#benton?

I should probably start by clarifying what I lovingly call “tinfoil hat theories” to explain why this one isn't fully tinfoil.

So the other trainspotting tinfoil hat theories are basically my interpretations that are strongly supported by the text, but it’s hard to say whether they represent the exclusive intended meaning or are just some of several possible meanings. According to the death of the author concept, it doesn't even matter, but I'm still curious about intentionality. And I can even allow that one might set out making a movie about growing older / not wanting to grow old and unconsciously add some heavy homoerotic encoding lol But I really struggle to find alternative interpretations for this one.

I have already written about Begbie and Viagra’s mechanism of action (long story short, it doesn’t work if you aren’t aroused, and Begbie only gets a boner after chasing Renton). Which leads us queers to the inevitable conclusion, of course: Begbie has it for our boy Renton. But if we squint really hard and put our heteronormative goggles on, we might come up with another meaning: Begbie gets off on violence, and the arousal isn’t because of Renton, but because of the anticipation of said violence. Seems plausible, no?

ONLY IF WE IGNORE THE SONG THAT PLAYS IN THIS SCENE.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” is a famously controversial sexual song about orgasm by a band with openly gay members, with a video set in a BDSM gay club. If you lived in the UK at the time of its release (which Danny Boyle did), you couldn’t have missed it.

Please enjoy the gloriously gay official video below:

I was thinking so much about the music choices that I went and rewatched the interview Danny and some of the cast gave to the BUILD Series back in 2017. Here's what Danny said about the music: “You’re always looking for a heartbeat of the film, which is for me always music. It doesn’t have to be [the music that will end up in the film] but you’re listening to it when you are preparing, when you are working…” This does not sound like someone who randomly chooses music tracks.

More like someone who was like, OK, AND TO MAKE SURE WE GET THE BEGBIE-HAS-IT-FOR-RENTON POINT ACROSS, LET’S CHOOSE THE GAYEST SONG FOR THIS SCENE. I’m also really curious what else he was listening to while working on the movie, and how gay it was lol.

I mean, we all can probably agree that the Trainspotting movies’ soundtracks are awesome, but also, I think the second soundtrack is noticeably gayer than the first, and “Relax” is just but one example.

As I continue obsessing over the Trainspotting movies, I keep finding more things I missed before. Well, I guess with this one, I missed it because I wasn’t familiar with how Viagra actually works. So something I originally thought was just an insinuation turned out to be straight-up text.

Like, Robert Carlyle has talked about Begbie being a closeted gay, and of course, I didn’t miss the fact that Begbie gets a boner after chasing Renton. But what I thought was, oh, he probably got a boner because that’s when the Viagra kicked in, and my homoerotic brain just interpreted it that way. Like, glad to have Mr. Carlyle in our gay corner, but the movie itself doesn’t exactly confirm it, right?

BUT IT DOES.

So I just googled how Viagra actually works, and it turns out that IT ONLY WORKS IF THE PERSON IS ALREADY SEXUALLY AROUSED (this is so basic it’s literally on Wikipedia), and this is actually its main advantage over other ED medications, which can sometimes cause random boners!

So the scenes unfold as follows: Begbie takes several pills before going to the club; a woman flirts with him, sits on his lap, straight-up tells him she’s not even wearing underwear, AND IT DOES NOTHING FOR HIM; he heads to the bog, downs another pill, meets Renton, chases him, nearly catches him — AND THAT’S when he gets a boner.

BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT TURNS HIM ON.

And let’s not forget — Hodge, whom I suspect to be a total #sickrent fanboy, didn’t even write Begbie’s boner into the screenplay. That means it must have been Danny Boyle who added it, probably — and here’s a toss up — at Bobbie Carlyle’s or Welsh-senpai’s request lol

and if you are still not convinced, the music choice makes it christal clear. IT'S BASICALLY OFFICIAL LOL