History Literature / RequiemForADream

''Requiem for a Dream'' is a 2000 psychological drama film co-written and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The film revolves around three friends and one friend's mother, who over the course of nine months (summer, fall, winter) experience various forms of drug addiction. The film was adapted from the 1978 novel of the same name by Hubert Selby Jr. (who co-wrote the film's script), which it has [[AdaptationDisplacement considerably eclipsed in terms of public recognition and pop culture impact alike]].

** At the end, when Marion is forced to perform sexually with another stripper in degrading manners intercut with Sara's electroshock treatments, Tyrone being made to do hard labor in prison, and Harry being prepped for surgery to amputate his arm. As the montage keeps going, there starts to be less and less time between each cut, until it reaches the point where each one only shows for a few seconds and they blend into a single barely sensible cacophony...

* BodyHorror: Harry's arm. [[spoiler:The first red flag is when he notices a blackish-purple infection on his arm when he goes to get water for Marion, and it gets bigger and uglier on the trip to Miami, when it really starts giving him horrendous amounts of discomfort and pain. Basically, everyone who sees the arm reacts with disgust, and it leads to it getting amputated.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: The entire last quarter of the movie, with a different one for each character. You'd think that shooting up via a gangrene-ridden arm would be the low point. You'd be wrong. It's made even worse with the fact that none of them get to keep their freedom, but Marion is the only one to end up ''not'' in the care of an institution required to provide her with medical care. [[spoiler:Marion is stuck in an endless loop of prostitution and addiction with no avenue to free herself. The others have no choice but to get clean, though that's not necessarily a better fate because at that point they have no escape from the pain that they turned to drugs to run from in the first place.]]

* FauxAffablyEvil: Big Tim certainly puts on a friendly, joking front when he first meets Marion and while hosting his sex parties. In reality, he's a sociopathic pimp whose MO is to get girls addicted to heroin so that they're dependent on him as a drug source and willing to do anything and everything sexually for him and his clients in return.

* MickeyMousing: A subtle but effective example in the film's climactic MadnessMontage; [[spoiler:the frenzied, anxious track "Meltdown" plays during the entire sequence. When Sara is receiving her ECT, the music stops ''just'' before each shock and aggressively comes back in once the shock is administered, practically making the audience feel it on a visceral level]].

Originally a novel written in 1978 by Hubert Selby Jr., ''Requiem for a Dream'' was made into a film by Creator/DarrenAronofsky in 2000. The story is about three friends and one friend's mother, who over the course of nine months (summer, fall, winter) experience various forms of drug addiction.

** Marion curled up in a ball in the bathtub and shrieking is taken straight out of ''Anime/PerfectBlue''. Aronofsky even secured the rights to a live-action version of the film just to justify including this scene in ''this'' movie.

One summer day, Harry and his best friend Tyrone ([[Creator/TheWayansFamily Marlon Wayans]]) decide to not just be drug addicts but also drug dealers, with help from Harry's would-be fashion designer girlfriend Marion (Creator/JenniferConnelly). Marion's parents are unaware that she's quit seeing her psychologist (thanks to her occasionally dating the man to keep him quiet), and routinely send her money, which Harry and Tyrone gladly make use of. Harry's dream is to help Marion start her own fashion store — which, he tells her, could be done with the money gained from selling drugs directly.

* CerebusSyndrome: The first half of the movie has some comical moments, like Sara trying to follow a diet, and some of her later hallucinations of the fridge becoming alive are (unintentionally?) funny.

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Applies in-story; Marion performs a lesbian sex act on stage for drugs. The viewer, however, likely won't find it arousing.

* KarmaHoudini: Big Tim and Uncle Hank get away with everything.

* MoralGuardians: Many critics apparently didn't watch the movie past Summer and thought this movie's message was DrugsAreGood.

** Nobody in the film ever says "heroin". The closest anyone gets to naming a drug is by using the word "skag" (a slang term for heroin) or calling Sara's pills "uppers".
** The names of the pills Sara takes are never named either. But considering the book was set in the 60s, as well as the addictiveness and strength of the pills, it's safe to assume they're methamphetamine tablets. Her symptoms are also consistent with amphetamine psychosis, a schizophrenia-like ailment caused by long-term amphetamine abuse. Unlike most forms of schizophrenia, however, [[DownerEnding amphetamine psychosis resists most forms of treatment, and is essentially permanent.]]

Harry Goldfarb (Creator/JaredLeto) is a twenty-something Brooklyn drug addict, who routinely steals his long-suffering mother's TV to pawn it for money. His mother, Sara (Creator/EllenBurstyn), is a timid and lonely shell of a woman who lives in a permanent state of denial. Her only concerns are to hide her son's condition from the world as much as from herself, being accepted by the neighborhood's women, and watching a television self-help infomercial show almost continually.

Harry Goldfarb (Creator/JaredLeto) is a twentysomething Brooklyn drug addict, who routinely steals his long-suffering mother's TV to pawn it for money. His mother, Sara (Creator/EllenBurstyn), is a timid and lonely shell of a woman who lives in a permanent state of denial. Her only concerns are to hide her son's condition from the world as much as from herself, being accepted by the neighborhood's women, and watching a television self-help infomercial show almost continually.

Harry Goldfarb (Creator/JaredLeto) is a twenty-something Brooklyn drug addict, who routinely steals his long-suffering mother's TV to pawn it for money. His mother, Sara (Creator/EllenBurstyn), is a timid and lonely shell of a woman who lives in a permanent state of denial. Her only concerns are to hide her son's condition from the world as much as from herself, being accepted by the neighborhood's women, and watching a television self-help infomercial show almost continually.

Harry Goldfarb (Creator/JaredLeto) is a twenty-something drug addict, who routinely steals his long-suffering mother's TV to pawn it for money. His mother, Sara (Creator/EllenBurstyn), is a timid and lonely shell of a woman who lives in a permanent state of denial. Her only concerns are to hide her son's condition from the world as much as from herself, being accepted by the neighborhood's women, and watching a television self-help infomercial show almost continually.

* CreatorCameo: Hubert Selby Jr., the book's author, appears at the end as the abusive, laughing prison guard. And he filmed quite a bit more footage hurling verbal abuse at his own characters, which can be seen on the DVD.

Originally a novel written in 1978 by Hubert Selby, Jr., ''Requiem for a Dream'' was made into a movie by Creator/DarrenAronofsky in 2000. The story is about three friends and one friend's mother, who over the course of nine months (summer, fall, winter) experience various forms of drug addiction.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/requiem_for_a_dream_sm_5233.jpg]]

Given the film's reputation as one of the most depressing and disturbing films ever made, you can probably infer [[DescentIntoAddiction where it]] [[ForegoneConclusion goes next.]]
------

* BreakTheCutie: Sara. Her simple want to slim down so she could fit in her red dress to go on TV leads to her [[spoiler:losing her sanity (the climax of which occurred in a horrific ElectricTorture scene), losing the red dye in her hair (and most of her hair outright), and looking deathly emaciated and skeletal. Hell, when two of her friends come to visit her in the hospital, they break down crying outside on the bus stop because of her horrendous near-catatonic condition]].

* ElectricTorture: What ECT is essentially depicted as. The treatment is part of the film's climactic MadnessMontage and is suitably terrifying.

* CuttingBackToReality: After witnessing people from her favourite TV show appearing in reality and being attacked by her fridge, Sarah naturally flees the building in terror... but a cut back to her apartment reveals that everything appears perfectly normal and the TV was tuned to a test pattern all along.

Given the film's status as one of the most depressing and disturbing films ever made, you can probably infer [[DescentIntoAddiction where it]] [[ForegoneConclusion goes next.]]