What struck me was not just Sara's dependence on Harry, but Harry's dependence on Sara. At the beginning of the pivotal scene, which Aronofsky describes as his favorite, Harry returns to Sara and they're both happy to see each other because everything is going so well for both of them. Compare this to the very first scene with the split screen showing them between Sara's front door. She won't open it for him. She knows he's come to steal her TV set.
When Harry arrives in the cab, however, Sara is thrilled, excited, prideful, and can't wait to roll out the red carpet. This time around, Harry brings her a TV. As she enabled his addiction by allowing him to pawn her TV, so Harry enables her addiction to the TV by giving her a bigger and more fabulous TV than before. They've setup each other for a downfall. She first, he later. The first part of their conversation is awkward but far more amicable than we've ever seen them, yet when Harry discovers his mother is on speed, the camera switches from the daylight-lit sides of their faces to the shadow-lit, signifying a pall which has once again fallen between them. It's from this point that they both begin their rapid descent downhill. As Harry depended upon his mother, so Sara depended on Harry. Harry becomes more withdrawn, begins to get high on his own supply, and convinces Marion to become a prostitute. Sara obviously withdraws from her friends, becomes more paranoid and prone to fantastic delusions. We get the impression that they both could hold it together so long as they had each other, but first Harry loses Sara, then Marion, then Tyrone and when he reconnects to each of them for a brief time, all meaning is lost as they are so caught-up in their addictions.
What struck me, is that all the events become almost tolerable due to the extremely subjective camerawork. We spend a great deal of time in the heads of the characters and while we understand on some level how awful things are, they only truly hit home twice in the entire film. Your heart just breaks when Sara visits the television studio, and then again at the end when Ada and Rae go to the hospital to visit Sara. These are the only two compassionate moments at any time in the film, making these ordinary decent people appear to have the quality of angels. A hug, a cup of coffee, a hand stretched out to touch Sara's arm, are all images so contrary to the brutality of the rest of the film that they illustrate just how wretched all of these characters have become.
Aronofsky says that if any of the characters make it out, he believes it would be Tyrone. The book itself ends with the second dream sequence where Harry falls into a dumpster in an ally and when Aronofsky asked the author if Harry lives, the author told him, "Of course." To Aronofsky, the fetal positions signified rebirth for each of the characters: Sara reborn by slipping into her world of delusion, Marion reborn as a prostitute, getting the heroin she wanted, Tyrone reborn by retreating into the memories of his mother, and Harry reborn by the loss of his arm (literally cutting off the source of his addiction). We're left with each of them maimed psychologically and physically by their experiences. While Aronofsky states that it appears the two females have the worst of it, he reminds us that each of the men are still prisoners possibly facing many years in prison.
For some reason, watching it the third time, with Aronofsky's director's commentary. I suspect that was because the commentary helped me see the movie from a more technical perspective.
It's still really tough to get through and I was more amazed by Burstyn's performance this time around, but I'm not sure I want to do it again for a long time.
