Analysis

Why do audiences escape into these films? The examination of this inquiry lies in the subsequent question: Where do viewers escape to and how is this escape accomplished?

In regards to how escape is accomplished, with my research regarding cinema and audience reactions to these films, I would argue that people escape easily into movies by means the salient visual and auditory stimulation.

This escape into another reality can feel so “real” to the audience, bringing them on a rollercoaster of emotions that the effect can be very intense and unsettling, even to the point of producing physical nausea. Kracauer argues that film’s impact on the senses is achieved through the recording of physical reality and objective movement acting as physiological stimulus. For films, this affect is a pleasure of sensation, to a large extent visceral.           

Many viewers commented on the directing styles and how each film was beautifully made, through the combination of music and imagery. Often beautiful music would be playing to contrast the sometimes gruesome images. In the case of Requiem for a Dream, a beautiful theme by Kronos Quartet is playing over the course of the movie, and throughout the ending scene of flashing images of each character’s dream being torn away from them (see “More Heroin”). In Trainspotting, catchy pop music and vivid colors saturate scenes of drug induced stupor and the audience listens to ethereal music while viewing an underwater scene while the main character is in fact diving into a revolting toilet in search of his drugs.

In reference to Trainspotting, Danny Boyle (director) says he “wanted to make the film as graphically as possible; wanted it to be an extreme experience” and explains that the film is “not a learning experience, but a visceral experience” [9]*. This understanding of the visceral, unconscious experience helps explain how the stark images of these films in relation to auditory stimulus (and film making in general) can engage audiences despite the often repugnant material.

So audiences are drawn into these films, but why? If it is for reasons of escape, then what kind of escape are they looking for? Escape into another’s life? A different reality? A new fantasy?

It is simple to presume that audiences are not searching for a fantasy, or some illusion of reality in these films. True, some images and scenes are illusions in that they are the characters’ hallucinations or imaginations, but these images are, in terms of the films’ perspective, very much real. And though based on fictional books, the plots, characters, and sensations have basis in our reality. Therefore, it is safe for me to conclude that voyaging into a fantasy is not the main force compelling people to watch these films.

Then are these films used for an escape into another’s life or another reality?

Based on my research into audience reactions and my own experience when watching these films, I would argue that it is through another’s life that it is possible the escape into a different reality. Specifically, escape through a character’s life into the reality of the film. These two films are largely character based, meaning you will find yourself either identifying with the characters or sympathizing with them through their struggles.

In the case of Requiem for a Dream, the four characters are all of different ages, sexes, and races. What relates them to each other and the viewer is the common theme of dreams, aspirations, and hope. These are universal bonds of humanity, so although the viewer may not be able to identify with a heroin addiction, they can readily identify with possessing dreams. Trainspotting is different in that the one main character, Mark Renton, rejects the social norms of life that any average viewer would feel comfortable identifying with. What the viewer identifies with instead is Mark’s struggle with drugs, his struggle to “choose life”.

Films provide a means of escape through auditory and visual stimulation, and how the contrast of stark images and captivating music engrosses the audience. This combined with character identification crosses the audience from their perception into the reality of the film. This can be said for a majority of the drug film genre, as the drugs are often a metaphor for life struggles, whether with addiction, with achieving dreams, or just a struggle with life itself.

Why do people look for this escape into another reality? Probably because of their own life struggles that these films identify with. Even though the audience may feel drained or even depressed at the end, it is this connection with the film that they want to experience. They want to experience an emotional connectivity with the film but be able to “take a vacation” from that experience as well. It is like watching yourself in a two way mirror where you get the choice to leave one side for a period of time.

Of course the result of this analysis is the emergence of various additional questions. How do users respond to and use these films? Are they’re experiences similar to the typical audience reaction described here or different? What does this say about escapism in cinema in general? Does everybody experience this escape, consciously or unconsciously? These are just a few inquiries that this project opens up, but for now will be left unresolved.

*See Resources