ABSTRACT
Hollywood's treatment of the moral career of the alcoholic hero moves through three filmic phases (prohibition, pre-classic, and classic), corresponding to the above explanatory formulations and historical moments. In each film period the alcoholic hero's moral career is typically presented as falling into three phases that correspond to the classic morality tale in Western Civilization: seduction, the fall from grace, and then redemption. In a moment of insight and bravery the alcoholic hero confronts the truth about himself. This turning point experience and the struggles that surround and follow it mark his heroism. Like the classic "western" hero, this alcoholic hero is often a loner, as well as a person who is reverenced and idealized by others. While fashioning its modern version of the alcoholic hero, "where antagonist and protagonist are in the same man, and the conflict is internal".
