presidential candidate in 1996). Taken on balance, though, the net effect of the film makes addiction look a far cry from glamorous. A fantasy sequence early in the film that takes place deep within "The Worst Toilet in Scotland" captures the dichotomy of gruesome and serene in one memorable piece of visual invention. Over a decade later, director Danny Boyle would turn dropping a character into a pit of excrement into Oscar gold with Slumdog Millionaire.
Despite the parade of personal atrocities that are intesperesed throughout the film, it remains compulsively watchable thanks to a propulsive editorial pace, the appealing visual stylization of director Danny Boyle, Cinematographer Brian Tufano, and Production Designer Kave Quinn, and the charisma of the deep and impressive cast who are able to embody the picaresque characters vividly regardless of screen time or the intelligibility of their thick Edinburgh accents.
Note: While previous US video releases of Trainspotting from Buena Vista/Miramax presented the uncut international version of the film, this blu-ray release from Lionsgate includes two brief instances of censorship that were made to secure an "R" rating in U.S. theaters. This includes a brief shot of a character reaching between their legs during a sex scene and a shot of a needle going into the arm of a drug user. Both shots were replaced by substitute footage, so the running time and soundtrack are unaffected. I subtracted a half-star from my film assessment since while the net effect is minor, it never should have happened.
The Video ***½
The video comes courtesy of an AVC encoded 1080p presentation slightly letterboxed to the film's original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The look of the film is stylized and frequently quite appropriately gritty and grey. There were a surprising amount of minor film artifacts (mostly small specks of negative damage) for a relatively new film, but they were not overly distracting. The presentation is not marred by any obvious digital video artifacts.
The Audio ***½
Audio comes courtesy of a DTS HD-MA lossless 5.1 track. The two main selling points of the soundtrack are the music, which consists largely of classic glam/punk, britpop, and electronic music, and the creative sound editing which matches the kinetic visual style. Outside of the music, surround and LFE use are minimal with most of the audio mix anchored to the front hemisphere of the 5.1 sound field. I did not notice the expected improvement in fidelity during the non-musical scenes that I would normally expect from a lossless encoding versus the previous DVD's lossy DTS track, but perhaps it was my brain struggling to decipher the thick accents that affected my perception of the audio. No foreign language dubs are presented, but the audio selection menu includes a DTS-HD MA "Sound Check" feature which can be used to check the placement and relative phase of a viewer's speakers.
The Extras ****
When the disc is first played, the viewer is greeted, in the Lionsgate tradition, with a rather large series of promos that are chapter skippable, but are not skippable in their entirety via use of a menu button. They are presented in AVC-encoded 1080p video with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
Memento 10th Anniversary SE Blu-ray Trailer (1:34)
Lionsgate Horror and Cult Classics Blu-ray Promo (1:06)
Apocalypse Now Two-Film Set and Full Disclosure Blu-ray Trailer (1:31)
Swingers BD/DVD Trailer (1:55)
I Love You, Philip Morris BD/DVD Trailer (2:26)
epix Network and Online Streaming Service Promo (2:01)
Proper special features are largely recycled from the 2004 DVD release, which in turn repeated a lot of materials from the earlier Criterion Collection laserdisc. As these were all of generally high quality, this is not such a bad thing. Where they are identical to the 2004 DVD, I have enclosed the assessment from David Boulet's comprehensive review of that title in shaded quote blocks with minor editorial revisions (primarily adding running times and removing references to "Disc One", "Disc Two", and "Disney/Miramax").
Note: The only special feature not carried over from the 2004 DVD is a collection of text pages with biographical information about the film's cast and crew. A 40 min feature, ‘Memories of Trainspotting’, with Director Danny Boyle, Producer Andrew MacDonald, Screenwriter John Hodge, Ewan McGregor ("Renton"), Ewen Bremner ("Spud"), Kelly MacDonald ("Diane") and Robert Carlyle ("Begbie") was produced in 2009 and included on the UK Blu-ray of the film, but it is not included on this disc.
All features are presented in 4:3 MPEG-2 encoded standard definintion video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio.
Since I *do* have time (thanks to reproducing David's notes from the earlier review), here is a list of the included scenes:
Deleted Scene #24 (:55): Bond movie discussion between Renton and Sick Boy including the surprising reveal of who wrote the screenplay for "You Only Live Twice"
Deleted Scene #31 (:34) Spud on a job interview where he discusses Begbie
Deleted Scene #32 (1:22) Renton on a job interview where he humorously sucks up to the school preference of one of the interviewers
Deleted Scenes #73 &110 (:58) Diane stumbles across the boys shoplifting and disrupts them
Deleted Scene #142 (1:23) A sad ending for drug dealer Swanee
Deleted Scene #143 (2:25) An extended dialog scene showing how Sick Boy has moved his life in a very cynical direction.
Deleted Scene #188 (1:18) A scene between Diane and Renton at a football pitch. Watch if you want to have Diane's age firmly established.
Deleted Scene #191 (:55) A scene near a bus station that harkens back to the deleted scenes with Swanee and Sickboy
Deleted Montage Scene (:52) A scene between Tommy and Spud that develops Tommy's character and his aspirations a bit
Under the heading of Trainspotting Retrospective are a number of featurettes. Many of them are broken up into separate "THEN" and "NOW" featurettes, with "THEN" being from sources contemporaneous with the original late 1990s film and video releases and "NOW" being from the circa 2004 Special Edition DVD release.
Sound of the film:
THEN [7:42] An interview conducted in Nov 1995 during the audio dubbing of the film. Danny Boyle (director) walks us through an interesting discussion of the basic process of audio mixing. He also speaks candidly about musical selections and how these choices affect the impression of the on-screen imagery. Andrew MacDonald (producer) also comments about the various musical themes and his comments blend nicely with Boyle’s. ...
NOW [4:51]These same two personalities discuss how music was used in the film and his comments here expand upon those in the previous interview. Here they get into the specifics of various song-references and why they were chosen (Iggy Pop and Lou Reed).
Interviews: This feature side-steps the “Then and Now” formula and simply gives us four interviews with:
Irvine Welsh (book author) [4:37]
John Hodge (screenplay writer) [7:58]
Danny Boyle (Director) [14:32]
Andrew Macdonald (Producer). [10:33]
Even more casual viewers will find these interviews interesting and I encourage everyone to check them out. Hey, I’m starting to bore myself reading this…let’s get movin’!
Behind the Needle: [6:23] This feature also breaks the “Then/Now” formula. There are 3 shorts that study a scene where an injection is taking place—namely a close-up of a needle penetrating the skin of an arm. I was amazed to find that this scene made use of a prosthetic (it looked very real in the film). I was a bit confused by the 3 “angles” here which all include identical audio but with slightly different video presentations. If you can figure it out tell me.
The first angle is Director Boyle in front of a monitor watching some behind the scenes video footage of the prosthetic arm in action. The second angle is the video footage Boyle is watching on its own. The third angle is a split screen of the first two. These are not technically encoded as "angles" on the Blu-ray disc, but are separately selectable menu items.
Gallery [5:06]: Rather unusual for a film of this type, the gallery is “animated” and automatically cycles through the various photographs. You can fast-forward through the gallery but you can’t step or skip picture-to-picture. There is music accompanying this “video montage” of still-frame images. That didn't bother me and actually I liked the "sit back and watch" approach to the gallery...but what did bother me was the realtively small screen-area used for the actual images. I mean, DVD is already starting with a handicap of only 720 x 480 pixels of resolution...to then take an image and surround it with thick borders/matting on the screen further reduces resolution. I'd like to see images use the fullest resolution possible...which means they should either take up the full height or width of the screen depending on their shape. Ok, so I'm much pickier than most about stuff like this...hey...I'm a DVD reviewer!
Theatrical Teaser (1:11) includes unique footage not included in the film featiring McGregor in character as Renton and is definitely worth watching even if one normally skips over trailers.
Theatrical Trailer (2:01) is a full length trailer that is not edited for general audiences.
The Special Features Menu also includes Also from Lionsgate which is the same collection of promos as when the disc is first played, and a Bookmark Feature that allows the viewer to create custom bookmarks to directly access favorite scenes or resume from a saved point at a later viewing.
Finally, a second DVD-ROM disc is dedicated entirely to a Digital Copy of the film that is compatible with either iTunes or Windows media. Both versions are the same US censored cut of the film as appears on the blu-ray. The iTunes version is presented at 853 x 460 resolution with a choice of either 2.0 or 5.1 audio. The Windows Media version is available at both 720x390 resolution for PC viewing and 320x176 resolution for portable devices with only 2.0 audio in either case.
Packaging
The disc is enclosed in a standard sized Blu-ray case with hubs on both inner walls to hold both the BD and the digital copy DVD-ROM. The case has die-cut holes to reduce plastic use and the only insert is the digital copy instructions and access code sheet.
