Trainspotting opening scene analysis

The opening scene from ‘Trainspotting’ introduces the main characters in the film. As it is filming them doing various things it freezes on them and in white text says their name. All the main characters are male heroin addicts. The Scottish accent in the narration informs us that it is set in Scotland and we assume it belongs to the main character shot in the extract, ‘Renton’. The scene opens with Renton running on a road stealing from CD shops to pay for his addiction; symbolically he is running on the ‘road to nowhere’. The scene is energetic and rowdy due to the fast drum beat (which represents the pumping adrenaline in the men’s bodies) in the music and the fast pace of speech as well as the action taking place such as running and football. This creates an impression that the film is very male as it is mainly men in the film playing football etc. There are also someone women in the scene, however they are only there for a short shot and they are cheering on the men suggesting that the women have a very secondary type of role in the film. The smoking and reference to drugs as well as the running away in the opening scene suggests that the men ‘live fast’ and therefore do not live the conventional everyday life which represents the type of film the audience are about to watch. The film is of the drama genre however its sub genres are also comedy, crime and drug culture. ‘Trainspotting’ is classified as drama since it is a serious story due to the drug habit and several scenes that showed the real lives of junkies, and graphic images of injecting heroin. On the other hand it can be classified as comedy as there are moments of ‘black humour’ that are there to lighten up the seriousness of the film. ‘Trainspotting’ can also be under the crime and drug culture genre due to the story in itself and the characters This film gives us a very vivid and real picture of a heroin addict's every day routine and living life synchronized around getting what they need.

The scene fades in from black and then opens with a long shot of a shopping street using a low angle. Two men run into the shot and it cuts to a medium two shot of the two men. It then cuts between the shot of the two men running and their feet various times. It is a tracking shot as it moves with the men as they run. The camera pans through other parts of the shooting location as well as shooting the men running; there are also various long shots of both men running away from the camera, shot at eye level. Crane shots are also used to catch all the action of the scene. It then cuts to a medium shot of the previously running man in an apartment smoking a cigarette; he is clearly high as the camera then cuts to a long shot of the man standing in the apartment about to perhaps collapse. The camera then quickly cuts to an oblique, long shot of a group of men on a football pitch standing in pose as if they were waiting for a photo to be taken, the camera then cuts to an identical shot of another ‘team’ doing the same thing. There is a football in the central foreground of both these shots and a net in the background which creates the idea that they are about to play football. It then cuts to handheld, long and medium shots of the men playing football following them round the pitch. The audience witnesses a man being kicked in the head with a football, as he falls backwards the scene cuts back to the man in the apartment who also falls. The camera then shows a close up of the side view of the man’s face and then pans his body.

Before the camera fades in from black there is 6 seconds of blackness where the audience can only hear the sound of men running, as soon as the scene fades in we hear the drum beat of Iggy Pop’s song ‘Lust for Life’ which links to the sarcastic narration throughout the whole scene of the main character. The narration is the most famous monologue from the film and talks about the different choices society tells us to choose and how in his opinion you end life bored and unsatisfied if you take these paths. It also includes the famous film quote ‘choose life’, he cynically finishes this narration with ‘I chose not to choose life, and the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?’ suggesting that heroin is his life and creates dramatic potential for the rest of the film and encourages the audience to watch the rest. He is basically saying he is rejecting ‘normal’ life for the ‘joys of heroin.’ The voice over narration informs the reader the main message and story behind the film about the choices we have to make in life juxtaposition with the life of a heroin addict and the choices they have to make. Throughout the extract there are also sound effects that link to the different paradigms being shown in the scene, for example an accelerating car, the laughter and shouting of the men, cheering when the ‘football team’ is in shot.

The lighting in the extract starts of bright as it is daylight in the parts where the men are running away which suggests that they do not care what time of day they commit crime, they will do it whenever the opportunity arises so that they can fund their habit. The lighting in the flat is dark and there is only one small source of light coming from outside which represents the poor living conditions a serious heroin addict has as all the can afford to pay for is there next ‘hit’. The lighting when they are playing football is outside at night time and is very dark; whilst ‘ordinary’ people sleep at night so that they are energised for work the next day, these addicts stay up playing football, this is another representation of the life they lead.

In my analysis I have shown how the opening sequence of the film ‘Trainspotting’ is an introduction to the characters, location and main plot and message of the film, in some ways the audience knows the basics of what is to come in the film. The lighting, sound, editing and camera techniques help to create an adrenaline rush for the audience so that they can relate to the characters in the film. It also helps to create an energetic atmosphere in the extract. The opening scene basically represents the life of a heroin addict.