Upon re-watching in quick succession Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting and Shane Meadows This is England (the original film, prior to the similarly excellent series), I was caught by how both films so expertly dole out their information and create their worlds within their opening scenes – perfectly encapsulating the whole film in a microcosm of their first five minutes. This led me naturally to get to writing.
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One could initially find the opening frames of This is England and Trainspotting as complete opposites; one features a criminal running from policemen whilst his stolen goods fall from his person and the other features a clip of an anamorphic rat DJ. Yet, when one looks deeper, all manner of allusions to patriotism and nationalism can be found. Both This is England (shortened to TIE for the rest of this article) and Trainspotting (shortened to TSP) share similar messages and values representing patriotism in different ways, and the ways in which through the view of our island culture we see other countries. However, this is the main theme in TIE. The main themes of TSP are ones that relate more to the flaws found within our current systems, or at least the contemporary systems of the 90's; these themes are also present within TIE. Through the use of music, for instance, both films present some of their leading values and themes. TSP blasts out Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life presenting us with an ideal of hedonism which is an undercurrent of every character choice and is also a constant motivation for the leads. However, in TIE, a song from the early Ska scene is used to highlight the importance of this movement paralleled by the images which show the effects and dangers of extreme patriotism.
Starting with TSP (directed by Danny Boyle) the film follows the lives of a series of criminal heroin addicts in Scotland in the late eighties and early nineties. Within the opening scene we are introduced to these characters and the world that they inhabit through montage editing and the voice-over of our lead Mark Renton. Within this introductory movement Boyle employs several techniques to introduce the messages and values of the film. Beginning in media res with our lead running breathlessly down the street, we are as the audience immediately thrust into this world of addiction and criminal activity. This sudden opening almost takes the audience past spectatorship and into participant. One of the leading themes within the film is the matter of addiction; addiction is presented in a lot of cases in the film – sex, alcohol, violence, but mainly heroin and drug addiction. Through the voice over, Renton gives us several reasons for which his heroin addiction is justified, primarily the fact that there are no reasons, “who need reasons when you’ve got heroin”. The misery and pain that addiction can cause is also commented on however in a far more passive manner “the misery is not to be ignored”, this passive matter towards the effects of addiction in the opening led to many critics passing off the film believing it to be glorifying drug use – the second half of the film however completely contrasts this belief through showing the effects of heroin; including, but not limited to the AIDS crisis, a life of criminality and negligence of children. Also commented on within this first scene is the hypocrisy for which people have in regards to what is and what is not an acceptable drug, through a slow zoom we are introduced to Begbie who whilst smoking and downing a shot of whiskey chased by a pint of real ale comments wistfully “There’s no way I’m ruining my body with that shite”, this hypocrisy is also present later in the scene when through voice over Renton talks of his mother and her “socially acceptable drug addiction” with her use of Valiums.
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As previously mentioned in my opening, the initial frames of TIE do not throw us into a life of crime but instead introduce us to England as a whole in the early eighties. Firstly through montage editing we watch found footage of cultural reference points of the era such as Knight Rider, Blockbusters and other such fare, however the true values of the film are introduced as the montage goes on and cuts in between the light hearted clips of talking DJ rats, images of the Falkland’s war and Margaret Thatcher. One of the primary themes within TIE is that of the effect of the rule of Thatcherism and its effect of the working class. The Falkland’s war is a primary focus within the film as it is one of the singular reasons for Shaun to join the skinhead gang. Through the use of montage editing Thatcher’s effect on the working class is made brilliantly blunt; we first see a clip of Thatcher firing a fun and then looking at the camera with a large and practically villainous smile, following this we see a clip of a dead body strewn over the back of a truck being taken away by his fellow comrades – this edit also shows how the working class were united on this front against Thatcher by using a found footage clip which shows the men together holding the dead body. One of the other main messages and values within the film is the destructive effects of racism, the effects of which can be seen within the opening scene – we see several images of British flags carried both by army generals and then Neo-Nazi and skinhead groups protesting in what seems to be London city. This editing juxtaposes the good and bad extremes of nationalism to further distinguish them, by placing these clips together the extreme bad is seen as even worse due to its action match to people flying flags for reasons that are far more justified.
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Within both films intertitles are used, whereas in TIE they simply present the time the film is set “Last day of term: July 1983”. This could be a parody style comment on the feel good coming of age films of the US which similarly start with an intertitle reading “last day of term” such as Dazed and Confused or Fast Times at Ridgemont High, films in which over a summer a child changes into an adult through a series of humorous mishaps. However, in TIE, the child’s journey is one that leads him down a very dirty road leading to racism and criminality. Similarly satirical intertitles can be found within TSP; a series of which appear over freeze frames of our leads as they are introduced reading their names. This can be seen as satirical and ironic in several ways, firstly it looks like advertising which is ironic due to the men’s strong stand against capitalism as seen within the initial “choose life” monologue which mocks such consumerist items such as a “big f*cking telly”. These intertitles also tie into the idea that each character is their own self, tied into the strong theme of existentialism throughout the film. Another strong value shared by both films is the matter of the misery of the underclass and working classes. In TIE, the concept of poverty is seen immediately through the mise-en-scène presenting us with a wall of peeled paint. Such poverty is also seen within the costume design having Shaun wear trousers that are far too big for him leading people to bully him due to the mishap that these trousers on Shaun look like a pair of seventies “flares”. The set design and costume choices of peeling wallpaper and torn or shabby clothing are also present within TSP, within the set of Mother Superior's den.
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To conclude, the messages and values within both TIE and TSP are ones that represent a place and its views on the world around it, whilst both films definitively choose not to ignore these countries flaws whether they are societal flaws as a whole or flaws of a more distinct manner regarding its populace (addiction, racism). The messages and values are present within both opening scenes and can be found to have an effect on the viewer as the films both progress. Both films are still masterful to this day and reflect a peak, for me, in British filmmaking. Boyle and Meadow’s pièce de résistance indeed.
-Thomas Carruthers
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