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Category | Drama | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
Rating | Other Trailer(s) | None | |
Year Released | 1995 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time | 87 minutes | Other Extras | Animated Menus
Cast & Crew Biographies Booklet |
RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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Start Up | Language Selection then Menu | ||
Region | 0 | Director | Danny Boyle |
Distributor |
Polygram |
Starring | Ewan McGregor
Ewan Bremner Jonny Lee Miller Robert Carlyle Kevin McKidd |
RRP | $34.95 | Music |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Pan & Scan | MPEG | None |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
16x9 Enhancement | Yes | Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
French (Dolby Digital 5.1) Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1) |
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.66:1 | ||
Macrovision | ? | ||
Subtitles | English
French Spanish Dutch English Hard of Hearing |
Trainspotting is very graphic and very profane.
It earns its 'R' rating. Having said that, there is actually considerable
black
humour in the story, as this group of five no-hopers goes from degrading
situation to degrading situation. There are some very
gross visuals to enjoy along the way, such as the "worst toilet
in Scotland", the soiled bedsheet and the very unfortunate
baby.
This movie is a character-driven piece, with the
story almost incidental to the characters. Ewan McGregor puts in
a superb
performance as Renton, and Robert Carlyle is excellent as the
extremely violent Begby. You cannot feel much sympathy for
these characters since they are all awful people, but you can wallow
in the aimlessness and the depravity of their lives for 90
minutes.
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1,
16x9 enhanced. Also present on the other side of the disc is a Pan &
Scan version of the movie. The framing on this side has additional
information at the top of the picture, but less information at
the sides of the picture. I watched the widescreen version of the movie.
Note that the original intended aspect ratio of this
movie was 1.66:1, so I presume that we have had a small amount cropped
off the top of the frame. I note that the R1 release of
this movie is widescreen only, and not 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer was generally quite sharp and clear,
but not quite as good as the very best transfers. Shadow detail was usually
quite good, important for a movie such as this one which is often shot
in gloomy locales.
The colours were very well-rendered, including some
very intensly red-lit scenes which were free of colour bleeding and
chroma noise.
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts
were few and far between, but consisted of a number of short shots
with some image wobble, and some very minor aliasing.
Film artefacts were present in acceptable numbers, and were not particularly noticeable.
There were slight pauses at the start of the movie
and the end of the movie as a result of branching video - both English
and
French opening titles and end credits are present on this disc, encoded
as separate titles which the DVD player branches to
according to the selected language. These pauses are barely noticeable,
but interleaved video would have eliminated this pause
altogether, and would have been preferred.
Finally, subtitles turned ON in the disco scenes.
I don't know if this also occurred in the theatrical release, as the
conversation is extremely difficult to hear, but I personally would
have preferred it if the subtitles had remained OFF, as I found
that I could understand the conversation by listening closely and I
felt that the subtitles were a distraction.
Dialogue was hard to hear at times, particularly
in the aforementioned disco scene. This is as much a result of the thick
Scottish accents of the actors as anything else, and it is something
that I got used to the further I got into the movie. In terms of
recorded dialogue levels, I felt that generally these levels were fine.
There were no audio sync problems.
The music was suitably gritty and frequently present,
adding to the overall feel of the movie. It was aggressively mixed into
the surrounds.
The surround channels were used for music.
I didn't hear any specific ambience or sound effects emanating from the
rear,
but there was some of this across the front of the soundstage. For
what it was, having the music mixed all around you helped
with enveloping you into the movie.
The .1 channel had only limited used to support some of the music.
The video quality is quite good, though not quite as good as the very best transfers, with only minor artefacts.
The audio quality is of good quality and is more enveloping than I expected.
The extras are very limited.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
© Michael Demtschyna
28th January 1999
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DVD | Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output |
Display | Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 16:9 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
Audio Decoder | Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
Amplification | 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer |
Speakers | Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer |