This blog post explores human vulnerability, focusing on the underlying deprivation and the temptation of shortcuts behind the characters’ choices in Requiem for a Dream—why they succumbed to addiction instead of pursuing their dreams.
One of the most pressing global issues today is ‘drugs’. Even South Korea, once known as a drug-free nation, continues to see constant news reports on celebrity drug scandals and youth drug incidents. Unlike other films that treat drugs as a social or criminal problem, ‘Requiem for a Dream’ focuses on the individual stories of people addicted to drugs.
This makes it feel all the more realistic; the severity of addiction and the devastating consequences drugs bring don’t feel like someone else’s story. The protagonists weren’t people who gave up on life and started drugs because they had no plans; they were all people with ‘dreams’. We will explore, centered on dreams and addiction, how people who once dreamed came to be unable to dream ever again. Harry, Sara, Marion, and Tyrone each have their own dreams.
Harry’s dream is to make money, and Sarah’s is to appear on her favorite TV show. Marion dreams of opening her own clothing store, and Tyrone’s dream, though not explicitly stated, can be seen as family love. They each use drug dealing and diet pills as tools to achieve their dreams. However, they become addicted to the very ‘drugs’ they used as tools, and in the end, their dreams vanish, leaving only addiction behind. For those addicted to drugs, the only outcomes left were prison, mental hospitals, or prostitution.
Why did they turn to drugs? All the protagonists have dreams but lack the drive to act. Sarah, who tried dieting, couldn’t control her appetite and turned to pills. Harry, Marion, and Tyrone used drugs because they wanted to make money quickly. In other words, they all tried to find a shortcut and ended up losing their way. What’s noteworthy here is that they didn’t simply choose shortcuts; social pressure and external expectations also influenced their choices. In modern society, we are constantly pressured to succeed and achieve, and this pressure drives people to make dangerous choices for quick success. In Harry and Marion’s case, their dreams stemmed not merely from personal goals but were shaped by their environment and social norms, making their tragedy even deeper. This ultimately led to the destruction of their lives, trapping them in the shackles of addiction.
I wondered if they chose drugs as their tool because the reason people become addicted to drugs resembles the human psychology of seeking shortcuts. Drugs deliver immense pleasure without significant effort. Isn’t this akin to seeking shortcuts or loopholes to accomplish tasks without hard work? Addiction can be viewed in the same context. Those who have tasted the easy path find effort and labor increasingly arduous. Thus, they seek alternatives to the conventional path. Furthermore, as one does less and less of the hard work, standards naturally lower, and willpower weakens. It felt similar to developing a tolerance to drugs and seeking stronger ones.
Thinking about drugs and human behavior this way made me realize that addiction can manifest in any situation for humans. Beyond the common addictions like drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, we also become addicted to relationships and dreams. We can become addicted to unhealthy relationships and even to our own blind pursuits or dreams. So, how can we define addiction? Considering the commonality across all these situations, I defined addiction as blindly becoming immersed in something to the point of losing everything else. In the film, to address the problem of addiction itself, perhaps it used drugs—the most extreme form of addiction—as a warning?
Then the next thought that came to mind was, ‘Why do people become addicted?’ Looking at simple addiction, we might say we become addicted because of pleasure and fun. But this film made me think we might also become addicted because of a lack. For Harry, making money seems like a dream, but it’s actually a lack. His real dream is to live happily with his mother Sarah and his girlfriend Marion. But since he lacks the money to achieve this dream, his pursuit of money gradually began to look like a dream itself. Sarah’s dream of appearing on a TV show also stems from a lack of love. Her lines in the film reveal she struggles with emptiness and feelings of being unloved after her husband’s death and her son’s departure. Not knowing how to resolve this lack, she becomes increasingly obsessed with appearing on the TV show, leading to her addiction to dieting. Marion is similar. Born into a wealthy family, she feels unloved and unacknowledged for who she truly is. Tyrone constantly yearns for his mother’s embrace from his childhood. For him, the void is likely family. Each carries their own void, but either not knowing how to properly fill it or seeking shortcuts led them to addiction.
The film’s title is also noteworthy. ‘Requiem for a Dream’ means a mass for the dead. Examining the original title immediately reveals for whom the film sings its funeral dirge. ‘Requiem for a Dream’ – a funeral dirge for dreams. While it depicts the protagonists whose dreams vanished due to drugs, looking deeper, could it also be seen as a funeral dirge for other things lost to addiction? This funeral dirge is not merely for individual dreams, but also for the values lost by society as a whole. In a society rife with addiction, it’s not just personal dreams that vanish; crucial values like humanity, morality, and community solidarity also fade away. The film critiques this social problem, prompting reflection on how individual addiction intertwines with societal structures. The protagonists lose not only their dreams to addiction but also their health, relationships, and love. This is a quintessential downside of addiction. Becoming consumed by one thing inevitably leads to losing other values. One becomes blind to their surroundings, and before they know it, everything is gone. I wonder if the title was chosen to signify a requiem for all these lost things.
‘Requiem for a Dream’ provides viewers with an experiential sensation akin to taking drugs through its dazzling editing and cuts. I believe the reason is to make everyone feel more directly that they could find themselves in the protagonists’ situation. We all carry our own deficiencies. We also seek to resolve those deficiencies in our own ways, holding goals and dreams. But what we must always guard against is whether our methods are truly sound, whether we properly recognize our own deficiencies, whether we’re simply choosing the easy path, or whether we’re becoming too fixated on the goal itself. I think this film makes us reflect once more: are we becoming addicted without realizing it, losing other precious things in the process?
