You wanna see two POWERFULL films about alcoholism?
THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962)
(this one blew my mind - they even go into AA and recovery)
THE LOST WEEKEND (1945)
(VERY good as well - though not as good as the above film in my opinion)
I'm telling you, if you can relate to the disease, these are MUST SEE films!!! If AA showed films, these would be in the regular rotation...
-Anonymous Alcoholic
I'm curious where people can find "The Lost Weekend." I'm told it's out of print and impossible to find.
I guess you didn't check amazon.com, as there are many many dvd and vhs copies available, both new and used, very inexpensive. I have a DVD version. In the same vein, check out Days of Wine and Roses, the original Playhouse 90 version with Cliff Robertson and Piper Laurie. Available only on VHS and a bit more expensive at $20+ but definitely worth it for the quality of the acting and production.
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Another film...ah wait....
Hi, my name is Steve, and I'm an alcoholic.
Now, this other film, or actually, series, that has alcoholism as one of its central subjects, is Brideshead Revisited. Waugh's view of alcoholism is pretty much pre-AA, and so should be taken with the appropriate grains of salt.
But, he does get curiously close to it, and there is a back life which gives a richness to the portrayal of a young alcoholic, Sebastian, who goes quite to pieces in a fairly short time. It's the portrait of his character that is better than most. One reason, I think, is because it's not trying to make a point, but rather just tell a story, so the character is not engineered to make the point, so you can get closer to him, feel more of what is going on with him. I felt sort of breathless at times. And there was also the great Catholic forgiveness, and, well, fatalism, which alcoholics may fault, but at that time AA was in its American infancy, and most alcoholics just simply died of it, with not much hope.
By the way, do watch the 1982 version with Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, not the remake.
Hi Steve! Keep coming back!
Thanks for the recommendation--I love Jermey Irons, so had this on my list for a long time--now I have another reason to watch it.
>>Hi Steve! Keep coming back!
Yikes! Don't encourage me.
I've seen a few other things of Jeremy Irons, but I feel this role really defined him.
Hard to believe, but they came close to casting him as Sebastian, and Anthony Andrews as Charles.
Brideshead Revisited is one of the finest adaptations from a novel ever made. But, they were going to do it in six hours, started making it, encountered, I think, a technicians strike, and during the lull, decided to up it to twelve hours, which did extravagant justice to the book.
John Mortimer, who did the screenplay, has never done anything mediocre that I know of.
Good luck, Otter, I hope you like it.
Steve
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Ironweed with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.
The book was better, but this was very good.