Customer Reviews

Withnail & I [VHS]

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Somewhere in the tenebrous recesses of our souls is the saving ability to laugh in recognition at our most forlorn circumstances. The funniest films mine this trove of despairing exigencies in an urgent, played-for-real mode. And none do it better than WITHNAIL & I, now available in a superb uncut version on DVD.

Bruce Robinson, the sometime actor and screenwriter ("The Killing Fields"), made his 1986 directorial debut with his semi-autobiographical screenplay that is widely considered the greatest neglected comedy of all time. The slender plot is simple. Flatmates Richard E. Grant (Withnail) and Paul McGann (& I) are two stoned, hungry, broke, and out-of-work actors wallowing in self-made squalor. When they get an opportunity to spend a weekend in the country cottage of Withnail's three hundred pound Uncle Montague, they go, hoping to "rejuvenate." What ensues is an extraordinarily deranged weekend of drunken delusion and distraught discovery that you will never forget. To reveal any more story details would be a gross disservice to those who have not yet found this wonderfully twisted, honest and perfect film.

Richard Griffiths is unsettling as the campy, dissolute predator cousin Montague and Ralph Brown is spot-on as Danny, the slow-talking, menacing but philosophical dope dealer. Hard to believe this was Richard E. Grant's first film. Even harder to believe is that he is a non-drinker who doesn't smoke.

Perfectly cast, nearly every spoken line is unfiltered emotional truth and most are quotable -- especially the caustic diatribes of drunken, acerbic Grant. And the scenes themselves are brilliant set-pieces that unfold like diamonds in the rough being cut to gem-stone perfection.

After experiencing this unblinking look back at the end of the 60s in a London suburb where a tenuous friendship, high expectations and unfulfilled dreams collide during a disastrous weekend getaway, you too will laugh when you next hear the opening riffs of Jimmy Hendrix's "Voodoo Child." And you will understand when someone blurts out in a restaurant, "We want the finest wines available to humanity. We want them here and we want them NOW!. And cake."

This new Criterion widescreen version is clean and sharp and there's a too-short bonus interview with Robinson, Brown, Grant and McGann.

You must trust me on this one, so right now, get on line and order this extraordinary movie. It's one to own and watch at least once a month. It will put everything in the proper perspective and cure what ails you. Highest recommendation.

Criterion has done a wonderful job with this DVD release of WITHNAIL & I. The picture looks sharp, the sound is clear, and the extras are a lot of fun. The biggest difference for me was that the only video version of this film I owned was the full-screen version that contains numerous edits. Watching this film uncut for the first time in years really pointed out how much I had been missing with the video version. Getting this DVD is definitely worth the money.

The film itself is a joy to experience. While the plot cannot be accused of being overcomplicated, this simplicity is more than made up for in the wonderful characters and brilliant dialogue (virtually none of which can be quoted in an all-ages forum such as this). Loosely narrated by Paul McGann's "I" character, this film depicts a brief period in the life of two struggling actors as they attempt to find booze, drugs and jobs in the dying days of the 1960s. The movie covers a wide spectrum from some scenes featuring the funniest lines that you'll ever hear to small touching moments that are surprisingly moving. This is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys good moviemaking.

Every character in the picture is superbly acted and written for. It's a testament to Bruce Robinson's directing skills that the characters compliment each other so well instead of clashing and overbearing the others as could so easily have happened. The secondary characters work as well as the leads and each one adds their unique flavour to the mixture. Robinson doesn't make the mistake of giving the smaller parts too much on-screen time and having them overstay their welcome. Each character says and does no more than they need to and leaves everyone wanting more.

Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann are perfectly cast in their roles. Each bile-covered insult roles off of Grant's tongue as if he'd been swearing at McGann all his life. It's amazing that Grant is a teetotaler in real life and was relying on pure skill for most of his inspiration. Excellent acting.

The documentary that is included on the DVD is 30 minutes long and quite excellent. There are interviews with Richard E. Grant (Withnail), Paul McGann (...& I), Bruce Robinson (writer/director), Ralph Brown (Danny) and a host of other people related to the production. It's a funny and enthralling look at the people and ideas behind the film. Just fast-forward through the trainspotters.

Withnail & I is one of the greatest films ever made - funny, poignant and superbly written, acted and directed.

So, it is such an appalling shame that this NTSC VHS version is so poor. It is hideously cut in places leaving out parts of scenes and some of the funniest dialogue. This leaves you confused when the narrative shifts suddenly when you were expecting the uncut version. For me, this rendered this version unwatchable.

Buy a PAL compatible VHS player and buy the uncut European version from amazon.co.uk, wait for the DVD or wait for the full version to be shown on the Independent Film Channel and record it, but stay away from this turkey!

Another cult movie has just entered the Criterion collection : british writer-director Bruce Robinson's 1986 WITHNAIL AND I starring Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann, both excellent. Richard Griffith as the cousin Montague and Ralph Brown as " The Hippie Philosopher " are hilarious. This film is a valuable addition to your library if you like english comedies, the sixties or simply a smart movie.

WITHNAIL AND I is greatly autobiographical. Bruce Robinson's 25 minutes interview featuring home movies and photographies shot in London in the mid-sixties is very instructive ; one understands soon that Withnail and ("I") Peter's life pictured in the movie has been the normal life of a large number of the english teenagers of the sixties. The character of "Withnail" played by an hallucinated Richard E. Grant, who in the real life doesn't drink alcoholic beverages, will certainly stay in the annals of Movie History.

If WITHNAIL AND I moves us so much, it's because this nostalgic movie is about lost hopes, about the green pastures of our youth when the world was ready to be conquered and waiting for us. Withnail is a pathetic character who could have been a genius in any artistic domain but who didn't create anything because, after all, it wasn't so important.

Apart of the Bruce Robinson interview ( look carefully at the level of the red wine in his glass... ), one will also find in this Criterion presentation a limited-edition of a poster, a theatrical trailer, liner notes by Robinson, various pre-production photos and english subtitles.

A DVD zone nostalgy.

Despite claiming use of the latest techniques, the video quality and sound mix is poor. Letterbox is used for the main feature, already cutting resolution. The colours are washed out and the picture lacks contrast.

The 5.1 sound was handled quite badly, with voices inappropriately appearing in the rear (not only when narrating) and a lot of hiss. I've heard much better sound on movies much older.

The (good) extra documentary was in anamorphic widescreen, giving the main feature itself an even more bedraggled appearance.

Unfortunately, it will probably be some time before a better version appears. This is a well-loved movie which deserves far better treatment.

...is over. And as presuming Ed here has so consistently pointed out, we are foul to paint it black."

So says "Danny," the Delphic Oracle of the film, and this is the nut. For anyone who has ever looked back at the demise of the counter-cultural movements of the 1960's and felt sadness at their disintegration and subsumption by the forces of corporate marketing mass mind-control, this movie is for you. Yes, it's a comedy, and like all great comedies, it's drama works best because the humor of the story throws the drama into such sharp relief.

If you've ever chased after your dreams with drugs, and found yourself tattered and broken at the end of a long road of pain and loss, this movie will reach you. If you've never used your food money for the week to buy booze or drugs for the day, if you've never been afraid of the multilayered quagmire of standing water, dishes and unidentifiable matter in your sink, then you will miss a lot of what this movie has to offer. If you've ever had a dream, and had to watch it die knowing that it was your own bungling that killed it, then this movie will reach your heart. And if you've ever gotten so stoned with your friends that you all searched your apartment for twenty minutes for the keys that were in your hand the whole time, you will find a lot to laugh at in this movie.

Once again, Richard E. Grant scores a bullseye. His Withnail is every drowning loser left at the end of a voyage undertaken with high hopes, caught in a storm watching the waters close over his head, "making an enemy of (his) own future," "drifting into the arena of the unwell."

If you've ever looked at life, with its wages and cubicles and sports, its schedules and its rules, no place to hang your hat and be let alone but that you must pay someone rent, and felt like something was wrong, something must be missing, you will understand Withnail's terrible, desperate compulsion to stand on the throttle and blast through one disaster after another.

I never "got" Shakespear until I watched this movie. If you don't get anything else from Withnail & I, at least try to embrace the Hamlet soliloquy at the movie's end. Maybe you've never been troubled by a feeling that life is empty and tedious. And maybe you've seen those people who do seem to see life that way, and not understood why. The answer for you is in that speech at the movie's end.

Danny says, "When you're hanging on to a rising balloon, you're presented with two choices; either let go or hang on which brings up the question of how long you can keep your grip on the rope?" How terrible it must be to have been involved in the hippie subculture in the sixties, and to have to watch it die in the seventies.

In his able and compelling epitaph of the 1960's, Hunter S. Thompson put it best when he said, "San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. But no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there, and alive, in that corner of time in the world. Whatever it meant.

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere.

There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right--that we were winning. And that, I think, was the handle. That sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil. Not in any mean or military sense--we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum. We were riding the crest of a high, and beautiful wave.

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west. And with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the highwater mark--that place where the wave finally broke, and rolled back."

Semper Fidelis, Montague Withnail.

Withnail and I is the kind of movie that has a huge cult following over here in Britain, although surprisingly there are still many people who haven't seen it. It concerns two out-of-work actors, Withnail (Richard E. Grant) and I (Paul McGann), who take a weekend break in a cottage on loan from Withnail's uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths). Whilst there everything that could go wrong does, leading to a peculiarly fitting conclusion.

The humour is undoubtedly caustic as well as being undeniably British in its sharp take on situation comedy. This is probably best summed up by saying that you don't know whether you should be sympathetic for the characters or laugh at them. Despite this biting humour though, which in itself makes it worth a watch, the excellent acting is obviously of note. Richard E. Grant is one of the those actors that everyone has seen in one or two films but can't really figure out why he's so famous. Well this is it. His performance as Withnail is the kind of career-defining performance that is all too hard to come by. He manages to express comedy, self-loathing, bitterness and humanity in what is perhaps one of the most realistic performances of the 80's. Of course, Paul McGann's performance never really launched him into the stratosphere, although on many counts it's hard to see why: although in a much less showy role than Grant, he is just as good in the role that he plays as the more sympathetic 'I' of the title.

All in all this is a movie that once seen will not be forgotten. In addition to being completely original, very very funny in an unconventional way, it comes complete with heart (particularly in the end) and is a genuine cult film that thoroughly deserves its status.

This masterpiece of true English humour is a must for anyone who has ever woken up with a filthy hangover, abused any form of substance, lived in a situation where you spend your rent money on a decent claret or railed against the ludicrous nature of life. Inspired casting (esp. Richard Griffiths), beautiful dialogue and a real sense of the bleakly ironic, there is nothing that you can buy that will give you so much pleasure over such a long period of time. Truly one of those films that you will sit through again and again, especially if you introduce your friends to it, as you can take enormous pleasure in watching them fall off the sofa in fits of laughter. Beautiful, inspired stuff - anyone out there who wants to know the truth about British humour - try this

Quite frankly this is the greatest tragi-comic film of all time. The image of Richard E. Grant swigging from a bottle of claret, watching caged wolves and so-on and so-forth, moves me to tears. Bruce Robinson, 'I love you and want to bear your little babies'. And as for Uncle Monty, well isn't he delicious? The only thing that could add to my already replete viewing ecstacy, would be for this to be brought out on DVD; so please, chaps, do it for me. All in all, at the end of the day, Withnail and I is the way forward...

"They're selling hippie wigs in Woolworth's, man. The greatest decade in the history of mankind is coming to an end and as Presuming Ed here has so consistently pointed out, we have failed to paint it black."

Two highly educated actors, obviously descended from a wealthier class, wallow in an amazing amount of squalor in the early 1970's. This is more than an incredibly funny story about loveable losers, the original (and far more hilarious) Dumb and Dumber. This is about opportunities, about real talent, and about just wasting it away.

Danny, the ultimate loser, describes the spiral of waste and despair perfectly: "If you are holding onto a rising balloon you are presented with a difficult political decision - let go while you've still got the chance or hold onto the rope and continue getting higher."

But one of the two, Marwood, seems to sense on a basic level the need to let go of the balloon, to let go of drug-induced wretchedness. He is the one who gets them out of London, and ultimately confronts the choice of moving on.

As I look around me at the moral wasteland of modern American conservatism, riddled with corruption, scandal, incredible wasteful spending, mounting debts, senseless foreign wars and nation building, I have to wonder if many on the right will look at the days after 9/11 and wonder if we have, once again, seen an opportunity to make something truly memorable, and failed to paint it black.

When America, like Marwood, eventually moves on, I suspect it'll be just as bittersweet as the ending of this film.