Requiem For A Dream

Requiem For a Dream is a 1978 novel and film released in the year 2000. The novel was written by Hubert Selby Jr., while the film was directed by Darren Aronofky. It won an Academy award for best actress for Ellen Burstyn. This article details both the movie and the novel.

Since the novel came first it comes first here too. It follows for people all with some relationship to each other. Their names are hairy, Marion, Tyrone, and Sara. Harry and Marion are a couple. Tyrone is friends with both of them. Sara is Harry's mother. Each of them becomes obsessed with gaining their dream. The dream leads them to addiction, and pretty horrible lives. Sara wants to be on television. She binges on diet pills to lose weight after a casting company hints that she might be selected. She ends up hospitalized. Harry, Marion, and Tyrone Seidel make money by selling heroin. But they'll become addicted to the drug they seek to sell. Everyone's life is ruined.

In the movie mother and son, Sara and Harry, are the main characters along with Marion and Tyrone. It's the same as in the novel. Also like the novel it takes place during three consecutive seasons – summer, fall, and winter.

In the Summer Sara, who is elderly and alone, watches infomercials on television all day long. She has nothing to do but eat. That makes your fat in her opinion. But her life gains new purpose when the producers of the infomercial call her to tell her she may be on the infomercial. She vows to fit into the red dress she once wore to Harry's graduation. To accomplish this she goes on a crazy diet. When that doesn't work she sees a doctor who prescribes amphetamines. She soon becomes addicted. Signs of this addiction are overly happy personality, and constantly grinding her teeth.

Harry and Tyrone begin a career as drug dealers. Their goal is to one day be able to afford a pound of pure heroine. Marion believes that the money Harry makes as a drug dealer will allow her to purchase a clothing store. Tyrone simply wants enough money to earn a life off the street.

A summer becomes fall Sara becomes more addicted to the amphetamines. As the dose she has been taking is no longer effective, she begins increasing the dosage. This soon causes her to hallucinate both about being on the infomercial and about her refrigerator moving through her house. Harry and Tyrone run afoul of the police. Most of the money they have earned in the summer is used for Tyrone's bail. Not only does it become increasingly difficult to find quality heroin, but they themselves use more and more of what they purchase.

The end of the movie is very sad. In winter things spiraled to their lowest point. Harry ends up in the hospital after falling off the roof of a building, Sara is institutionalized, Tyrone is in jail, and Marion is hopelessly addicted to heroin. Everyone except Harry ends up hallucinating a fantasy world.

Requiem for a Dream is an excellent look at addiction and its aftereffects.

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