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
- 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.
- 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.
- Call to Action (9 min.)
- He finds money left for the cleaning lady. He retrieves a bottle
he has hidden. He can drink again.
- 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.
- Midpoint Plot Point (45-50 min.)
- Don confesses to his girl that he is a drunk. He vows to try
writing again - but fails.
- 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.
- 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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