Reviewing cult movies, one will notice that many films will involve scenes using drugs such as marijuana or hallucinogens. Drugs performed in films with scenes of actors or actresses smoking pot tend to draw in a wide spread of audience; those who find marijuana to be the “sin” and fun to watch, and those of the smoking-hippie era themselves. Many cult drug films are solely based around marijuana or LSD because these are two drugs that cause someone to feel relaxed, or help stimulate the way the brain thinks. Many drugs that are viewed in films cause the audience to feel different from mainstream, therefore they play an important role towards the reception of the film. (Mathijs and Sexton, 164) With further discussion on the film and the way it was portrayed and viewed by the initial audience, I believe that Requiem for a Dream can be considered a cult film that prominently features drug use.
On the other hand, marijuana and LSD are not the only drugs that are used in films to help enhance the way the film is perceived. Requiem for a Dream revolves it’s entire plot around the ups and downs of being a heroin addict, and leaves little room for pleasant scenes. This film is a classic drug movie that swings from ups to downs in the matter of minutes. Whether it be the simple high, or the ending desperate withdrawal addiction, this film plays with our sensitive sides of the ideas of hard drug use. (Morris, 2000) Drugs such as heroin tend to reach a level that is not normally suitable for watching movies. It is not that the audience is incapable of watching the film, but their conscious state is not suited for film watching. (Mathijs and Sexton, 169) Many would agree that this film is hard to watch due to its extreme graphics of heroi...
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...with drug use, Requiem for a Dream should be as well due to its vivid scenes and its unusual circumstance of being released as an unrated film. The scenes in this film that are portrayed as ironically enjoyable to watch is what I feel makes this film a cult classic.
Works Cited
"Requiem for a Dream." Rotten Tomatoes. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Mathijs, Ernest, and Jamie Sexton. Cult Cinema: An Introduction. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.
Pippovic. "Requiem for a Dream." Requiem for a Dream (Comparison: R-Rated - Unrated) - Movie-Censorship.com. Movie-censorship.com, 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Morris, Mark. "How Heroin Can Still Give Hollywood a Hit." The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 05 Nov. 2000. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Romit. "Edgy Cult Movies." : Requiem for a Dream Review. Edgy Cult Movies, 28 Feb. 2008. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Dope is a controversial film which addresses many issues with today’s youth living in crime-polluted, drug-infested neighborhoods in the city of Los Angeles. The movie, though a low budget film received relatively positive reviews from both Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic which have been known for destroying a film’s reputation in the public eye, causing ticket sales and movie goers to plummet all before the movie’s opening weekend, which is when movies earn the most profit. Dope is both comical and surreal bringing more of a lively and relatable experience to movie goers. Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic, although known for killing the movie buzz are websites in which movie critics and cinema
Perhaps an even stronger testament to the deepness of cinema is Darren Aronofsky’s stark, somber Requiem for a Dream. Centering on the drug-induced debasement of four individuals searching for the abstract concept known as happiness, Requiem for a Dream brims with verisimilitude and intensity. The picture’s harrowing depiction of the characters’ precipitous fall into the abyss has, in turn, fascinated and appalled, yet its frank, uncompromising approach leaves an indelible imprint in the minds of young and old alike.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
Kagan, Norman. The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. Print.
Dream. The movie warns about greed leading to a repulsive relationship with the pursuit of the
Hallucinogens are a class of drugs that share a vast history, and were used for spiritual and religious practices since the prime of early civilization. They are referenced in the Hindu holy book, Rig Veda, the healing rituals of the Aztecs of Pre-Columbian Mexico, and are often attributed to the illicit practices of those prosecuted during the Salem Witch Trials. The first synthetic hallucinogens were discovered by a Swiss chemist named Albert Hoffman in 1938, and were originally manufactured to psychiatrists to help their patients access repressed emotions. Other uses considered for early hallucinogens included ingestion by doctors to better understand schizophrenic patients, and as an antibiotic. Their recreational use peaked in the 1960s, but began to decline after they were declared illegal in 1966, except in Native American churches where hallucinogens continued to be used as a spiritual tool. Though their popularity is not as prevalent as it had been in the “hippie movement”, their use continues to be recorded within a minority of the high school and college aged population.
Reefer Madness is a movie that was made to draw the public's attention toward marijuana, the specific groups that were at risk, and the consequences that were directly related to using the drug. The purpose of this 1930's film was to create a public fear for the well being of society. Knowing that this movie was made decades ago, it is clear to see that the movie exaggerated both the amount of terrifying behavior and the number of people involved in order to emphasize its detriments.
The sixties had a huge pull from conservative America of the post-war era. Vietnam veterans were returning home with heroin addictions, the counterculture was spreading their free love, and the music festivals were introducing millions of people into the new America. The sixties was the first decade that made non-alcoholic drug use popular among young people. When it first dawned that drugs were going to be a big political debate, many representatives, like Nixon, made some the first anti-drug policies since Wilson. And though LSD was created much earlier, “acid” as it was called, became widespread in specific sects of America.
Small, Pauline. (2005) New Cinemas: journal of Contemporary Film Volume 3, Queen Mary, University of London
Beginning with the late 1960’s counterculture in San Francisco, music and drugs will forever be inter-linked. Hippie bands such as the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and Phish are associated with marijuana, mushrooms, and LSD. Modern electronic “rave” , or club music is associated with MDMA or Ecstasy. When one thinks of rock and roll, sex and drugs immediately come to mind. While the use of drugs is not essential for the creation or performance of all new music, it was certainly in important factor for the counterculture music of the late 1960’s. While some of the most important and influential music was made with the help of psychoactive drugs, it was often to the detriment of the artist. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and countless other tremendously talented artists had their lives cut short due to drug use. Drugs were most often good for the music, but deadly for the music makers.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
While hallucinogenic drugs have been used for centuries, it was not until the discovery by Western society of their mind-altering properties (Hofmann 1959; Stoll 1947; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A) that these compounds began to be more widely used for treatment of mental disorders (see Abraham, Aldridge & Gogia 1996; Strassman 1995; Neill 1987; McGlothlin & Arnold 1971; Freedman 1968; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A). Hallucinates are derived from plants or the fungus that grows on plants, the first recorded hallucination was a tossup between mental issues that were then used for a political push or the ergotamine during the Salem witch trails in 1962, far after that Albert Hofmann became the creator of LSD from ergotamine a chemical from the fungus ergot, in Switzerland 1938. From that time LSD has played a part in history, studies have shown that much has changed in the half-century since LSD was first used by psychiatrists and then found widespread recreational use in the 1960's and 70's. Modern psychiatry has embraced drugs that affect the same brain molecules that are tweaked by hallucinogens (Blakeslee,
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
In the history of mankind, the hallucinogens have probably been the most important of the narcotics. Their fantastic effects made the...
Barsam, R. M., Monahan, D., & Gocsik, K. M. (2012). Looking at movies: an introduction to film (4th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co..