8. Trainspotting - (1996, Danny Boyle)
With its gritty, exaggerated depiction of poverty and the heroin pandemic in 80's Edinburgh, Trainspotting was never going to avoid creating a whirlwind in the world of cinema. Boyle was unerring in his attempt to capture the reality of Scottish drug culture, showing the whole timeline of a drug abuser's existence: the beginning (Renton's use of heroin via injection to his arm), the middle (depraved activities induced by drugs such as the statutory rape of a 15 year old) and the end (death by HIV from using an unclean needle). The film was condemned by public figures in Britain, Australia and the United States most notably US senator Bob Dole accused the film of "glamorising" the use of heroin. Though it would go on to be the highest grossing British film of 1996 Trainspotting's US box office was unimpressive owing to American's difficulty to find any meaning in the cast's thick Scottish accents. The cinematic boundaries which have been pushed back by controversial films since the release of Trainspotting mean that by today's standards the action depicted isn't all that shocking, enabling Trainspotting to take its place as a modern classic.