The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: The Lost Weekend

written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder


The Lost Weekend is a classic movie about the spiralling decline of an alcoholic. From a structural point of view, it is an example of the protagonist on a negative journey; indeed, the weakness of the story is in its sudden positive resolution.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (1-2 min.)
    • Don and his brother are packing to leave for the weekend, a special trip after something Don "has gone through". Maybe he can write again.
  2. Complication (4-6 min.)
    • But they delay the trip and Don convinces his brother to go to a concert with his girlfriend, leaving him alone.
  3. Call to Action (9 min.)
    • He finds money left for the cleaning lady. He retrieves a bottle he has hidden. He can drink again.
  4. Act One Plot Point (17-9 min.)
    • Disgusted, the brother leaves Don to his own devices after learning he is drinking again. The girlfriend still wants to help him. Don is on a binge.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (45-50 min.)
    • Don confesses to his girl that he is a drunk. He vows to try writing again - but fails.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (70-5, 82-5 min.)
    • His spiral down accelerates. He is arrested and put in a drunk tank. When he escapes, he goes home to experience hallucinations of a bat eating a mouse. He is in absolute terror. He decides to kill himself.
  7. Climax and Resolution (95-9 min.)
    • But his girl intervenes and convinces him that other people have quit drinking. When his typewriter is returned, he takes it as a sign to get his life together and write again. He drops a cigarette into a drink he poured, refusing it, and gets to work.

Notes

The Lost Weekend only fails in the sudden ease of its happy ending. Prior to that, it is a good example of the steady decline of a protagonist whose own addiction is his own worst enemy.


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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