>This was mentioned in several articles at the time of release; further info
>can be found at the IMDB.  Since the programmers at Bravo (Canada) say
>there was only a North American version then this means that the film seen
>in Canada was also redubbed (unless somebody can offer solid evidence
>against this).

I'll try. Firstly, I think you referring to Showcase, not Bravo. And, yes,
Showcase will air the N.A. "theatrical" version. As for the dubbing issue,
only the opening monologue was redubbed. But it was voiced by the same
actor (Ewan McGregor). He simply cut down on the thickness of his accent. A
suble difference. Beyond that, the video version has subtitles to one,
brief scene in a bar (about 20 minutes into the film) because the music was
too loud to make the dialogue recognizable.

>And for whatever amusement it's worth:  The film was cut by a few seconds
>(two according to the IMDB though I seem to remember 7 or 8 from another
>source) for the US; in England it was shown in theatres uncut but had 14
>seconds trimmed for the video release.  The DVD in both countries has
>deleted scenes as extras.  Ain't censorship wacky?

Actually, the deleted scenes have nothing to do with censorship. These were
scenes that the filmmakers decided to delete when doing the final cut (the
DVD and Criterion editions have these scenes as "extras" because they did
not make the final mix, and appear to be from work prints). As for the 2
seconds deleted from the U.S. version, this was done willingly by director
Danny Boyle to avoid an "X" rating. As for the Showcase broadcast
(Saturday, April 10th), the objective of the network has always been to
show the "theatrical" version (there are "tv versions" of most films that
already have the naughty bits deleted), and subtitled (instead of dubbed)
versions of non-English language films. I haven't done a frame-by-frame
analysis of the broadcast master for TRAINSPOTTING (I wouldn't have a clue
if it's missing 2 seconds) but it should be identical to the video release
from Alliance (the Canadian distibutor -- they handle all films distributed
by Miramax in the U.S.). That still leaves over 90 minutes of nudity, sex,
drug use, baby deaths and coarse language (spoken with thick Scottish
accents). That's more than most broadcasters dare to air.

Darryl Wiggers
Programming Department
Showcase Television

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