Movie: Days of Wine and Roses
Here at Ruthless, we take alcohol abuse seriously and we like to write about it. I have written about the best Movie Drunks and others have penned a how-to ABC List for coping with the inevitable pitfalls of too much booze. There are many memorable and unforgettable movie scenes where the nightmares of alcohol addiction are portrayed. One of the best was the rat/bat scene in The Lost Weekend where Ray Milland was in the throes of alcoholic DTs. Almost all of Nicholas Cage’s scenes in Leaving Las Vegas were as memorable as they were pathetic, but there is one scene involving an unhinged alcoholic that tops them all.
Jack Lemmon as Joe Clay and his wife Kirsten (Lee Remick) were both raging alcoholics and were trying to stay on the wagon. While they were visiting her father’s farm and nursery and under his watchful eye for their sobriety, they decided to cheat, just for one night. Joe had smuggled in a couple of bottles and had hidden one more in the greenhouse. What could possibly go wrong?
Read the rest of this review before you watch the embedded video below; oh, and if you haven’t seen the movie, it is available at HBO and other places. Joe is looking for the hidden bottle and he can’t find it. Joe becomes desperate and a person with a BAC of probably .32 does not always make good decisions. He ended up totally wrecking the greenhouse in a scene that was ingloriously terrifying and pathetic. You just have to see the scene to believe it. It was one of the most dramatic scenes in cinema history and Jack Lemmon deserved the Oscar for his role in this great classic. film.
This is only one of several memorable scenes in this movie where Jack Lemmon totally nails the concept of hitting rock bottom.
Drink responsibly, especially around the pretty flowers.