Requiem for a Dream

Requiem for a Dream is a novel written by Hubert Selby, Jr. and first published in 1978

Plot

The film tells the stories of mother and son, Sara (Burstyn) and Harry Goldfarb (Leto) and Harry's girlfriend Marion (Connelly) and his friend Tyrone (Wayans).

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Sara is an older woman who lives alone in an apartment in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, spending all day in front of her TV set. Her relationship with her son has degraded over the years. This causes her great concern but she cannot share this with anybody else.

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When she receives a phone call from a television studio, her life gets a new meaning. She believes to be invited as a guest on a weight loss infomercial. The dream of being popular and sharing her luck with the whole country gets a grip on her existence and conception of reality. To be able to wear her favorite dress on the show, she starts taking weight-loss drugs. Harry later discovers that they contain addictive stimulants (probably amphetamines, or uppers, as Harry calls them), but she dismisses the thought.

Related Topics:
Infomercial - Amphetamine

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Meanwhile, Harry and his friend Tyrone start to earn their money as drug dealers. The profitable business and the drugs seem to be the fulfillment of dreams for Harry and Marion, but when Harry wants to get closer to his mother again, he is concerned about her use of stimulants.

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As addiction plays a larger part in the lives of the four it also affects them more and more negatively. As Sara gets addicted to her pills, she starts having hallucinations, then gets a prescription for valium, as well as increasing her diet pill dosage. Soon she loses what grip she had on her life and is eventually hospitalized. The others' dream burst when Tyrone meets the law and the money they saved is spent to keep him out of prison. Marion and Harry lose the close relationship they had as acquisition of drugs dominates their lives. Harry and Tyrone want to break the spiral by taking a trip to Florida, where drugs are supposedly much cheaper. The trip ends in disaster.

Related Topics:
Valium - Florida

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The movie ends with shocking scenes that show the fate of Harry, Sara, Marion and Tyrone. Harry has to have his arm amputated in a hospital after intravenous drug use caused an infection; Sara receives electroshock treatment and becomes a vegetable, completely withdrawing from reality; Tyrone is in prison; and Marion has to work as a prostitute to finance her addiction (a rather moral message about the way of all drugs/addictions).

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