History Literature / RequiemForADream

* {{Bookends}}: Around the start of the film, there's a rather famous sequence involving Harry on a dock, visioning Marion in a red dress at the end. At the end, once Harry has hit the bottom of his downward spiral, the same sequence is revisited, although Marion inexplicably disappears when Harry approaches her, and when Harry backs away, he ends up falling into a black void.

** Even the image of her earlier in the film naked from the waist down is off-putting.

* RecycledTrailerMusic: The movie's most memorable piece, "Lux Aeterna", was remixed and used as trailer music for ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings: The Two Towers''. This version is usually called "Requiem for a Tower" and has seen other uses in various professional and amateur settings.

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 (the one she wore to Harry's high school graduation). Failing to keep up with her diet, Sara sees [[DrFeelgood a back-alley dealer doctor]] who prescribes a regimen of extreme diet pills, which she quickly begins to abuse.

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 (the one she wore to Harry's high school graduation). Failing to keep up with her diet, Sara sees [[DrFeelgood an apathetic doctor]] who prescribes a regimen of extreme diet pills, which she quickly begins to abuse.

* JitterCam: Used [[TropesAreNotBad quite effectively and rather disturbingly]] in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6YLT1yoNec the scene]] where Harry and Tyrone's cries of pain and pleas for help almost harmonize, with the jitters being accompanied by distortion noises and getting more intense as the screams get louder.

Harry Goldfarb (Creator/JaredLeto) is a twenty-something drug addict, who routinely steals his long-suffering mother's TV to pawn it for money. His mother, Sara (Ellen Burstyn), 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.

* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKLpJtvzlEI Lux Aeterna.]]

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: As in most films, electroconvulsive therapy is portrayed incredibly negatively (and thus, largely inaccurately). ECT is used (in conjunction with prescription sedatives) to treat a variety of psychiatric disorders, including depression, with varying degrees of success, but its portrayal as "evil" or as a form of torture is far from reality. Like most medical procedures, it is the goal of the medical professional(s) to ensure that the patient is as comfortable as possible.

** ArtisticLicenseMedicine: As in most films, electroconvulsive therapy is portrayed incredibly negatively (and thus, largely inaccurately). ECT is used (in conjunction with prescription sedatives) to treat a variety of psychiatric disorders, including depression, with varying degrees of success, but its portrayal as "evil" or as a form of torture is far from reality. Like most medical procedures, it is the goal of the medical professional(s) to ensure that the patient is as comfortable as possible.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Only affects Tyrone's outcome because he might have a chance to see his family after recovering.]]
* BlackGuyDiesFirst: {{Subverted}}. WordOfGod reveals that Tyrone is the only one of the main characters able to recover, making this a situation where the black guy is the only person who ''might'' survive. Emphasis on ''might.''

** Tyrone: [[spoiler:Is forced to serve out his sentence in prison, doing hard labor while going through heroin withdrawal and being abused by racist guards. But he does have a chance of reclaiming his life, implying that he may one day subvert this trope.]]
** Sara: [[spoiler:Is institutionalized with methamphetamine psychosis. The ECT ''is'' implied to work, as she's not wandering around in a confused, blurry nightmare anymore, but it's not enough to save her sanity, and without any incentive to even try to be part of the real world, [[HappyPlace she retreats into her own mind permanently]].]]

** The entirety of Summer, really, since it's based around how good drugs are treating each character. But as we all know, that doesn't last...

* TroubledFetalPosition: Unsurprisingly occurs at least once as things go downhill for the main characters. Happens for all of them at the end of the film.
** One of the ones mid-film, done by Marion, is a frame-for-frame recreation of a scene in ''Anime/PerfectBlue''.

One summer day, Harry and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) decide to not just be drug addicts but also drug dealers, with help from Harry's would-be fashion designer girlfriend Marion (Creator/JenniferConnelly). 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.

** One of the ones mid-film, done by Marion, is a frame-for-frame recreation of a scene in ''Film/PerfectBlue''.

* EmptyPromise: After Harry is arrested with Tyrone, he calls Marion on the phone. She asks him to come home that day. He tearfully promises her he will, even though they both understand that it won't happen. This is echoed by the nurse who tries to comfort Harry at the end, sincerely assuring him that if he gives her a contact number, she'll get in touch with Marion and 'she'll come'. Harry, by this point, has no such comforting illusions anymore.

* TroubledFetalPosition: Unsurprisingly occurs at least once as things go downhill for the main characters. Happens for all of them at the end of the film. One of the ones mid-film is a frame-for-frame recreation of a scene in ''Perfect Blue''.

** The names of the pills Sara takes are never named either. But considering the book was written in the 60s, as well as the addictiveness and strength of the pills, it's safe to assume they're methamphetamine tablets. Her symptoms are also consistent with amphetamine psychosis, a schizophrenia-like ailment caused by long-term amphetamine abuse. Unlike most forms of schizophrenia, however, [[DownerEnding amphetamine psychosis resists most forms of treatment, and is essentially permanent.]]

* DoubleMeaning: When they first start selling heroin, Harry and Tyrone stand in front of a Coney Island [[DoubleEntendre shooting gallery]]. [[FreezeFrameBonus On the wall behind Harry]], the game proclaims "balloon racing," while Tyrone stands in front of a stall advertising "shoot the stars and win!" Of course, the obvious references to heroin are clear: "shoot to win" refers to IV use, while balloons are often used to package small amounts of heroin for sale on the street.

** In the book, Selby uses the word "dream" quite often, driving the point from the title to the end.

** See MadnessMantra below.

* DaydreamSurprise: See IndulgentFantasySegue.

*** [[spoiler:The novel is more direct about stating that she's no longer capable of coherent thought, and she's permanently committed to a state hospital.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: One picture we see of Harry and Marion has Harry with his left arm up. [[spoiler:By the end, Harry has his left arm amputated.]]
** Additionally, [[spoiler:Harry's left arm is mostly obscured by the TV in the opening credits]].
* FunetikAksent: Tyrone has one in the novel.

* GrayRainOfDepression: After Marion's upsetting sexual encounter with her psychiatrist, she goes outside in the rain and pukes.

* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: [[spoiler:Marion's live sex show.]] Visually speaking, it's only ''slightly'' different from a bunch of gamblers betting on a dogfight.
** The men in this scene are credited as the "Party Animals". [[MeaningfulName Pretty accurate.]]

* MundaneMadeAwesome: The film's {{leitmotif}}, "Lux Aeterna", is played during a scene where Harry and Tyrone push a TV across Brooklyn. Yeah.

* NotUsingTheZWord: Nobody in the film ever says "heroin". The closest anyone gets to naming a drug is by using the word "skag" (a slang term for heroin) or calling Sara's pills "uppers".
** The names of the pills Sara takes are never named either. But considering the book was written in the 60s, as well as the addictiveness and strength of the pills, it's safe to assume they're methamphetamine tablets.
*** Her symptoms are also consistent with amphetamine psychosis, a schizophrenia-like ailment caused by long-term amphetamine abuse. Unlike most forms of schizophrenia, however, [[DownerEnding amphetamine psychosis resists most forms of treatment, and is essentially permanent.]]

* RecycledTrailerMusic: The movie's most memorable piece, "Lux Aeterna", was remixed and used as trailer music for ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings: The Two Towers''. This version is usually called "Requiem for a Tower".

* ThemeNaming: Harry and Sara '''Gold'''farb, Marion '''Silver''', and Tyrone '''Love'''. They turn to drugs in order to gain what they consider to be valuables: Sara wants a chance to be glamorous on TV, Marion and Harry want money to open a boutique, and Tyrone wants to honor his late mother.
** It's possibly unintentional, but Proverbs 22:1 is "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and ''loving'' favor rather than ''silver'' and ''gold''." Harry, Sara, and Marion meet their ultimate ends when they're too consumed with addiction to have any kind of faith in each other, but Tyrone still wants to honor his mother, and his memories of her are what make it possible for him to get his life back.
** Also the title of the film, as a requiem is a death song, fittingly making "Death Song for a Dream" the title of a film about dying dreams.
* {{Tragedy}}: [[SarcasmMode Although you'd never have guessed it.]]

* TroubledFetalPosition: Unsurprisingly occurs at least once as things go downhill for the main characters. Happens for all of them at the end of the film. One of the ones mid-film was a frame-for-frame recreation of a scene in ''Perfect Blue''.

* UncleTomFoolery: Subverted. Though Tyrone is a black drug addict played by Marlon Wayans who displays some wacky behavior early on, he develops into a very serious and tragic character.
* TheUnreveal: Tappy Tibbons never says the third part of his self-help program. Eagle-eyed viewers, however, can spot it on the board behind him: [[spoiler:No Orgasm]]. That in itself may be a clever bit of symbolism or foreshadowing: [[spoiler:The montage at the end has Sara's ECT treatment overlapping with the men chanting "Cum!" over Marion's live sex show; the visual "climax" leads into the ending, which shows Sara as a madwoman, utterly beyond helping herself.]]
* TheUnsmile: Marion's smile, as she holds her stash at the end.
** Sara's, too; her face vacillates between a hollow, staring un-smile and sincere joy in the end. [[spoiler:She's holding her son, who in her fantasy is successful and healthy and loving. The unsettling shift of her expression seems to imply that on some level, she knows it can't be real, but she goes with it anyway because the real world has nothing to offer her.]]

* WallOfText: In the novel. Hubert Selby, who writes in a stream-of-consciousness style without much punctuation or paragraph breaking, could be a TropeNamer for this.

* ThemeNaming: Harry and Sara '''Gold'''farb, Marion '''Silver''', and Tyrone '''Love'''. They turn to drugs in order to gain what they consider to be valuables: Sara wants a chance to be glamorous on TV, Marion and Harry want money to open a boutique, and Tyrone wants to honor his late mother.
** It's possibly unintentional, but Proverbs 22:1 is "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and ''loving'' favor rather than ''silver'' and ''gold''." Harry, Sara, and Marion meet their ultimate ends when they're too consumed with addiction to have any kind of faith in each other, but Tyrone still wants to honor his mother, and his memories of her are what make it possible for him to get his life back.
** Also the title of the film, as a requiem is a death song, fittingly making "Death Song for a Dream" the title of a film about dying dreams.

* UncleTomFoolery: Subverted. Though Tyrone is a black drug addict played by Marlon Wayans who displays some wacky behavior early on, he develops into a very serious and tragic character.

* DeadlyPrank: Sara's friends prank her by making her believe that she had been chosen to appear on a TV show, and then telling Sara that it would be a good idea to diet. Her diet-drug-addled descent into madness and eventual {{death of personality}}-[[ElectricTorture via-electroshock therapy]] results in said friends recoiling in horror and grief once they see the results on the closing scenes of the film.
** Sara receives a phone call and a form to mail back in both the film and the movie; there's nothing to indicate her friends were pranking her, or that it was even a prank to begin with. Her friends did encourage her to diet, and while that alone isn't a bad thing, one of them ''directly referred her'' to the doctor who prescribed the pills (in the book, Sara tells Harry her friend's daughter who sees the same doctor has "such a cute figure" and Harry, who knows the daughter says, "With all the speed that broad drops the weight cant stay on").

[[DescentIntoAddiction Everything goes downhill from there.]]

* {{Bookends}}: Around the start of the film, there's a rather famous sequence involving Harry on the dock, visioning Marion in a red dress at the end. At the end, once Harry has hit the bottom of his downward spiral, the same sequence is revisited, although Marion inexplicably disappears when Harry approaches her, and when Harry backs away, he ends up falling into a black void.

One summer day, Harry and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) decide to not just be drug addicts but also drug dealers, with help from Harry's would-be fashion designer girlfriend Marion (Creator/JenniferConnelly). 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.

** Harry's final scene has his nurse telling him that Marion will ''come'', and he breaks down in tears knowing it's not true.

* BodyHorror: Harry's arm. [[spoiler:The first red flag is when he notices a blackish-purple infection on his arm when he goes to get water for Marion, and it gets bigger and uglier on the trip to Miami when it really starts giving him horrendous amounts of discomfort and pain. Basically everyone that sees the arm reacts with disgust, and it leads to it getting amputated.]]

* DeadlyPrank: Sara's friends prank her by making her believe that she had been chosen to appear on a TV show, and then telling Sara that it would be a good idea to diet. Her diet-drug-addled descent into madness and eventual death of personality-via-electroshock therapy results in said friends recoiling in horror and grief once they see the results on the closing scenes of the film.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: Fall. Of course, it refers to the season as it follows Summer and precedes Winter chronologically, but it's also the beginning of each character's ''fall'' into their own downward spirals.

* EmptyPromise: After Harry is arrested with Tyrone, he calls Marion on the phone. She asks him to come home that day. He tearfully promises her he will, even though they both understand that it won't happen. This is echoed by the nurse who tries to comfort Harry at the end, sincerely assuring him that if he gives her a contact number she'll get in touch with Marion and 'she'll come'. Harry, by this point, has no such comforting illusions anymore.

** Additionally, [[spoiler:Harry's left arm is mostly obscured by the TV in the opening credits.]]

* GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply: The drug plot involves and taking their own drugs to, at first, "know how it feels like" (yes, because they want to be ''real'' honest when peddling their stuff) and this eventually led to them using all of their product and thus leading to trouble with their supplier and SanitySlippage.
* TheGhost: Angel. He's a very good friend to the trio of Harry, Marion, and Tyrone. He's their go to guy whenever they need something. He rounds up drugs and people for their impromptu party early in the film, he gives Tyrone and Harry the news of the drugs being sold in the back of the grocery store during the dope panic, he gets them the car for their ill-fated trip to Florida, Marion even has a long telephone conversation with him at one point in the film. With all that said you never SEE or HEAR him AT ALL during the film.

* HopeSpringsEternal: No, really. [[spoiler:Tyrone gets arrested and has to deal with racism, hard labor and withdrawal. But according to WordOfGod, Tyrone is the only character who has a chance of getting his life back on track.]]

** The names of the pills Sara takes are never named either. But considering the book was written in the 60s, the addictiveness and strength of the pills, it's safe to assume they're methamphetamine tablets.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Although the movie is criticized for its 'inaccurate' portrayal of mental institutions and medical procedures, the sad fact is that for the 60s and 70s American medical system -- the book being written in the 70s -- everything shown in the movie was possible; what nowadays would be called disgusting mistreatment and abuse of patient autonomy was a common occurrence in state-sanctioned mental institutions which were under-staffed and used dated methods based on rudimentary psychiatric knowledge.[[note]]And back in the 50s things were even worse.[[/note]] Remember, this was the era when a praised doctor and professor of medicine would travel the country giving mentally unresponsive patients lobotomies [[BodyHorror with only an ice pick through the orbital lobe... and no anesthetic]]!

* ScareEmStraight: Played with for most of the movie, in that everything that happens to the characters -- minus the fantasy segues -- is horrifyingly realistic and a possible ''and common'' outcome of drug use. Even the institution and medical procedures, although a terrifying exaggeration for today's medical system, would have been possible -- if worst case scenarios -- when the book was written.

* {{Tragedy}}: [[SarcasmMode Although you'd never have guessed it]].

* ViciousCycle: Marion's FateWorseThanDeath. Drugs are the only thing that give her solace, but to acquire them she has to perform deeds of such degradation that she needs drugs to forget about them.

* WatchItStoned: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. The first act of the film, Summer, is deliriously positive due to the euphoria of the characters' drug highs. At first this is what the characters believe, but eventually everything turns out to be much, much worse on drugs. As the story progresses, the euphoria disintegrates, as do the characters.