How are the ideological themes and issues in your chosen films resolved ?
In this essay, I'm going to explore the theme of maturity in 'Shaun of the Dead'. At the end of 'Shaun of the Dead' we see Shaun now living with Liz in the same flat that Shaun was living in at the start of the film. For 'Trainspotting', I'm going to talk about the theme of drugs which leads to the end of Trainspotting where we see Renton walking away with the drug money to start a new life.
At the beginning of Shaun of the Dead, the shuffling 'slacker generation' is parodied in the title sequence. Shaun and Ed are portrayed as an exhausted generation of 'zombies' playing video games. For a lot of the film, Shaun has no idea that there are zombies as shown by him walking to the shops with zombies everywhere and him being oblivious to it. For this scene, Wright shoots a hand-held track to follow Shaun from his home to the shop across the road. The effect of this gives realism to suburbia. The final scene of Shaun of the Dead shows Shaun has grown up and matured as he's no longer living with Ed and reverting back to their adolescence like getting drunk and listening to loud music while wearing backwards baseball caps. However, by the end, Shaun and Liz have both settled their differences and 'meet in the middle' as Liz wants to spend their day in the pub - this differs from earlier when she breaks up with Shaun for him wanting to go to the pub for their anniversary dinner. Shaun asks Liz for two sugars in his tea, something which he hasn't had since he was a teenager so he hasn't matured completely. Ed was holding Shaun back such as when he doesn't answer the phone to Liz for Shaun which was the catalyst to Shaun and Ed's breakup.
In the pub scene, It is Shaun who has to turn his life around and act like the hero by sacrificing himself so the others can get in the pub. Shaun even acts like an action hero symbolised by him showing up after they think he's dead with just his arm coming into frame to grab the bar snacks and we see him with his tie around his head and blood stains on his shirt. Shaun is also the one to shoot the zombies which is not something you would expect in a British horror movie as guns are not easy to get hold of, especially for a regular guy like Shaun, but here the pub comes to his rescue by providing him with a weapon from the wall.
In a way, the zombies are used as a way for Shaun to get back together with Liz as Shaun manages to handle tough situations and show his bravery by distracting the crowd of zombies so the others can get in the pub. Shaun stands up to Ed and finally gets the nerve to tell Ed he's holding him back which makes a change as he was constantly defending Ed like telling Pete to "Leave him alone". When they are all in the basement of the pub, Ed stays behind while Shaun and Liz escape symbolising Ed no longer coming between them and Shaun finally makes the decision to choose Liz over his friendship with Ed.
In Trainspotting, a central theme explored is heroin addiction. Renton has an overdose in the pub where he falls and surreally sinks into the carpet and loses touch with reality. We see him being taken to hospital in a POV shot with Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' playing on the soundtrack making this scene so ironic. The combined effect of the POV shots is to make Renton seem like he's at his lowest point and close to death and to place us in his rapidly dying body. The film heavily features British music culture in the 1990s. It starts with Iggy Pop's 'Lust for Life' a song from 1977, and ending with 'Born Slippy' by Underworld from 1996. It takes the audience on a journey moving from punk to rave. In the overdose scene, Renton is seen at low-level, worms eye view that communicates a sense of life with limited ambition. Renton is literally at his 'low life' and when he falls on the floor after overdosing it represents his life being one step away from the gutter. Later on, when Renton is back in his room after being brought home from the hospital, there are sequences that are clearly reflective of Renton's deranged mind. His hallucinations seem real to him but have a dream-like quality or more the taint of a nightmare. When he hallucinates Tommy's baby on the ceiling it shows an addict enduring 'cold turkey' as he's forever disappearing and escaping.
Renton's nightmares only really become inescapable when he fights his addiction. Renton is shown to be a smirking cynic so his final treachery is not expected. He only shows compassion towards Spud as it's him that gives some of the drug money he stole from Begbie and put in Spud's locker. Renton's relationship with his parents is awkward; a sense of failure and disappointment overlaying their disgust at his addiction. McGregor plays Renton as a likeable person. What prevents the audience from despising Renton is the fact that we are positioned in the narrative to follow his journey. At the end of the film, Renton leaves Spud, Begbie and Sick Boy, and runs off with the money received from a drug deal. Renton has quit heroin and is going straight. He's leaving his violent friends behind.
In both Shaun of the Dead and Trainspotting, gaining maturity is seen as a way to move forward. Maturity as a way to be saved in Trainspotting is literally represented by Renton's parents who lock him in a room and refuse to let him out until he is clean. In both films, gaining maturity is seen as a way to move forward. Shaun is never going to move forward unless he stops living with Ed and moves in with his girlfriend. And in Trainspotting, Renton needs to stop living with heroin in his life as a way to move forward and to 'choose life' instead. The zombies in Shaun of the Dead also look a lot like those addicted to heroin or having an overdose in Trainspotting so they could have a shared enemy.
