The Lost Weekend (1945)

Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend tells the story of a drunk. A man is supposed to go away for the weekend with his brother, but drinks too much and doesn't go. The film mostly deals with his alcoholism during that weekend although it has a few flashbacks to the history of his alcoholism. Overall, the plot paints a very good picture of the struggles an alcoholic will go through to get his liquor. My only problem with the plot was the ending. It was set up to be fairly climactic, but fell very flat and wasn't very convincing.

The film stars Ray Milland as the alcoholic. He comes off as a rather convincing alcoholic and was given an Oscar for his performance. I'm not quite sure this performance was Oscar-worthy, but looking at the other nominees this one probably works. There are a few supporting cast members, but their roles are mostly small and they were of little interest.

When this film was released it was probably quite shocking to audiences. While alcoholism isn't a new phenomenon, it is not something that was as openly discussed at this time. Movies of this period generally depicted drunks in a much more optimistic light. Up until this point no film had ever depicted drug or alcoholism as accurately and bleakly as this film.

Overall, I found this film to be pretty good. Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors and this film is at best my fifth favorite of his behind Double Indemnity, Ace in the Hole, Witness for the Prosecution and Sunset Boulevard. Unlike those films, this film was awarded an Oscar for best picture. I'd recommend this film to anyone interested in classic cinema.

79/100
C+

UP NEXT: Possibly The Bridge on the River Kwai.

This one and The Best Years of Our Lives finally brought alcoholism out of the closet!

It wasn't all fun and games like Chaplin's The Cure...

laprimamirala wrote:

This one and The Best Years of Our Lives finally brought alcoholism out of the closet!

I forgot about that one.