"Hubert Selby Jr is the master of showing us the heart of the heartless" (or something to that effect) is what somebody once said, and it couldn't be more true. In his novel Requiem For A Dream, he shows us the scum of the earth (deadbeat herion addicts stealing for money, crazy old ladies yelling on the subway) and looks deeper into where this came from. Selby gives the background of these characters and how they are normal people in every way just trying to get by. You can look at the story in many different ways and it's always good. For example, you could look at it as a story explaining the problems with our healthcare system. You could look at it as a story showing the parralells between the legal and illegal business; the 'panic' (herion drought) as it is called in the novel, was caused by some rich guy trying to stash an extra buck, causing the ruin of pleanty of lives. As I said, whichever way you choose to look at it, it's a great story... and not even in the plot sense alone. It is written extremely well and it has that Huber Selby style that I've never felt from anybody else's work. His most popular book, Last Exit To Brooklyn, was of the same idea; subject matter and writing style. Yet, these are both great novels that are completely different from eachother.
The movie, which it seems many people have seen, is one of the very few movies that does justice to it's book. David Fincher's directing of Fight Club was an example of when a book can be taken to it's 'cinematic heigth'; this same transition quality is found in Requiem. Darren Aronofsky, of Pi fame, was inspired by the novel and eventually decided to turn it into a movie with the author's help on the screenplay. Aronofsky's cinematics were top notch, perhaps the best I can think of in any film I've seen.
The movie did not stray far from the novel at all. A lot of things were cut out of the movie that were in the book, but this can be expected. The film made the movie's main point without having to simplify too much. An example of extreme simplification would be when 'Last Exit To Brooklyn' was made into a movie. Holly shit. Each character in that movie had the actions of about 5 characters in the book. One cool thing about Last Exit To Brooklyn was that there was no point to it. It was a deep look into the ordinary lives of the lower class in the 50s; it reminded me of Catcher in the Rye in the sense that it was the character you were learning about, not the story of what happens to him. When Last Exit was made into a movie, one could say that it was 'Hollywoodized'. It was given extra things that happened to make it have a plot and make it go somewhere. I guess it would be hard to have a movie where nothing really happened and manage to keep the audience entertained.
The little differences between the book and movie for Requiem were:
Harry's idea of making money and starting a coffee house turns into Harry's idea of starting a fashion store with Marion designing the dresses.
Marion's paintings that she would hang in the coffee house are scrapped and she instead makes sketches for her fashion designs.
The Barmitzvah dress was turned into the 'Graduation dress'.
Sal the Greek is now Sal the Geep.
Gogit, the guy who has little parties at his morgue, is now named 'Angel' and the whole fact that he works at the morgue is ditched.
The book has some cool stuff in it that is bigger than those things I mentioned. It's interesting because it gives you more information about the background of some things that are hardly mentioned in the movie. For instance, it gives you the hole deal on Marion's pshyciatrist and how she knows him. Also, there is one pretty big difference in the book that is later simplified in the movie.
In the book there is a huge part about the herion panic and how rough the streets are and people fighting and dying for getting it. All of this is simplified more in the movie, but what can you expect for something under a couple of hours long.
All in all, they are both excellent works. For once, I'd actually say that the movie is actually as good as the book, but for different reasons. The soundtrack for Requiem for a Dream is one of the best scores I have ever heard, if not the best. The book... well... didn't have a soundtrack. The book also lacked cinematography, but so do most books. The book is really really good as well, but like I said, for different reasons. You get a different impression from each than you do the other. I would easily give both 5 stars and recomend them to others.
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