Requiem For A Dream

Recently I watched Requiem for a Dream for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it all the way through. This was mostly because My mind was so warped about the images i was seeing on the screen but also what the film was trying to tell me through these images. 

Requiem for a Dream is about a Heroine addict, his girlfriend, best friend and mother. Harry Goldfarb played by Jared Leto is your typical smack addict seen above stealing a Television to obviously pay for the next hit of heroine. However at first glance this film might just seem about smack heads stealing things but the deeper meaning underneath it all is far more powerful and important than the lives of all of these individuals. The film takes a look at addiction and all of the forms it can take and how powerful and important it can become and in serious cases (such as these) how priorities shift dramatically and everything that once mattered is forgotten and lost.

There is a specific shot sequence in the film which i have found below which sets this film apart from others with this truly unique group of shots describing the taking of various drugs and the way they are taken. 

Stages like: Rolling the note, drugs on the table, making lines, snorting, dilation of the pupils. These stages show the exact process flawlessly as well as the effects on your arteries and veins during this process. This shot sequences is probably the best i have ever seen in a film due to the clarity of which it is conveyed and the comparable short term effects to the longer much more severe ones, for an addict. 

It is also very much worth noting the soundtrack of the film as it is absolutely perfect for the film and the same piece is played in all the dramatic scenes of the film. This may seem like it would get dull but you just love it more and more each time you hear it during the course of the film. The piece was composed by Clint Mansell and the only way to describe it is 'epic' the songs feeling can make anything you are doing feel epic just by the layering of the strings and the tempo. 

  

The main things i took from this film was, don't take heroine and that regardless of the legality of the drug does not mean it is a safe drug. Diet pills seem harmless enough but if an old woman takes diet pills which turn out to be speed and she starts hallucinating that the fridge is trying to kill her, its safe to say that even though its legal, its very dangerous. The same can be said for heroine, Heroine is extremely addictive and dangerous as it can kill you with a single hit if not done properly. But saying this people have had healthy relationships with hard drugs in the past without becoming addicted or having an addictive personality. They only use the drugs because they want them and not because they need them. This message is crystal clear by the end that just because its legal does not mean it won't do you any harm, and this is shot perfectly to describe this.