Sacrificial Drinking: Alcoholism in The Lost Weekend The Lost Weekend (Wilder, 1945) is a film that follows the story of alcoholic writer Don Birnam’s (played by Ray Milland) destructive weekend. The film follows the popular film-noir style of its time to bring to light all the darkness associated with alcoholism. This disease leads its victims to make sacrifices that are catastrophic to the individual and those around them. Being an alcoholic, Don suffers those same destructive tendencies. Throughout the film Don’s addiction leads him to sacrifice himself as well as others in an attempt to satisfy his unquenchable thirst for alcohol. The style of this film helps present the subject with the purpose of evoking discomfort or even fear at the
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This is more than some psychological battle: Don has become both mentally and physically dependent on alcohol which also affects him socially. The sacrifices he makes are for the purpose of satisfying that addiction, which, however, can never be fully satisfied. As Howard Becker mentions in his study on alcoholism, “many neurobiological and environmental factors influence the motivation to drink” (348). The neurobiological aspect is that of a physical dependency. Don suffers from withdrawal symptoms, which is evident in the scene where he is frantically searching for his hidden whiskey, desperate to get his fix. An example of an environmental factor would be Don’s failing career. He finds himself unable to write so he turns to drinking to create a sense of “euphoria and reduction of anxiety” (348). The irony of it all is that drinking to relieve anxiety only leads to him getting into more trouble while being drunk. So in response to the newly generated anxiety he drinks more alcohol, creating a never ending cycle. This cycle is hard to break, and the first time Don tries to put the bottle down he is unsuccessful. The problem with quitting is that there are “numerous changes in brain chemistry that … promote vulnerability to relapse in dependent people” (Bhave, Clapp, and Hoffman 310). So it is this vulnerability that eventually brings Don back to drinking after he gives it up when first meeting his girlfriend, Helen St. James (played by Jane Wyman). By the end, the film suggests that Don finally overcomes his alcoholism, but this gives no reprimand to the self-sacrifices he made along the
This is more than some psychological battle: Don has become both mentally and physically dependent on alcohol which also affects him socially. The sacrifices he makes are for the purpose of satisfying that addiction, which, however, can never be fully satisfied. As Howard Becker mentions in his study on alcoholism, “many neurobiological and environmental factors influence the motivation to drink” (348). The neurobiological aspect is that of a physical dependency. Don suffers from withdrawal symptoms, which is evident in the scene where he is frantically searching for his hidden whiskey, desperate to get his fix. An example of an environmental factor would be Don’s failing career. He finds himself unable to write so he turns to drinking to create a sense of “euphoria and reduction of anxiety” (348). The irony of it all is that drinking to relieve anxiety only leads to him getting into more trouble while being drunk. So in response to the newly generated anxiety he drinks more alcohol, creating a never ending cycle. This cycle is hard to break, and the first time Don tries to put the bottle down he is unsuccessful. The problem with quitting is that there are “numerous changes in brain chemistry that … promote vulnerability to relapse in dependent people” (Bhave, Clapp, and Hoffman 310). So it is this vulnerability that eventually brings Don back to drinking after he gives it up when first meeting his girlfriend, Helen St. James (played by Jane Wyman). By the end, the film suggests that Don finally overcomes his alcoholism, but this gives no reprimand to the self-sacrifices he made along the