#71 Requiem For A Dream

In Summary

Requiem For A Dream is a film that attempts to put you inside the addled mind of an addict. Featuring unsettlingly close close-ups, rapid cuts and a musical score designed to constantly put you on edge, it is a film that, more or less, achieves exactly what it sets out to do.

The film is set in a heartless urban environment where no-one really has anything to do except watch television or get high. The connection Requiem For A Dream makes is that there is little that separates drug addicts to those plugged into capitalist culture. Both experiences are vapid, lonely and disconnecting from reality.

Requiem For A Dream is an incredibly pessimistic and, almost, mean-spirited in its treatment of its main protagonists. The young drug addict couple, Harry and Marion, are mean, conceited and care only for their next score. Harry's mother, Sara, is naive, stupid and becomes increasingly deluded as the film progresses. The lack of a sympathetic lead character for the audience to relate makes the viewing experience of Requiem For A Dream depressing.

Any attempt that the protagonists make to improve their lot in life results in greater psychological and physical torture. Harry's attempts to end his reliance on his mother to fund his drug habit lead him into a life of crime. Marion becomes a prostitute to feed her addiction. Sara's attempts to lose weight lead to a diet pill addiction, and worse.

These people are trapped inside a doomed cycle. Their addictions mean they cannot perceive of a way out. All the audience can do is simply watch as it plays it way out.

If you ever wanted to put someone off drugs - and, I guess, watching television? - this is the film you'd show them.

A Memorable Quote

I'm somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon, millions of people will see me and they'll all like me. I'll tell them about you, and your father, how good he was to us. Remember? It's a reason to get up in the morning. It's a reason to lose weight, to fit in the red dress. It's a reason to smile. It makes tomorrow all right. What have I got Harry, hm? Why should I even make the bed, or wash the dishes? I do them, but why should I? I'm alone. Your father's gone, you're gone. I got no one to care for. What have I got, Harry? I'm lonely. I'm old.

Things You May Not Know

• The camera drifts off-target during Sara's monologue about being alone, this was the result of the camera operator crying during the take, director, Darren Aronofsky, elected to keep it in the final cut.
• An average film of the length of Requiem For A Dream will typically feature around 600-700 cuts, this film features over 2,000.
• Every time a character does a drug in this film, it cuts to a shot of pupils dilating. This is an inaccurate representation of the process of taking heroin, where the pupils tend to constrict.

One of the Greatest of All Time?
Requiem For A Dream is a nasty film about nasty people doing nasty things and being punished in the most nasty fashion possible. I don't quite buy the secondary message of this film that a consumerist lifestyle is akin to drug addiction, it's the kind of reductionist thinking that should stay at the university house-party where you first heard it.

That said, the point of any piece of art is to get its message across and make you think. Requiem For A Dream achieves exactly that, which is why I never want to watch it again.