Trainspotting with its exhilarating approach to desperation, addiction and death, was one of the most vital British movies of the 1990s. Unlike previous films dealing with heroin culture Danny Boyle’s film has a comic strain so potent it deserves a health warning all its own. The plot itself is profoundly bleak but with kinetic style and relentless energy Boyle finds sympathy for Irvine Welsh’s hopeless, drug-hungry scamsters. Initial reactions to the film weren’t favourable and the film was criticised for glamorising smack - which it doesn’t. Pivotal to Trainspotting’s success is its use of music to echo and emphasise these characters’ trajectories.
