Requiem for a Dream, a Wonderful Disaster.

Continuing our “body unit”, this week in class we discussed vegetarianism, golden balls, and drugs. I felt apathetic about most of the topics, not taking one side or the other. However the topic of drugs did strike a chord with me. When people said that we “only do drugs because its ‘rebellious’ since it isn’t legal”, I feel extremely insulted. Why would you discredit Americans by saying they only do things because it’s illegal. With someone of a rational mindset, they would most likely think of the repercussions to smoking weed or injecting heroin, wouldn’t they? Then there is the other side that says if we make it legal, then less people would perform these actions, therefore being less addiction present in the nation. Excuse me but, WHAT? The legal drinking age is 21. Does that mean that whenever someone hits that age that less people will drink? No. More people will drink because the intelligent people will now be legally allowed to do so. Murder is illegal. Should we make murder legal?
On Friday, we watched the beginning of Requiem for a Dream following the reading of the first chapter by Selby. It seemed interesting and Mr. Glenn seemed to be impressed by it, so this Friday I went out to target to buy it (along with call of duty, because I wanted to know what all the hype was about). Usually intense movies are told from a distant point of view. You can sit and watch the movie, know they’re actors, and not buy into it much. And I must admit that I initially bought the movie because Jared Leto is extremely attractive. But Requiem was PHENOMENAL. The way it was filmed made it shockingly real. There was no fluff or beating around the bush, just straightforward cut-to-the-next-scene filming. Jared Leto, present-day 30 Seconds to Mars lead, played Harold (or Harry). He was a huge druggie trying to make it big in the city, but he was a slave to addiction. He would access “good stuff” to sell, try it out, and end up using more of it than selling it. He had a girlfriend, Marion, and a friend, Tyrone (I believe) and they was hooked on it too. They would go through hell and back just to get their hands on drugs. For a while, they were finally making a good amount of money. But their luck quickly turned around. It was as if you were watching a train wreck. You saw it coming, but you could do nothing to stop it. In the mean time Harry’s mother was trying to lose weight to fit into a red dress. The doctor gave her ‘diet’ pills and she becomes hooked. Most likely resembling Cocaine, the tablets made the mom (Sarah Goldfarm) have sustained times of high energy and elevated moods. But quickly her tolerance grew so she took more and more. (Don’t read the rest of this if you want to see the movie yourself). In the end of the movie, Harry and Tyrone got caught and thrown into jail. Harry’s girlfriend is left at her apartment waiting for Harry to return, which we don’t know if he ever does. While she waits she sells herself for money to get high. The mother is admitted into a hospital, where treatments have no effect on her so she begins shock therapy. This also doesn’t help. She later gets sent to a mental institution. Harry has an infection from shooting up too much, so his arm gets amputated. The movie ended suddenly and left me with wonder. I didn’t know what to say after, because it was so engrossing and abrupt.
Why would someone ruin their lives and others just to get a temporary high? Is it really worth the risks?