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| Lost Weekend | 
 enlarge | Director: Billy Wilder
Actors: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: Video
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $0.97
You Save: $9.01 (90%)
New (19) Used (26) Collectible (10) from $0.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 14503
Format: Black & White, Hifi Sound, Original Recording Reissued, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Running Time: 101 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 1558806512
UPC: 096898035439
EAN: 9786301005746
ASIN: 6301005740
Theatrical Release Date: 1945
Release Date: March 1, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential video
"I'm not a drinker--I'm a drunk." These words, and the serious message behind them, were still potent enough in 1945 to shock audiences flocking to The Lost Weekend. The speaker is Don Birnam (Ray Milland), a handsome, talented, articulate alcoholic. The writing team of producer Charles Brackett and director Billy Wilder pull no punches in their depiction of Birnam's massive weekend bender, a tailspin that finds him reeling from his favorite watering hole to Bellevue Hospital. Location shooting in New York helps the street-level atmosphere, especially a sequence in which Birnam, a budding writer, tries to hock his typewriter for booze money. He desperately staggers past shuttered storefronts--it's Yom Kippur, and the pawnshops are closed. Milland, previously known as a lightweight leading man (he'd starred in Wilder's hilarious The Major and the Minor three years earlier), burrows convincingly under the skin of the character, whether waxing poetic about the escape of drinking or screaming his lungs out in the D.T.'s sequence. Wilder, having just made the ultra-noir Double Indemnity, brought a new kind of frankness and darkness to Hollywood's treatment of a social problem. At first the film may have seemed too bold; Paramount Pictures nearly killed the release of the picture after it tested poorly with preview audiences. But once in release, The Lost Weekend became a substantial hit, and won four Oscars: for picture, director, screenplay, and actor. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 "ODAP Highly Recommends This Movie" December 15, 2008
Yes, ODAP recommends this. Who is ODAP? ODAP is the name of that little monkey on my back. Odap IS--Our Devilish Alcoholic Personalities. There are many kinds of alcoholics and in this movie Ray Milland plays the binge drinker, on a bender. He does this with great skill. As an alcoholic myself, and one who has seen alcoholic friends in this exact mental thunderstorm, it is difficult to see how anyone could "act this" unless his blood/alcohol content was almost at a lethal level. A great job on the acting and a great job on the message. Alcoholism is a fatal disease unless arrested. We feel for this man and his predicament. We feel for the people he injures emotionally and otherwise. And we are GLAD. Glad that people who have never witnessed the complete horrors of alcoholism can get an education, to understand the physiology of the DTs, and to hope they have a plan of action if ever stricken with alcoholism or if residing withing the concentric circles surrounding an alcoholic. "Lost Weekend" gives a window through which to glimpse the hell.
The Lost Weekend December 2, 2008
The is an amazing movie in that it takes a subject that is problematic for our nation, and somehow synthesizes its complexities it into a powerful, moving film that shows how the belief of one person can be the catalyst of hope for one whose life is drowning in substance abuse.
still the classic May 8, 2008
Why was this movie not made mandatory viewing in every school in the 50s Well, we all know the reason. But it would have saved a lot of lives. Still the most vivid and moving protrait of alcoholism around. Not for the squeamish, but its a lot better to watch this than to watch someone bleed out from cirrhosis..Should be shown with every beer commercial on TV....show the bikini clad maidens after 10 years of alcoholic drinking..
Moderation, Mista Boynum....Moderation. April 22, 2008
This film is a wonderful work of art alongside the likes of Casablanca. It is amazingly ahead of its time and in your face. The "DTs" are presented in a raw and frighteningly real showcase. Every character is interesting and memorable and the warm fuzzy black and white of New York City places you right in the middle of our hero's struggle.
 Very Good Movie! Too Bad About the DVD! April 8, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is one powerful movie that must have shocked the audience of those days and yet the message is so relevant and true to this day. We get a glimpse of what the life of an alcoholic can be like and for me it was almost like watching a truly scary horror film. It has been said that Billy Wilder did this film because he got inspiration from his co-writer in his previous masterpiece "Double Indemnity", Raymond Chandler, who also had a problem with the bottle. It wouldn't surprise me if he had Chandler totally in mind for the part of Birnam too as the two had a tough time working with each other on the screenplay for that movie.
However, unlike some others I thought the ending was very good because if you think about it, the movie ends as it began with Birnam promising that he had changed after another one of his binges. In fact, I'm unconvinced that there actually was a happy ending here as it is ambiguous enough to suggest that things haven't really changed but that things could simply be repeating themselves over and over again. In the middle of the film we get Birnam telling the bartender in a flashback how he met up with his long-suffering girlfriend and how he was able because of her to stop drinking for weeks until the pressure of meeting up with the potential in-laws got him so scared that he returned to the bottle. All I saw at the ending was something similar where Birnam once again makes a promise but there was nothing to suggest that he would keep it the next time another stressful incident in his life arises.
I thought the ending was ominous and so true of anyone struggling with addiction in that one never really knows if one has really licked it but one has to keep on getting up every time without giving up and keep on trying to the end. Sounds a lot like life in general and yet so true of addicts. For this reason, I felt that this was a great movie with a great script, great acting, great directing and hence overall an excellent work of art with a very good message about life.
The problem I have is with the picture and sound quality of this dvd which hasn't been restored at all resulting in many imperfections at many parts of the film and although the sound quality is alright as far as Dolby Digital Mono quality goes, it would have been much better had a restored version with 5.1 or THX options be included. As it is, this great film is not deserving of such a poor dvd transfer and here's hoping they get together to properly restore both the sound and especially the picture quality of this classic film.
As it stands though I cannot recommend this dvd version of this film and I suggest you wait for a much better restored version with decent special or bonus features to be released.
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