A CINEMATIC MIRROR OF AMERICAN SOCIETY ALCOHOLISM

many have sought for drinking as a means of ‘escaping’ their problems which may have resulted from broken relationships and home violence. Several movies and films have been released over the century and they reflect on the alcoholism among the males. Most affected are the young, black males who find it hard in every day of their life getting employment considering the racism in the society. some of the movies that reflect on alcoholism are, Flight (2012) by Denzel Washington, Leaving Las Vegas (1995) by John O’Brien and Days of Wine and Roses (1962) by Jack Lemmon (). Days of Wine and Roses (1962) Starting with the oldest, Days of Wine and Roses illustrates the devastating effects of alcoholism in couples and family life. Joe gets admitted to a rehabilitation center where he gets help through the Alcoholic Anonymous program.

The rehabilitation process does not get easier as Joe ends up stealing a bottle of beer from a store after finding his missing wife drunk in an attempt to help her. In the long run, Joe finally sobers up. He gets a steady job and becomes more responsive to his fatherly role towards Debbie (Days of wine and roses, 1962). Towards the end, Kirsten tries to reconcile with Joe but he refuses to claim that they can only reconcile if she stops drinking. Ben continues drinking and Sera continues will commercial sex work. On one occasion, Ben goes to the bar gets drunk and picks up another prostitute and they make love on sera’s bed. Sera finds out and she throws Ben out.

Sera then gets a sex deal with some teenagers but when she realizes they want to have anal sex, she refuses but instead they gang-rape her (Leaving Las Vegas, 1995). On returning home, Sera gets vacated from her rented apartment by the landlady. The climax of the movie is reached when an investigation of the plane’s crash is carried out. They find out that Whip was intoxicated though he claims that his alcoholism had nothing to do with the crash. Though he managed to land the plane safely, Whip losses two crew and four passengers. The next thing we see is Whip waking up in a hospital bed with injuries after flying an inverted South Jet flight 227 to its emergency landing.

Nicole, a former Heroin addict, decides to leave Whip due to his inability to stay sober. All in all, alcoholism has its effects in the society. Attempted suicide among the alcoholics is one of the effects. Family breakups is another effect of alcoholism (Swaim C, np). Just like in the Days of Wine and Roses, parents end up neglecting their duties towards their children and spend most of the family funds buying drinks. In Flight, Whip struggles to get his son’s custody and to build a good father-son relationship. Nicole gets addicted to heroin the same time as Whip. He in no way influences her addiction. In Flight and Days of Wine and Roses, there are broken parent-child relationships. Kirsten and Joe get to neglect their parental duties as they spend most of their time and money on drinking than with their daughter Debbie.