Lost Weekend

Billy Wilder's brilliant, trend-setting study of an alcoholic receives an adequate DVD release from Universal. While The Lost Weekend went on to great public and critical acclaim and ended up winning 1945's Oscar for Best Picture, it had been tough for Wilder and his crew to be allowed to get their tough, uncompromising vision onto the screen. While this Paramount DVD ignores the film's history, giving it no meaningful supplemental materials, the print used is in fine shape and the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono audio transfer sounds much better than earlier video releases of the movie. Pay no attention to listings of this DVD only showing The Lost Weekend in a pan-and-scan format. Before 1955, no theatrical motion pictures were shot in widescreen; instead, the aspect ratio conforms naturally with television screens. While it would be nice to have an accompanying documentary for a film as historically important as The Lost Weekend, this DVD remains an improvement over its earlier video releases.