MovieChat Forums > T2 Trainspotting (2017) Discussion > Trains are mentioned a bit too much

Trains are mentioned a bit too much

posted 8 years ago by rabbitmoon
7 replies | jump to latest

I loved how with the first film, thr concept of trainspotting was pretty random. In T2, they have Renton gazing from a train window, put trains all over the walls of his old bedroom, have a flashback at a disused station where a tramp asks them if theyre train spotting, have endless train sounds and headlights flashing by the windows in some scenes, then elongate Rentons bedroom into a ridiculously long train carriage.

I think I preferred the random approach, to being beaten over the head with a metaphor.

[–] bairdy_box 8 years ago

You do realise Renton''s childhood bedroom was the exact same in Trainspotting? The room elongating like a train line was a nod to the scene in Trainspotting when he was going cold turkey.

[–] smile-or-die 8 years ago

You're correct in many ways. I felt the same, especially when Spud's story about Begbie's father is revealed, it's too obvious whereas before it was like some sort of insider information, just out of reach, keeping everyone guessing.

In some scenes though, Renton is travelling in the infamous Edinburgh trams.

[–] Ms_Belladonna 8 years ago

I felt the same, especially when Spud's story about Begbie's father is revealed, it's too obvious whereas before it was like some sort of insider information, just out of reach, keeping everyone guessing.

Everyone guessing? The Begbie's Dad bit is from the original Trainspotting novel, insider information? Just out of reach? to the illiterate perhaps, but not anyone who has read the book.
Love is the law...

[–] smile-or-die 8 years ago

All right, no need to be abrasive.

I've lived in Scotland my whole life and have read quite a bunch of gritty Scottish literature (James Kelman for instance) and never felt the need to over saturate myself in those kinds of stories.

I watch films, I don't mind if it's based on a book, they're different experiences (Stanis?aw Lem's Solaris, vs the Tarkovsky and Soderberg adaptatations vary hugely) but having not read Trainspotting, I don't think it's outlandish to watch the film and assess it purely in that context, right?

Away and boil your head.

[–] Ms_Belladonna 8 years ago

Away and raffle yourself.

If you can read it was accessible to you.

I'd love to come in here all pseudo-intellectual fawning about how great the books are over the films, but they're not. The characters in the books have no redeeming features and there is stuff in the books no one would ever want to see on screen.

Your not missing much...but reading Porno does give you and appreciation of how good an adaption the T2 screenplay is.

Love is the law...

[–] rabbitmoon 8 years ago

I haven't ever read the books, and always liked the enigmatic title of the first film. I always took it to be something abstract (a bit like Reservoir Dogs) that somehow just worked, mostly because it felt completely opposite to what the film was actually about.

I personally think that pinning it down to some meaningful and relevant scene makes it less interesting (regardless of whether it was in the book).

[–] laurendorward-990-190608 8 years ago

they really are vile in the book. The scene that made me truly dislike Renton was having sex with his brothers wife at his brothers funeral. I believe he also stole from his other (disabled) brother?