Want teens to never take drugs? 4 words: Requiem for a Dream

There are very few films that can make a person want to cry, faint, and vomit at the same time. I believe one of those films is Requiem for a Dream

The Rotten Tomatoes synopsis sums the film up best for me:

For his follow-up to his darkly brilliant debut, PI, director Darren Aronofsky chose to adapt a tough and meaty piece of work: Hubert Selby's 1968 novel REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, a dark spiral into the abyss of barren fantasies doomed to extinction. However, in Aronofsky's frenetic, visionary, unique, and disturbing style lies the perfect setting for this story of four people whose intertwined lives are filled with eternally hopeful despair. This is a different sort of horror film. Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) and Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly) are lovers in Brooklyn with dreams of setting up a small business and spending the rest of their lives in love--their version of the American dream. The two are also desperate heroin addicts, a compulsion that darkens their lives and leads Harry to repeatedly pawn his mother's television. His mother, Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), is addicted to television, which is why she keeps replacing the stolen set. One day she receives a call from her favorite show, the surreal TAPPY TIBBONS SHOW, and learns that she has been selected to appear on an upcoming broadcast. When she can't fit into her best red dress, her doctor prescribes diet pills (uppers), to which she swiftly and painfully becomes addicted. Harry's cohort, an intelligent hustler named Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), completes the foursome. With its unflinching dissection of addiction, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is a psychologically disturbing, visually captivating depiction of lost hope. The last half hour of the film is among the most harrowing of any film ever made.

Drugs always destroy, never save. Pot kills. Heroin kills. Crack kills. 'Uppers' kill. As in those horrific final scenes, when you take drugs, the consequences will be severe.

Messages like that can't be sent to the modern kid/teen through badly acted commercials or talks from their parents. They have to see it for themselves, in all it's gruesome details. I say, on this issue, let them. Show teens 'Requiem' in health class instead of an drawing showing Johnny turning green. It'll scar them so much on the issue of drugs, they won't think twice about saying no to drugs.

With movies like "Half Baked" being mass produced in the entertainment industry, it is more important than ever to show kids that there is nothing remotely funny or good about drugs.

[image=http://itsb.ucsf.edu/~vcr/E13RequiemScream.gif]

Nothing.

 

Show them Trainspotting also man. I still need to watch Requiem. I have it, but haven't watched it yet...

_jOBO

 

Aronofsky is God.

 

Hmmmm. Never heard of Requiem for a Dream.

I've had a few experiences with drugs myself. I've tried crack before and got high on my first puff. That night it made me so sick i almost went to sleep in my own puke. It wasn't fun. I had to be carried into my house and i was sick for a week. I never did it again.

Also, a few times i have been drunk. The same can happen there. Now the only drugs i do is i might have a vodka or something on occasion, but i have learned not to overdo it and get wasted. And i don't get wasted easy, but i don't even want to get halfway.

 

The movie freaked me out!

 

i have a love/hate realtionship with this movie.

what i love about it is that how it portrays drugs, addiction and all.

what i hate about it is that it is disturbing. i try and watch it like once a year, i bought it on dvd, so hopefully my kids will be able to watch it.

i did a little experimentation with drugs myself. i don't do that stuff anymore, pot put me through a depression for almost a year. i just drink now.

i loved showing my mom this movie, it was a blast

 

The kids wouldn't take Trainspotting very seriously, and most of them would miss the anti-drug message. Requiem is as serious as it gets, and there is no missing its anti-drug message. The movie brought out some pretty powerful emotions in me.

Not to turn this into an argument about pot, but as far as i can remember the movie didn't show pot to be very harmful (if it showed pot at all, i can't remember). And to the person that said pot made them depressed. I fail to see how pot can make a person depressed. Maybe you took it WHILE you were depressed, and the pot didn't help the situation, seeing as it makes you mellow and lazy.

 

Great film, great soundtrack, but too damn depressing. To be honest, I thought the whole thing was pointless.

 

Pot kills? Since when?

 

i loved the visuals, the direction, the music, the actors (especially ellen burstyn), jennifer connely is especially hot in this movie, and the first 45 or so minutes. i think, however, the shock aspect, which is the soul of the film, is too much, though. drugs are bad, yeah, but not everyone who takes them are going to wind up prostituting oneself, or losing an arm. the first 45 minutes is great, though. i normally just watch that (until the beginning of fall or winter, i forget).

trainspotting is great, though. it wasn't so extreme in its stance, and it really showed both sides to the story.

 

The reason this film may be seen as disturbing is because it shows the truth. It doesn't sugar coat the issue or only somewhat address it. Instead of saying "Drugs will mess up your head" and not explaining it at all, it shows drugs destroying the lives of 3 people both physically and mentally.

 

the mom was the saddest part i think

but its also kinda funny to see her all cracked out on the subway, blabbing about her being on tv and all

and if you guys did not already know, the prison gaurd telling crap to marlon wayane's character is the author Hubert Selby

 

Loved this movie...I actually had to stop watching halfway through and take a break. It was bumming me out!



i did a little experimentation with drugs myself. i don't do that stuff anymore, pot put me through a depression for almost a year. i just drink now.

I was taking your post seriously until I got to the i just drink now part. Then I realized that you probably haven't "experimented" with anything. If you think drinking makes you feel better, maybe you shouldn't.

Gives us RESPONSIBLE marijuana users a bad name.

 

I haven't seen Requium, but I agree that Trainspotting is the best anti-drug movie I've ever seen. I got so mad when interviewers and reviewers would say that it was 'hip' or a 'rock star' kind of view on drugs. That's exactly what it was not. That's what the characters start out thinking it is, but if you actually paid attention to the movie you definitely know that it portrayed a life as a druggie as a truly horrible, wretched, disgusting thing. I never understood why anyone missed that, but then again I've never been in the mind of an idiot.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

I was taking your post seriously until I got to the i just drink now part. Then I realized that you probably haven't "experimented" with anything. If you think drinking makes you feel better, maybe you shouldn't.

Gives us RESPONSIBLE marijuana users a bad name.

hmm, okay, since you asked, i started with the weed first then moved on to drinking then i tried some black/tar, a litte of coke, shrooms and lsd,

i am not sure how you will accept that since you already think i lying or just trying to get some attention, but really, i tried just about everything that was there, except for crit/tweak (the yellow stuff) and uppers and downers, and this was all during high school, i am 21 now, no need for drugs anymore, i can buy beer now.

the guy i used to smoke out with turned out to be a druggie, he's in jail now for breaking into a house and tryng to steal a tv, what a dumbass

the thing that got me out of the depression was, belive it or not, ectasy, i have been fine ever since

if want to ask more, then go ahead and pm me or something,

 

eclipseSD - what you say about this film is totally, utterly true. I watched it alone (I thought Pi was original) but found the last half hour totally nauseating. Never felt that way about a film and though I rave about this film to every open-minded person I know, never, never want to see it again. The whole last hour is what I see, day in, day out in what I do (though they left out the AIDS business and the hep C and the pimps hovering over the likes of Jennifer Connelly's character as she goes into septic shock....)

C_B

 

i am 21 now, no need for drugs anymore, i can buy beer now.

Ohhhhhh.....I forgot.....alcohol ISN'T a drug! How absent minded of me. I guess I should give up MJ and start smoking cigarettes.

So, you've tried everything in the book...good for you. I've tried a few things in my day, too. Beer, whiskey, pot, LSD, cocaine, and cigarettes. Never used heroin in any form.

Wonder why it is I use none of them, now....save for marijuana?

 

Ohhhhhh.....I forgot.....alcohol ISN'T a drug!

you know what i mean, quit being an ass about it

Gives us RESPONSIBLE marijuana users a bad name.

i forgot to ask you about that, what is so responsible about using marijuana? you know its illegal, depending where you are from i am not sure

oh wait, your profile says USA, i thought that was illegal here?

my brother uses weed as well and he is the same age as you, now i know what you mean about "responsible users" because my brother is the same and he has kids, one of them already knows that he hits the bong but does not know whats in there, but still, you are going to get in trouble one of these days, unless you are working in kahoots with the police or have a friend in the system.

Wonder why it is I use none of them, now....save for marijuana?

i do too wonder

 

Make kids read Go Ask Alice too. I am 13 and read it last year, will NEVER take drugs.

Never seen "Reqrieum"(sp?) but I want to read the book.

 

We watched the Movie in Grade 11 Media english, as part of a film study. That movie scared me in ways that I can't even begin to explain, after seeing that, I didn't want to go near anything worse than an asipirin.

 

Great film. Aronofsky uses interesting visuals.

 

It is a bit disturbing after you watch it and I have to agree with the earlier comment about the visuals.

 

I cried for about 3 hours after I watched this movie and I really couldn't concentrate on anything for a while. The images from the movie kept coming back into my head.

 

Only film to actually make me tear up for the characters. *is never going to take drugs*

Groovy

 

"Now I know it's pretty baby,but I didn't take it out for air."