Ethnography

“Like all drama and literature, movies extend the experiences of the audience vicariously, and translate problems which are common to mankind into specific and personal situations, with which identification is easy.” (Powdermaker 163)

The appeal of cinema has two main forms: sensory and imaginative. Film has the ability to engross our senses in a way that no other media does. While watching a film we find ourselves connected through the images and sound. The more visual the film, the more it affects us.

Films help us imagine ourselves in a different reality as a form of escape. Escape “from their anxieties into movies.” (Powdermaker 163) This escape is inherently neither good nor bad, but depends on the veracity of the experiences of where one escapes to.

“One can escape into a world of imagination and come from it refreshed and with new understanding One can expand limited experiences into board ones. One can escape into saccharine sentimentality or into fantasies with exaggerate existing fears. Hollywood provides ready-made fantasies or daydreams; the problem is whether these are productive or nonproductive, whether the audiences is psychologically enriched or impoverished.” (Powdermaker 163)

Now that we know films are primarily utilized as a means of escape produced through an interaction of sensory allure, imagination, and affect, which forms of escape do Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting provide?

To shed some light on this subject, I ask, how is the audience left feeling after watching these? Reading internet blogs, forums, reviews and director interviews regarding these films facilitated my understanding of how audiences react to such films.

Requiem for a Dream

As you sit in a dark movie theater, lay in bed next to your laptop, or are watching television either with friends or alone, the opening credits play and you can’t help but think “what a beautiful theme”. The story progresses and you feel Harry’s intense passion for Marion, you sympathize with Harry and Tyrone’s struggle to change their dead-end lives, and you experience Sara Goldfarb’s loneliness as it was your own. These characters and their stories are so real, it is so easy to immerse yourself into their lives that you barely notice as it happens. As the characters being to suffer, so do you. You’re apprehension increases as Sara’s dependency on amphetamines increases and start causing hallucinations. Harry and Marion’s relationship weakens, now full of mistrust and suspicion and Tyrone’s dream of making it big disappears. Towards the ending you are filled with dread, fearing the impending doom of these characters. The closing scene of flashing images depicting the abysmal end of each character shocks you and the beautiful theme song playing over the last image of each character, alone, curled into the fetal position leaves you alone with them.

While reading internet forums about Requiem for a Dream, a few reactions to the movie emerged frequently. Many viewers found it to be “the most depressing movie ever” and yet “one of the best movies I've ever seen.” [1]* One viewer describes the film’s effect as such:

“I have watched this movie more than once and it’s always painful. I remember watching it for the first time at a movie theater when it first came out (I didn't realize it was ten years ago) and I felt sick, literally sick to my stomach and I was shaking at the end.” [3]

To try and understand this audience reaction to the film, I read an interview with the director, Darren Aronofsky[4]. After being asked why people are drawn to the drug subculture, Aronofsky replies that Requiem for a Dream is not just a drug movie, but

“In a lot of ways, we looked at "Requiem for a Dream" as a monster movie. The creature was invisible; it lived in their heads. Addiction. That's the human struggle. All of us have our addictions, whether it's procrastination or workaholism or TV -- we're constantly dealing with that struggle.”[4]

Most will agree, saying they need “a vacation” after identifying with the characters, watch their dreams slip out of reach, experience their addictions take control, suffer through a horrifying finale, and in the end just feel “drained and crushed” [1].

The viewer’s reactions can be described as simultaneously shocked yet enthralled. But why are they drawn to this feeling? A woman blogging about Requiem for a Dream for its 10th anniversary has some self-revelation about her viewing experience:

“Requiem for a Dream warns us continually about the addictive power of drugs, dreams, and dieting... but who will warn us about the addictive properties of Requiem for a Dream? But I realized something during my umpteenth view that I haven't quite processed before. I rarely watch the whole movie.” [3]

She explains that like how a movie has its fade-to-white scene, she experiences one too, after Sara’s monologue describing her own reasons of loneliness and desires behind addiction. The blogger writes: “After it, I can't take anymore.”

Trainspotting

Trainspotting leads you into the life of Mark Renton, a narrative genius addicted to heroin. From the beginning, Mark’s witty and candid commentary charms you into developing a partiality towards him. Through Mark’s description of heroin as “the best orgasm you've ever had... multiply it by a thousand, and you're still nowhere near it” and striking depictions of shooting up, you are captivated by the druggie lifestyle. You journey through his highs and his lows, shooting up, leaving heroin, and subsequently returning to drugs. The “worst toilet in Scotland” scene leaves you in disbelief at the deplorable lengths someone will go through to get their fix while the image of a dead, neglected baby haunts you. Anxiety takes over as Mark overdoses on drugs followed by fear of his withdrawal hallucinations. His sweats, nausea, pain, and cravings become yours. When Mark is sober and clean, living in the vibrant London, you feel his victory and when he finally “chooses life”, you delight in his choice (even if he did betray his friends).

Reading blogs and forums about Trainspotting led to similar reactions, though not quite as intense. Though the film has “the power to shock, terrify and disgust audiences” [7], a reviewer writes:

“Trainspotting unsettles us with vulgar Pulp-Fiction like visuals and charms us at the same time with unexpected humor. Trainspotting immerses us into a dark subculture of heroin addiction as depicted in Irvine Welsh’s novel and the struggles of a group of friends united by their drug use.” [5]

Perhaps it is the black-comedy aspects of the film, or the ending in which anti-hero Mark Renton actually escapes his addiction (in contrast to Requiem for a Dream) that leaves viewers with a sense of hope, showing “Boyle's (director’s) sense of humanity.” [6]

While some found the plot captivating, others found themselves identifying with the characters. Following Mark Renton’s attempt to eradicate his addiction to heroin and put his life back together is made increasingly difficult by his “friends” whom are bonded together through their drug use. One viewer says the characters “were the most unbelievable low-life, junky, sleazy, immoral, trash I've ever seen. I loved it! They'll make you both despise and pity them while loving them at the same time.” [8]

“Trainspotting is no different: none of the film's addicts can trust any of the others, all continue their moral decline, with one ending up quite literally in the gutter. This 'rise and fall' formula has become the hallmark of the drug film.” (Byrne 173)

Perhaps it is the “emotional rollercoaster” and the “mood-swings”, or rise and fall these two films lead the audience through that the viewers find so appealing. In an interview with Trainspotting director Danny Boyle, he explained that he wants the audience to feel as if they have “been on a real journey” [9] all the way from wild humor followed by the death of a baby.

Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream are both alike in that they include gruesome images depicting shooting up, withdrawal, and the extreme extent people will go through to get their fix. We will follow the characters to these limits, we are “literally moved with desire or disgust by representations of hallucinogenic madness, the undoing of individuals into movie monsters, the “decline” of the “user” into acts of brutality and murder.” (McKahan 119)

Difference between the two is most noticeable in the end feeling the viewer is left with.

“I came to the conclusion that Requiem touches upon audiences’ emotions and sentiments while Trainspotting touches upon their reason. Trainspotting offers realistic depictions of drug use, making audiences enjoy the movie and not cry at then end as Requiem quite often does.”[8]

Whether to watch the anti-hero finally escape his addiction/friends or as four characters fail to realize their dreams and settle to escape from their own realities, audiences are drawn to these films and left with a variety of reactions.

How do they escape? Where does the audience escape to?
Read the analysis to find out.

* see Resources