ABSTRACT
The male alcoholic in the 1980s is hemmed in from all sides. He bears the weight of more than 50 years of Hollywood filmmaking about his condition. Such modern classics as A Star Is Born (1954, 1976), The Lost Weekend, Come Fill the Cup, Come Back, Little Sheba, The Country Girl, and Days of Wine and Roses have given him heroic properties. This chapter discusses nine variations on the alcoholic hero (and heroine), selecting films that do not fall within the traditional family alcoholism, social problems framework. The films are The Verdict (1982), Under the Volcano (1984), Paris, Texas (1984), Hoosiers (1986), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986), Barfly (1987), Ironweed (1987), and Clean and Sober (1988). The 1980s male alcoholic hero is at a crossroads. Several directions can now be followed. The normalization of his disease makes him an acceptable figure in a film where his alcoholism is a part of another storyline.
