Director Danny Boyle's latest film Steve Jobs (read my review here) may not have set the box office alight (currently sitting at a $24 million gross off a $30 million budget), but it has been a hit with the critics and should snaffle a few big awards over the coming months. You never know quite what you're going to get next from Danny Boyle, as a look back at his wonderfully varied career shows.
Starting out in TV movies,
mini-series and episodes of Inspector Morse from 1987 to 1993, it took Danny
Boyle’s gripping debut feature Shallow Grave in 1994 for anyone to take notice
of the mild-mannered Northerner before he would go on to become a national
treasure last year. His career has gone from the controversy baiting
Trainspotting about a group of Scottish junkies to be being the pride of Britain
with his stunning marvel, the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. With Trance
about to hit cinemas, we take a look at just what it is that makes Danny Boyle
the best of British.
Danny Boyle’s debut feature film arrived
in 1994 with the frenetic, energetic and deeply dark Shallow Grave. Putting
Boyle and McGregor close to being on the map rather than slap bang in the centre;
it nevertheless introduces many of the themes, stylistic traits and
collaborations that would colour Boyle’s career. From its opening voiceover
(not nearly as cool as Trainspotting’s) to its mistrust between friends,
betrayal over a suitcase full of money and its collaboration between director
Boyle, writer John Hodge, producer Andrew Macdonald and star Ewan McGregor,
there are many signs of great things to come.
Three friends sharing an apartment in Scotland find a new housemate to
join them in their spare bedroom. After spending his first night there, the new
guy drops dead leaving a suitcase stuffed with cash for the three friends to
decide what to do with. When they decide to dump the body and keep the cash,
things turn swiftly sour. Greed, betrayal and brutality soon follow as gangster
types show up for the lost money and the three friends finally turn on each
other. Boyle’s mobile camera is wonderful to watch, the soundtrack pulses and
Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston bring two very different characters to
the central triangle, leading to a thrilling and clever final act.
However 1996 was the year that Boyle really got noticed.
Trainspotting is his masterpiece, based on the book by Irvine Welsh and telling
the tale of Scottish junkies trying to kick the habit; failing, fucking and
finally trying to go straight after one big score. Ewan McGregor stars as Renton but the ensemble
cast of Ewan Bremner as loveable Spud, Robert Carlyle as psychopath Begbie,
Johnny Lee Miller, Kelly Macdonald, Kevin McKidd and Peter Mullan are all on
finest form. Working again with writer Hodge and producer Macdonald, the filmmaking
triumvirate produce the most iconic and best British film of the 90s.
Renton
and his ‘buddies’ should be despicable low lives but Boyle and his
collaborators keep all these junkies believable and most importantly
sympathetic… except maybe Robert Carlyle’s mini-madman Begbie. It was accused
of promoting heroin chic, a fashionably scrawny look still modelled by Kate
Moss, and of glamorising heroin use. It does neither, giving a brutally honest
account of the degradation and danger of heroin addiction but still managing to
give some character’s an almost happy Hollywood
ending. The soundtrack, the ‘choose life’ monologue and the iconic marketing
not only put Boyle on the map but also Britain and set McGregor off on
his journey to Star Wars.
How can you follow a film like
Trainspotting? Unfortunately it’s very difficult and some might say you just can’t.
Boyle took the lure of Hollywood dollars with
his next production; keeping McGregor, Hodges and Macdonald in tow but
producing the ambitious, surreal but fatally flawed misstep that is A Life Less
Ordinary. Released only a year after the success of Trainspotting it was bound
to be a disappointment but even on its own terms this tale of angels and
kidnapping fails to elicit much of a response, emotionally or intellectually.
It feels rushed, miscast and too silly for its own good. Cameron Diaz joined
the cast as a spoiled rich girl who allows herself to be kidnapped by Ewan
McGregor’s loveable oaf, but the chemistry, the comedy and the supernatural
interference of two of Heaven's angels fail to gel and offer a satisfying whole.
If there is one film in Boyle’s career to avoid, this is it.
Three years later Boyle returned with
another shot at the blockbuster; this time starring Leonardo DiCaprio in a role
that was promised to Ewan McGregor but then snatched away due to studio
interference. It caused a riff between Boyle and McGregor that is rumoured to
have only recently been resolved. It’s also a huge shame as Boyle’s adaptation
of Alex Garland’s incredible book The Beach feels like one big bucks compromise
after another. Richard, the hero of the book, is British and would have been a
better fit for McGregor and his unrequited love for the girl he couldn’t have
is a high point
of the novel. Instead the film makes the most of Leo’s heartthrob status and
has him shagging his away around the beautiful, idyllic island hideaway of the
title.
Lots of Boyle’s fun and funky stylistic traits are there and
Leo isn’t bad as Richard but the film had a huge mountain to climb to be
anywhere near as brilliant as the book. Shooting in Thailand and making the most of
beautiful locations, the ending was also changed from the novel in an exciting
direction. More interestingly, the collaboration between Boyle and
McGregor came to a close, but it opened the door to a new collaboration.
After the critical shrug towards The
Beach, Boyle retreated to television to complete a couple of television movies
in 2001. Feeling refreshed and ready to take on a feature film again, Boyle
resisted the studios and offers of big budgets and decided instead to film a
zombie movie that would redefine the genre forever. 28 Days Later marked his
second collaboration of sorts with writer Alex Garland. Whereas Garland wrote only The Beach novel with Hodges penning the
screenplay, 28 Days Later was Garland’s
first film script.
Featuring Cillian Murphy (who would
later appear again in Sunshine), 28 Days Later is the story of a virus that
spreads throughout Britain turning people into blood-spewing rage-filled
savages, the Infected. Giving the zombie genre a vital shot in the arm by
unleashing basically what amounted to sprinting, extra-terrifying zombies, its
digitally shot, low budget thrills are just what the British horror film needed
and also sent Boyle in a new direction, sticking with lower budgets to enhance
his creative and bold visions. 28 Days Later feels like Boyle back to his
roots; low budget, British characters and setting, gritty, brutal, but stylish
and subtly commercial enough to attract the American audience. It also marked
the start of his collaboration with director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle
that would continue through Millions, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and Trance and his collaboration with composer John Murphy that would make
more music together through Millions and Sunshine.
Sticking to home turf, a small story
and returning to a narrative that spins around an ill-gotten bag full of money
(see also Shallow Grave and the final act of Trainspotting), Boyle’s next film
introduced him to the wonders of working with children, which he would again do
in Slumdog Millionaire. Millions feels a little like an anomaly in
Boyle’s career though. It is the utterly charming and completely surreal tale
of two little boys who come across a large amount of money as Britain
prepares to convert to the Euro. It’s alt-universe where England has decided to go with the
common currency is far from the strangest things about it. One of the little
boys sees saints everywhere and even converses with them. There is a strong
spiritual element throughout with stars in the sky, a pivotal nativity play and
Jehovah’s Witnesses all featuring heavily.
Though that all might bring back
unwelcome memories of A Life Less Ordinary and its not so heavenly angels,
Millions is far smarter and more surreal, but also much more emotional than Boyle’s
earlier misfire. Its ending is completely bonkers but Millions is worth a look
to see Boyle at his weirdest. Incredibly, it manages to balance family drama and
laughs and with smart scripting and intelligent themes.
In 2007, Boyle returned to Alex
Garland for his next script, the science fiction scorcher Sunshine. Infinitely
smarter than many examples of the genre, it’s not quite Danny Boyle’s 2001: A
Space Odyssey but it is an outstandingly shot, edited, scored and special
effects dependent intellectual blockbuster. Though it may sound more like Michael Bay than Stanley Kubrick with a crew of
scientists sent to kick start the dying sun with a nuclear weapon, it is
smarter than the average mission to save the Earth stupidity.
With its beautiful and haunting score
from John Murphy, incredible special effects and gorgeous cinematography, it is
worlds away from anything Boyle had directed before, despite the presence of
Cillian Murphy, returning after their collaboration on 28 Days Later.
Danny Boyle’s next two films were
both written by Simon Beaufoy, the writer who until then had been best known
for The Full Monty. Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours were both adaptations of
books, something Boyle had not attempted since the success of Trainspotting and
the relative disappointment of The Beach. Slumdog Millionaire gained Boyle real
international recognition and acceptance as it scooped eight Academy Awards.
Its success not only reflected Boyle’s incredible directing talent but also the
spot on selection of his collaborators from Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography
to Beaufoy’s screenplay to his editing and music teams.
Slumdog Millionaire also confirmed Boyle as a director at
his best working with budgetary constraints and with a vibrant culture to
capture and put up on screen. His work with the young Indian non-professional
actors recalls his eliciting of wonderful performances from the boys in
Millions.
Boyle then took restraints to new limits with his adaptation
of Aron Ralston’s incredible survival tale Between a Rock and Hard Place.
Sticking James Franco down a canyon and trapping him under a rock for 127 Hours
meant the real star of the film was not just Franco and his desperate,
determined performance but also Boyle’s signature kinetic style. For a film so
limited to one location (and a claustrophobic one at that), 127 Hours is a
speedy, zippy, film-making tour de force with whizzing camerawork, split
screens and choppy editing all amounting to a highly emotional and cathartic cinematic
journey.
It is not only a great tale of survival, like a real-life Saw film, but 127 Hours also brings together many of the themes of
Boyle's film career to date. From Trainspotting’s opening sprint through the Edinburgh streets set to Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, Danny
Boyle has created memorable characters whose life-affirming stories really do
show a strong desire to survive from Renton
kicking heroin to Ralston cutting his own arm off. There are elements of the
spiritual present with Franco’s hero finding hope in premonitions of his future
son. Angels, saints, hope and visions of paradise have all featured in Boyle’s
films of the past and Ralston is forced to question his morals and values while
trapped in the canyon. Danny Boyle’s films have always questioned moral choices
over money, drugs and the value of human life.
He is a director who has traversed
genres like few others. Not content with this, Boyle recently directed his own
version of Frankenstein at the National Theatre and quickly and conscientiously
silenced the cynics by putting on one of the greatest Olympic Opening
Ceremonies the world has ever seen.
Trance sees him work with James
McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel for the first time in a trippy
art-heist thriller that also sees him reunite with writer John Hodge and
director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle. With the news that the long-awaited
sequel to Trainspotting will now be arriving in 2017 with the original cast
intact, it looks as though Danny Boyle’s lust for a life in filmmaking is set
to continue long into the future.
