Two weeks ago, before my short vacation, I watched Requiem for a Dream for the first time, and I have to say that that was probably the most terrifying ending to a movie I've ever seen. Like real-life terrifying, and also very heartbreaking. I feel like this is a very important movie with so much purpose, and I really want to talk about it. So, welcome to Classic Explained Episode 10: Requiem for a Dream.
To break it down, I'm gonna use three themes:
- Pain of solitude: We'll discuss the cause-effect-cause cycle, Tyrone's mother, Marion's parents Harry and Sarah's dishonesty, the supporting characters, and the various acts of rebellion.
- Comfort of self-deception: We'll discuss the TV stealing scene, the split screens (Tyrone and Alice, Sara's clown makeup), the month of Fury show, and Sara's big drug trick.
- Consequences of addiction: We'll discuss the seasons, the fate of the characters, and the title of the movie.
So much more, and if you liked this video, please give a thumbs up and a comment. It helped so much! If you want to see more of these, please make sure to subscribe as well. Let's get started!
Theme number 1: Pain of solitude When doing my research around drug addiction after watching this movie, I found it interesting that many of the causes of drug addiction are also the effects of drug addiction. For example, someone suffering from depression will resort to drugs, and after the high of those drugs, they'll become more depressed and expand a lot more in this theme No. 3. But this cause and effect concept also applies with stress, low self-esteem, trauma, and many others. And I feel like for this movie and these four main characters, the primary cause and also effect of their drug addictions is the pain of solitude.
These four characters, all in their own way, feel incredibly alone and specifically detached from family. Tyrone's mother has passed away, which leaves him extremely isolated, and this is captured very well by this specific shot. Tyrone reflects on her life at multiple moments in the film, and his current involvement with drugs stems from his words as a child to succeed for his mother.
Marion, in contrast, has parents who are alive, well, and successful and can provide her with anything she needs financially. However, her relationship and emotional connection with her parents seem to be shattered. I'm assuming this tension exists because either her or her parents or her and her parents feel like she hasn't lived up to the expectations of her parents. I assume this because earning parents' approval and meeting parental expectations is a major theme that is demonstrated by all three of our younger main characters.
Which brings me to Harry and Sara. Harry and his mom Sara are the only two of their family left since the father Seymour has passed away, and even though they have each other, Harry's lack of honesty with Sara and Sara's lack of honesty with herself makes it impossible for the two of them to be genuinely connected. Harry's life is in no way what his mom wants it to be. Sara hopes Harry will have a stable and successful career with a wife and kids; however, Harry is struggling to stay afloat in a life of crime, and we will discuss this idea of dishonesty a lot more in theme number two.
Overall, Harry is broken by his disconnection with his mom and uses drugs to heal the pain of solitude. This is best portrayed in the cab when we see him crying after lying continuously to his mother about his life and career. Then, after an injection, emotions have disappeared, and this movie as a whole is written and directed to portray this feeling of painful isolation so well. Everything with these main characters feels so separated from society. The only characters who seem like real people are the main characters who are addicts. Everyone else in this movie seems either very uninvolved or dreamlike or cruel or one-dimensional. Even Sara's group of friends seems to have no further purpose than to celebrate her upcoming appearance on TV, and even Sara is aware of this. She mentions in her heartbreaking moment with Harry, and this scene also captures Sara's entire feeling of the pain from solitude.
"What if I got Harry? 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. I'm lonely." And when Harry mentions that she has friends, Sarah says, "It's not the same. They don't need me. I like the way I feel. I like thinking about the red dress and the television and you and your father." Now when I get the sun, I smile. Sarah chooses to get lost in her memories and fantasies to overcome her feelings of solitude, and the addiction that she develops to the pills only enhances her ability to get lost in these happy thoughts.
Our characters in this movie feeling present like there's nowhere to go, and this is why each of them have these dreams or hallucinations of committing sudden acts of rebellion. Harry and Marion also commit real acts of rebellion for fun. The dreams, hallucinations, and acts of rebellion represent their longing need to break free, and to them, pills, powder, and syringes become the only real way out.
Theme number 2: Comfort of self-deception In the previous theme, I briefly touched on how Sarah is always lying to herself, and throughout this movie, we can see that all of the characters are also doing this. Convincing oneself that things are okay when they are not is a common result of drug addiction, and this act of self-deception is a comfort mechanism to deal with their feelings of solitude.
And this idea is established in the very first scene of the movie. Harry is taking his mother's TV so he can sell it and eventually buy drugs, but during this scene, we can see that Sarah is lying to herself to shield herself from the heartbreaking reality that is happening right in front of her. "This isn't happening, and if it should be happening, it would be all right. Don't worry, Seymour, it'll all work out." And what I find most creative and clever and meaningful about this scene is that it is shown in split screen.
The split screens in this movie represent the illusion of closeness and attachment. Sarah and her son do love one another, but they are not genuinely connected. Their relationship is desperately held together by self-deception and dishonesty. We also see the split screen between Harry and Marion because the two of them are slowly being torn apart at the consequences of their addiction. Two of them may continue to feel close, but their attachment to various substances will never allow them to truly connect as a couple.
And I believe that's what this dream right here represents. Harry is never able to speak directly to Marion in this dream because some external force is always pulling their attention away from each other. And we also see the split screen when Sarah is eating a less healthy snack where she likely resorts to unhealthy foods to comfort herself through her severe feelings of loneliness and depression.
There's also a very notable moment of dishonesty with Tyrone, and this scene starts where he can't stop looking at his reflection. And in this moment, he is having a flashback and likely asking himself if his mother would truly be proud of the man he has become. And next, he says romantic things to Alice in his bed before having sex with her, and this is the only time we see this character Alice. Me, this is a moment of dishonesty from Tyrone, not only to the girl but also to himself since Tyrone feels so isolated and so detached, he is filling this void with sex and the illusion of love when these moments of self-deception get worse as time passes and the characters' addictions get stronger. Dishonesty eventually turns into delusion for all of our characters.
Tyrone and Harry have convinced themselves that driving all the way to Florida from New York to restart their drug-dealing careers and hit big when they have no money at all is a good idea. Marion lies to Big Tim, saying she isn't really hooked when she just had sex with him to satisfy her drug addiction. While Harry is thinking about Marion, we get these shots of diamond ring infomercials that fade in and out, and I think the imagery of diamond rings is another symbol of artificial or forced romantic connection. The particular price of an engagement ring is a surface-level indicator of one's love for their partner.
And one very dark and very sad moment is when we see Sarah in clown-like makeup dancing alone in her room. This symbolizes the artificial fulfillment and satisfaction she has found and gotten lost in through her addiction. Dressing up and fantasizing about entertaining others, the game show Month of Fury is simply a reflection of all of Sara's conflicting temptations to fill her void of loneliness. Sarah longs for popularity and recognition. She fantasizes about fitting into a red dress to be on this show where a super excited audience is celebrating her accomplishments while she is being broadcasted into the world.
The show has three rules, however, that reflect the other conflicting side of serious temptations. The first two rules are diet rules: no red meat and no refined sugar, and these rules represent her temptation towards delicious foods and treats. This is also why the fridge comes to life when she refrains from eating these delicious foods. And when we are about to hear the third rule, Sarah passes out from taking way too many diet pills and betamine specifically, so we never actually get to hear the third rule. And I think the reason why is that Sarah no longer has any concern for that side of temptation. The addiction to the pills has replaced her temptation towards food.
And once Sarah takes all of these pills at once, we see her having this massive hallucination where the show is taking over her apartment. And I think this big drug trip reveals her biggest insecurities that are an unfortunate result of her temptation towards vanity and public presentation. The host and Sarah's fantasized self appear in her apartment and start laughing at the apartment's design and quality. The whole world is getting to see the real and raw her before she's ready to be on TV, which is the last thing that she wants. We see her fantasized self in the host kissing and touching aggressively, something she knows she will never experience again. And the scene ends with everyone chanting, "Feed me, Sarah," which signifies Sarah's temptations and longing to feed her ego, feed herself the pills, feed herself the food, and eventually be completely consumed by addiction.
Theme number 3: Consequences of addiction At the beginning of this video, I was talking about how with drug addiction, the cause is also the feelings of solitude lead to addiction, which leads to greater feelings of solitude. It's all a big cycle, and I think this is why the movie is divided into seasons. The seasons represent the cyclical nature of drug addiction in a community and within an individual.
During summer, everything is looking up. Tyrone and Harry are getting started in their drug dealing business. Harry and Marion are making enough money to possibly fund Marion's business idea, and Sarah is preparing for her appearance on Month of Fury. During fall, the four main characters' addictions get the better of them. Heron and Harry's business starts falling apart. Marion is having sex with her therapist to make back the money she's lost, and Sarah begins her trip into insanity after taking way too many of her pills.
And in winter, everything is completely collapsed, as we all see when I thought it was clever how when Sarah was being treated in the hospital, we hear a conversation between the two nurses where one of them discusses how we can't leave a table at the casino because he wanted to keep winning. This moment is another reflection of the cycle of addiction as we see one addict at the end of her road being treated by a potential addict at the very beginning of his road.
And while this ending is extremely shocking and anxiety-inducing, it's meant entirely to showcase how amplified the characters' lurking issues have become and afflict the way each of them ends up seems to represent a different kind of common consequence of drug addiction: mental, physical, criminal, and emotional.
Sara is delirious to the very last moments of the film, still believing she'll be on TV. Harry has his arm removed due to the severity of his infection. Tyrone is imprisoned under some of the most unpleasant working conditions, and Marion will do absolutely anything to find happiness and satisfaction from the next injection. And when it comes to the title of this movie, I think there couldn't be a better one. One definition of the term Requiem is an act of remembrance, and a lot of what these characters do is an act of remembrance for a dream that could have been.
Tyrone deals drugs to be the successful man he wanted to be for his mom. Harry orders his mom a new TV and pretends to be the stable family man that she always wanted them to be. Marion plans to get started on a clothing business, very subtly taking after her father, who also owns a clothing business. And Sarah fantasizes about celebrating her ideal legacy of her family in front of the world. And the most heartbreaking aspect of it all is none of these dreams ever come true. The fate of our characters is the opposite; it's the nightmare they never expected. And sadly all their characters can do in these final moments of the film is once again get lost in their own fantasies through self-deception, completely detached from the dark reality of utter solitude.