Weeeeeee've Got a Winner!

An extr"eme case of the effects of false consciousness can be seen in the character of Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (based off the novel by Hubert Selby Jr.). Sara obsessively watches a television game show called "JUICE" ("Join Us In Creating Excellence") and dreams of someday being invited to appear on the show. The smiling game show host promises "30 Days to Revolutionize your Life! No Red Meat! No Refined Sugar!" And when Sara receives an invitation in the mail to be on a game show (the movie does NOT specify that the game show is "JUICE" and implies that it in fact is not) and becomes overwhelmingly excited. She looks back upon her son's graduation, her proudest moment, and begins to dream of appearing on JUICE" wearing the same red dress she did to the graduation. However, she discovers that she no longer fits in the red dress.

Sara's sanity then begins to rapidly decline as she puts herself on a crash diet to lose weight in order to fit the dress, and goes to a doctor to obtain weight loss pills. However, these pills begin to have a psychological and physical effect on her health as she becomes increasingly haggard and begins having hallucinations of her refrigerator coming to life. Her son is extremely alarmed when he immediately recognizes symptoms of drug addiction and begs her to stop taking the pills, but she repeatedly insists that they make her feel beautiful and losing weight for the show gives her something to live for and look forward to. She cannot comprehend how the pills can be detrimental to her because they were prescribed by a nice doctor in a white coat. Ultimately, Sara completely loses all sense of reality and ...and I don't want to spoil the ending :x

The point is, Sara demonstrates the extreme effects of falling victim to several examples of false consciousness - the idea that crash dieting and taking pills (which is health-wise terrible for you) will help you lose weight and become thin( thus beautiful and proud), the scams of game shows and informercials, and the idea that doctors know best.