Both have the same wild, jittery energy, the camera gliding in and out or hanging back to listen as the characters wax lyrical. Boyle chooses to pick up halfway through, Renton and his pals suddenly legging it down the street once more.īoth feature an underworld just below the surface of ours, the characters having little to no interaction with regular people. Pulp Fiction is less straightforward than Trainspotting, and Tarantino waits longer to loop back around. The narrative structure is similarly disjointed, both movies beginning towards the end of the story. He spots her in a grotty nightclub, the camera landing on her just as the song changes to Blondie's "Atomic" - a signal to the audience that she's potentially dangerous. This is a trick Danny Boyle employs too, most notably with the introduction of Diane, Renton's underage paramour. Pulp Fiction announces itself to the world via Dick Dale's "Misirlou" before switching the channel, as though already bored with the choice, to "Jungle Boogie". Trainspotting blasts into existence with "Lust For Life" and then ebbs away to Underworld's "Born Slippy". This is especially pertinent considering music is a character in itself in both movies, their soundtracks now considered classics. Instead, we get screeching tires, beating hearts and short breaths. Tarantino leaves his sequence without accompaniment, one of the few instances in Pulp Fiction. Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" scores Renton's OD, the song now synonymous with Trainspotting as a result. Where the two differ is in their use of music. Vince's life depends on Mia pulling through. Hers is a more stylised, yet gruesomer episode than his because there's little doubt Renton will survive to waste another day of his pathetic existence. Both share an awkward, and silent, car ride back with the people they've disappointed. Both wake from their stupor in much the same way - like vampires emerging from coffins. Vince is tasked with taking a non-responsive Mia - who unknowingly snorted heroin - directly to his dealer, as involving hospital staff would land him in deep trouble. Renton ODs on that same filthy floor, is dragged out onto the street by his nonchalant dealer and thrown into a taxi to be dropped on A&E's doorstep. His primary concern is getting high, while for Vince it's just part of his lifestyle, like smoking or eating steak.Īlthough these depictions of drug use are completely opposed, when it comes to overdosing, the two films take a surprisingly similar tack.
Renton fishes around on the filthy floor for a halfway decent syringe, unfazed by the risk of HIV. His tools, meanwhile, are housed in a clean wallet, the kind a diabetes sufferer might utilise for the administration of insulin. Vincent, on the other hand, has his choice of the fancier, more expensive heroin ($500 a pop) and picks from a crisp wad of bills to pay for it. Renton's got an addiction, for which he must lie, steal and fuck over anybody and everybody in his path.
In contrast, Renton and his buddies hang out in a filthy, decrepit drug house where their dealer - a man in a leather vest who never seems to venture outside - seemingly lives alongside a baby we know is doomed the second she crawls into frame. He shoots up only after checking it's okay with his dealer, a regular-looking dude with a browbeaten wife. Travolta's Vincent Vega is shown purchasing heroin from a clean, even normal, suburban home. Tarantino's film came first, featuring drug use of the habitual variety. Although Clerks features drug use in the form of dopey dealers Jay and Silent Bob, its compatriots are two of the better drug movies ever made, wildly different and yet inescapably similar. Trainspotting sees McGregor's Renton and his misfit pals foregoing life in favour of heroin, while Pulp Fiction finds Jackson, Travolta and a whole host of colourful characters making the business of crime look like the coolest job prospect imaginable.Īlongside Kevin Smith's Clerks, they are widely considered the triumvirate of must-watch nineties zeitgeist movies. Trainspotting and Pulp Fiction offer up two vastly different worlds, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, populated by people who have made the decision not to engage with a normal existence. And habitual drug use based on status, or lack thereof. A couple of similarly misjudged ear piercings. Thousands of miles away, Sam Jackson and John Travolta cruise through LA while Kool And The Gang's "Jungle Boogie" trills on the radio. On an Edinburgh high street, a young Ewan McGregor's sneakers hit the pavement as Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" pounds alongside him.
T2: Trainspotting is on its way (some of you already have it!) Get your tickets here!
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