Trainspotting: The Green Edition on DVD

The film tells the tale of Renton, a man with a chronic heroin addiction,who is trying to kick the habit. Not easy as you might imagine, but inventivevisuals from the director make his journey almost as real for the vieweras it is for his character, and he is played superbly by the star of hisgeneration, Ewan McGregor who has been chosen to appear as Obi-WanKenobi in the new Star Wars prequels.

Also thrown into the mix is Diane, Renton’s new girlfriend, who hasone major surprise for him; Sick Boy, who aims to kick the habit at thesame time as Renton – not for any particular reason, other than to completelypiss Renton off as to how easily it can be done; Spud, Renton’s best friend,who isn’t very good in job interviews, and even worse at trying to keephis bedsheets clean; Tommy, a sex-mad drug-hater, who makes XXX videoswith his girlfriend; and last, but not least, Begbie, played by the always-excellentRobert Carlyle, whose finest hour to date, The Full Monty, wasscreened at my local cinema for seven months straight and was still pullingin the crowds when the video went on sale. Begbie is a complete madman, alwaysgetting drunk and looking for the next fight….oh, and swearing a great dealtoo…

A couple of cameos in this film include Keith Allen, one part ofpop-band Fat Les, who showed up as the temporary flatmate in ShallowGrave, and appears here as a drug buyer; and Dale Winton playinghimself as a game-show host.

The picture on the widescreen version is framed at the original intendedratio of 1.77:1, so will fit exactly into the frame of a widescreen television.The disc is 16:9-enhanced for widescreen televisions and has a good averagebitrate of 5.43Mb/s. The quality is mostly excellent too, with artifacts onlyprevalent in a few scenes and even then they’re not too distracting and won’tbe that noticeable for those sitting at the usual viewing distance.

Those without a preference for the full picture will find a 4:3 open-mattepicture on the flip-side complete with the same extras mentioned later.

The sound quality is fantastic, really coming into its own whenblasting out classic tracks such as : Iggy Pop – Lust For Life; Heaven17 – Temptation; Underworld – Born Slippy and Blondie – Atomic.After watching this film, every time I hear the latter on the radio, it bringsme back to the moment where Renton’s sexual appetite returns and he cops off(and more) with newcomer Kelly MacDonald.

Extras :Chapters :There are 20 chapters spread throughout the film which is fine for a filmthat runs barely an hour-and-a-half.Cast And Crew Biographies :There are detailed biographies for all the principal cast members listedearlier in this review, plus screenwriter John Hodge, director DannyBoyle and producer Andrew MacDonald.Languages and Subtitles :The disc contains English, French and Spanish language soundtracks allin Dolby Digital 5.1 plus subtitles for the these three plus Dutch.

Note that whether you choose subtitles or not, they are present during thenightclub scene (ch.9) when Tommy and Spud are talking as they are intentionallythere and are also in the American release.

Menu :The interactive menu is a little bizarre, since a mouse click is requiredjust above the required option. Some options are highlighted whereas otherpages proffer the guessing game. The menu is static apart from the sceneselection which plays animations of the particular scenes.

It’s unfortunate that this, or any UK PAL version of the film will becut for nine seconds of drug abuse. I presume this is for viewing the actualneedle piercing the skin while injecting, which is the same thing thatPulp Fiction suffered from when released on UK PAL video and laserdisc.

On a side note, the original American release of this film had the firsttwenty minutes dubbed into American accents (!), and some sex scenes removed.When the MPAA (the USA equivalent of the BBFC) asked director Danny Boylewhat Diane was doing to Renton while on top and reaching down with herhand between his legs… he said “Tickling his balls”. The MPAA were notamused, and instructed him to cut the scene. Since then, an unrated NTSCLaserdisc has been released in an uncut widescreen format with a DolbyDigital soundtrack, the nine cut scenes featured here, a brief (and I meanbrief) interview with the writer of the book, Irvine Welsh (who incidentallymakes an appearance early on in the film as Mickey, a dealer who sellsRenton his “final” hit), and an audio commentary from the director.

I’ve also now been told (as of Feb 10th, 1999) bySteve Webb that the CanadianDVD contains the 9 cut scenes and interviews. The flip-side is a CD containing8 tracks of train noises and the packaging is different as one side of thecover is in French.

Since all of this could have been included on a single DVD, why arewe given nothing at all apart from the standard cast/crew biographies?Or are Polygram planning to do what VHS has been doing for years, namelyreleasing one version followed by a “Special Edition” ? At least they couldhave included the two trailers (one teaser trailer and one theatrical trailer),the Underworld promo (Born Slippy) and the nine scenes not includedin the final version of the film, which went to make up the “Green Edition”VHS tape released in September 1997.

What’s here is certainly worth a purchase if you’re not bothered aboutextras, but while the film is an absolute must-see, the overall packageis a missed opportunity.

Additional:Since my review the original DVD released was the uncut European releasecontaining the 14 seconds of BBFC-unfriendly drugs-taking moments. The packagewas re-released on March 22nd 1999, minus these seconds, as well as anylanguage and subtitles other than English, albeit in the same box!

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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