Requiem for a Dream

Requiem for a Dream is another perosnal favorite of mine. Unlike many of today's mainstream movies that glorify the use of illicit drugs, this movie puts the end spectrum into perspective. The movie unravels around a cast of drug using characters. They do everything from cocaine, to marijuana, to heroin. In the movie the director does an excellent job of capturing their "moment of highness", and while it's brief, he illustrates the euphoria and satisfaction that each character experiences. Thus showing why each of our characters have developed an addiction for their drug of choice.

Once the focus moves away from our younger group of drug users, the director zero's in on the main characters mother, Sarah Goldfarb. She is portrayed as a frumpy old woman, unhappy with her life, and on a quest to lose weight. As a result of her dedication to her "diet", she see's a doctor that prescribes diet pills to aid her in her weight loss. Funny enough, these diet pills carry the same lethal dosage that a lot of street drugs do. Sarah begins to experience weight loss, but also dimensia, schitzophrenia and withdrawls. But even this was not enough for her to stop taking her pills. In the end she is committed to a psychiatric ward and receives shock therapy to try and stimulate her brain back to normality.

As for the rest of the cast, their addictions catch up to them by the end of the movie. The one female character ends up trading sex for drugs. Although only 19 or 20 years old, she follows a fraternity of men that give her drugs in exchange for sexual favors. Our two other male characters try to become drug distributors, but like all good things, it had to come to an end. One ends up developing a terrible necrotic infection in his arm from re-using dirty heroin needles and has to have his arm amputated. The film ends with our character lying in his hospital bed, coming to terms with the loss of his limb, his social life, and his friends. I really like how this movie had a more gruesome or realistic ending than the rest of the "stoner" movies out there, which happen to glorify the ecstacy of being "high" to the masses. After watching this movie, I'm sure you wont be tempted into doing these hardcore drugs.