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[[File:requiem_for_a_dream_sm_5233.jpg|frame]]
 
{{quote|''If you ever find yourself inexplicably contented with your lot, slip this into your DVD player and normal service will be resumed... this is a film you watch once, then repair to the pub to stare fixedly into your beer for the night, vowing never, ever to watch it again.''|'''Empire'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Top 10 Most Depressing Movies (this is #1)}}
 
Originally a novel written in 1978 by Hubert Selby, Jr., ''[[Requiem Forfor Aa Dream]]'' was made into a movie by [[Darren Aronofsky]] in 2000. The story is about three friends and one friend's mother, who over the course of nine months (summer, fall, winter) have their lives destroyed by drug addiction. ''Requiem Forfor Aa Dream'' is well-loved for its haunting view on drug use, but it's also widely criticized for its ''extremely'' inaccurate and negative portrayal of normal medical procedures.
 
{{tropelist}}
Harry is a twenty-something drug addict, who routinely steals his long-suffering mother's TV to pawn it for money. His mother, Sara, 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.
 
One summer day, Harry and his best friend Tyrone decide to not just be drug addicts but also drug dealers, with help from Harry's would-be fashion designer girlfriend Marion. 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.
 
Meanwhile, Sara receives a phone call stating she'll have a chance to appear on television. Already somewhat mad from loneliness, she becomes fixated on fitting into her favorite red dress for the occasion. Failing to keep up with her diet, Sara sees an apathetic doctor who prescribes a regimen of extreme diet pills, which she quickly begins to abuse.
 
Things collapse though within a matter of months for everyone: gang warfare breaks out in the city over the drug trade, resulting in the major drug suppliers shutting down all sales of drugs in the city order to force the rivals to surrender. Tyrone is arrested, forcing Harry and Marion to use all of their ill-gotten money made dealing to bail Tyrone out. Marion, now cut off financially from her family, turns to sleeping with her psychiatrist to earn money for drugs, which now go for a premium on the street. Meanwhile, Sara begins a downward spiral into insanity due to her increasing addiction to the diet medication.
 
In the end, all of them are left broken shells of their former selves by the ravages of addiction and the tragedy of their broken dreams.
 
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=== Contains examples of: ===
* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: With sign language used by the deaf drug dealer employing Tyrone.
* [[Black Best Friend]]: Tyrone.
* [[Body Horror]]: Harry's infected arm is more than a little grotesque.
* [[Break the Cutie]]: Sara.
* [[Camera Tricks]]: practically a camera circus
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** Sara Goldfarb is a former redhead who tries to dye her hair and fit back into her favorite red dress to recreate her glamorous appearance on the happiest day of her life. Her youthful self, bedecked in the red dress, haunts her as she loses her sanity.
** In Harry's dream/hallucination of meeting Marion on the pier, she is wearing a red dress.
* [[Leitmotif]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKLpJtvzlEI Lux Aeterna].
* [[Madness Montage]]:
** 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...
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[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Requiem for a Dream]]
[[Category:Films Based on Novels]]
[[Category:Independent Films]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Multiple Works Need Separate Pages]]
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