Withnail and I
by Bruce Robinson
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DVD details
Director: Bruce RobinsonPrimary Contributor: Richard E. Grant
Primary Contributor: Paul McGann
Primary Contributor: Richard Griffiths
Primary Contributor: Ralph Brown
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Color, Full Screen, Import
Running Time: 104 unknown-units
Published: 1986
Audience Rating: Unrated
DVD Reviews of Withnail and I
DVD Review: Actually about eight stars********
Summary: 5 Stars
This is Robinson's masterpiece, the 'semi-autobiographical' (or at least based-on-aspects-of-his-life) tour-de-force which passed the critics by but which garnered itself a well-deserved cult following.
It follows the paths of two struggling out-of-work actors at the end of the sixties - penniless, bitter and nurturing a nasty fear that a great decade has just passed them by. It's like a wonderful stage play but without the confines of the stage. The adventures move off into the countryside and back to London. There are no special effects to distract you, just the tools needed to take the plot along to it's inevitable conclusion.
Withnail and Marwood (whose name is never actually used in the film) curse and whine their way through life, blaming everybody and everything for their failure. "No fridge, no TV, nothing that ordinary people take for granted..! I'm a trained actor.. ..reduced to the status of a bum!"
I believe that this movie 'hits the nail on the head" (oh, sorry) with at least four classes of audience:
1) those in the theature business. The theatircal references are a scream, even to the rehearsal-type line repetition when Witnail is under threat. The great sweeping statements. "I don't want to understudy that greasy pimp, I want to PLAY the part. Anyway, I hate all those Russian plays - full of women staring out of the window and watching ducks flying to moscow."
2) those who have ever likewise looked into the mirror and come face-to-face with failure, and decided that the only thing to do is to go down kicking and screaming. Everybody is to blame for Withnail's lack of success - except himself of course.
3) those firmly in the closet with the door bolted from the inside. (This is possibly the greatest "staying in" movie, but I would have to leave that to your own charactor asessment).
4) The boozers - those attempting to put a force-shield of alcohol between them and life's unpleasant truths. Every time our two heros enter a pub they become very businesslike in their attepts to blot out reality "OK, two pints of bitter, two pints of larger - ice in the larger - and two double vodkas..."
The characterization is fantastic, Withnail and Marwood are wonderfully convincing (although larger-than-life), and they have a life that seems to extend beyond the ending credits - I can (and have) daydreamed about them a year later, a decade later, perhaps meeting by chance at some backstage party thrown by mutual friends, Withnail coming up to Marwood and saying bitterly "Congatulations,you were wonderful.." and then dissapearing out of the stage door to try to scrape together some hopeless project for next year's fringe with a talentless little starlet he's met an audition.
Not only that, but it seems as though every line in the film is quoteable. Marwood especially is likely to deliver something in a way that makes it sound like it might have come from Shakespeare or Bernard Shaw "A coward you ARE, Withnail! An expert on bulls you are NOT!"
Grant and McGann are excellent in their roles, my only complaint being that they are so realistic in their renditions that you have to strain to catch some of their hilarious mutterings throughout the movie.
There is quite a bit of London vernacular (slang to you, mate) which might pass some audiences by. I have heard a US version of the movie, and they appear to have deleted one scene which refrences the conflict in Northern Ireland in an insensitive way but to have left all the dialogue relatively unchanged. There is also a deal of foul language, but as it fits so well with the characters it feels entirely justified, even required.
Much recommended if you happen to like well played theatre which don't fit the standard film genres, or if you fit into one of the above catagories. Most people will either love it or hate it within the first few frames.
More Withnail and I reviews:
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Description of Withnail and I
London 1969 - two 'resting' (unemployed and unemployable) actors, Withnail and Marwood, fed up with damp, cold, piles of washing-up, mad drug dealers and psychotic Irishmen, decide to leave their squalid Camden flat for an idyllic holiday in the countryside, courtesy of Withnail's uncle Monty's country cottage. But when they get there, it rains non-stop, there's no food, and their basic survival skills turn out to be somewhat limited. Matters are not helped by the arrival of Uncle Monty, who shows an uncomfortably keen interest in Marwood...Bestsellers in DVD
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