Transpotting: choose life

Choose Life is an aphorism used in the film Trainspotting by it's flawed male lead Mark Renton, who is presented as a questionable character in terms of morality. Contextually 'Choose Life' was a famous slogan for an anti-drug campaign during the late 80's but I believe Renton chooses to make a mockery of this slogan and suggests in my opinion that 'Choose Life' means to choose whichever path that makes you feel alive. Life within the film is presented as a desire for more, be it more drugs, more money or more friends each of the character's is shown to have a strong desire for something which they define as their lives.

 Renton is a character both struggling with his own heroin addiction and the pressures of the negative influences around him, these are presented in the form of his friends and his drug abuse. As the narrator of the story he is most suitable as not only is it his story, being such a morally ambiguous character he has no bias towards his actions as he displays his tale to the audience without sugar coating any of his decisions which as the narrator he technically would have been able to do if he'd wished. Audiences are able to identify with Renton as he represents much of the corrupted nature that is human and allows the audience to reflect upon themselves and their own ethically questionable behaviours.  This is highlighted right as the end of the film through the line 'I am going to be just like you." Suggesting to the audience that they should be able to see Renton within themselves. Renton himself is a fairly reliable narrator refusing to lighten the weight of his actions he describes the events throughout the film at a level of detail that can only be described as self-depreciating as if the film is his visual confession, an atonement of sorts.