Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Product Description
In 1996 "Trainspotting" was the biggest thing in British culture. Brilliantly and aggressively marketed it crossed into the mainstream despite being a black comedy set against the backdrop of heroin addiction in Edinburgh. Produced by Andrew MacDonald, scripted by John Hodge and directed by Danny Boyle, the team behind "Shallow Grave" (1994), "Trainspotting" was an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's barbed novel of the same title. The film is crucial for understanding British culture in the context of devolution and the rise of "Cool Britannia". Murray Smith unpicks the processes that led to the film's enormous success. He isolates various factors - the film's eclectic soundtrack, its depiction of Scottish identity, its attitude to deprivation, drugs and violence, its traffic with American cultural forms, its synthesis of realist and fantastic elements, and its complicated relationship to "heritage" - that make "Trainspotting" such a vivid document of its time.
About the Author
Murray Smith is Professor of Film Studies, University of Kent at Canterbury. He is co-editor of Film Theory and Philosophy (1997) and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (1998).
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A Deserved Classic Examined
9 May 2011
Amazon Verified Purchase
Trainspotting is one of those movies that everyone who sees it kind of remembers. With the exception of the myth of the horror of withdrawal (which in reality is no worse than a bout of the flu, see Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy by Theodore Dalrymple), it provides, as far as I can tell, a fairly realistic look at the life of the junky. Disengaged from society, criminal in orientation even independent of the drug (that heroin use leads to crime is an example of putting the cart before the horse), and having made the conscious decision to continue using heroin and even getting back on it after withdrawal, Trainspotting provides viewers with a difficult to accomplish mixture of both realistic psychopathy and genuine humor.
As Murray Smith states in this monograph on the flick, such pieces rarely come together all at once (though he missed the mark about director Danny Boyle, who, like star Ewan McGregor, did go on to do other equally good movies). Here, Smith examines some of the elements that made Trainspotting pull away from the pack of mundane British cinema and become a modern classic.
Smith unfortunately lapses into too much of the pretentious jargon common among film analysis, and it was no surprise to read on the back cover that he, unlike the authors of the best in the BFI series, is a film professor. My rating would have been a star higher if plain speaking had been used instead. But underneath the academic lingo, he examines some important themes. The book begins by placing the movie in the wider context of modern Scottish society, segueing immediately thereafter into the, often unequal, influences between Britain and America and the symbiotic relationship between their cultures.
Personal themes explored include the intense friendships between the characters and the influence that the larger relationships have on the individuals involved, the question of what constitutes a bad person and whether Renton (the main character) fits the bill, and Renton's change in relation to his fellow junkies. In addition, Smith explores themes particular to the movie itself, such as the importance and implications of its wonderful music as well as Trainspotting's use of, for lack of a better term, non-realism interspersed throughout the realistic actions of its characters.
In all, this monograph is far from the best I have read from BFI. But it is far from the worst, as well. I would not recommend this for a non-fan of Trainspotting. But for a fan, yeah, go for it.
As Murray Smith states in this monograph on the flick, such pieces rarely come together all at once (though he missed the mark about director Danny Boyle, who, like star Ewan McGregor, did go on to do other equally good movies). Here, Smith examines some of the elements that made Trainspotting pull away from the pack of mundane British cinema and become a modern classic.
Smith unfortunately lapses into too much of the pretentious jargon common among film analysis, and it was no surprise to read on the back cover that he, unlike the authors of the best in the BFI series, is a film professor. My rating would have been a star higher if plain speaking had been used instead. But underneath the academic lingo, he examines some important themes. The book begins by placing the movie in the wider context of modern Scottish society, segueing immediately thereafter into the, often unequal, influences between Britain and America and the symbiotic relationship between their cultures.
Personal themes explored include the intense friendships between the characters and the influence that the larger relationships have on the individuals involved, the question of what constitutes a bad person and whether Renton (the main character) fits the bill, and Renton's change in relation to his fellow junkies. In addition, Smith explores themes particular to the movie itself, such as the importance and implications of its wonderful music as well as Trainspotting's use of, for lack of a better term, non-realism interspersed throughout the realistic actions of its characters.
In all, this monograph is far from the best I have read from BFI. But it is far from the worst, as well. I would not recommend this for a non-fan of Trainspotting. But for a fan, yeah, go for it.
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Art, Architecture & Photography
- Books > History > Cultural History
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Film > Criticism & Theory
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Film > Guides & Reference
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Film > History of Film > United States
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Performing Arts
- Books > Reference > Encyclopaedias
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
