Product Details

• Actors: James Woods, JoBeth Williams, James Garner, Gary Sinise, George Coe
• Directors: Daniel Petrie
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 2, 1997
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303101410
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,923 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Here's another example of TV giving James Woods the chance to stretch out from the intense-psycho roles he seems restricted to in too many of his movies. In My Name Is Bill W. he plays Bill Wilson, the overreaching businessman from the Roaring '20s who went on to found Alcoholics Anonymous. Woods gets plenty of chances to stretch out here in Bill's headlong slide to the bottom, through the terrors of the Wall Street crash (which amplifies a two-fisted drinking problem) and into the loss of everything he holds dear. Yet Woods also is convincing as the man who understands just how insidious his disease is and learns to try to take everything one day at a time. He receives strong support from James Garner as the alcoholic physician who teams with Bill to make AA a viable proposition. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

196 of 198 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie, November 10, 2000

By A Customer

I loved all of this movie; however, I particularly like the part where Bill W and his wife are attending a group where Bill is not known and everyone is quoting him. You see the look in his eyes, the desire to say I'm the Bill W you all are talking about, he looks at his wife she gives him a knowing look and he turns away from the people talking about how great he is to work one on one with new man. This is indeed what the program is about. I would also recommend the book an Encounter With A Prophet to see what all of the God stuff is about.

113 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "ROOTS" of "Alcoholics Anonymous", March 1, 2003

By	James G. Lipscomb "bookworm" (Marietta, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Are you an alocoholic? Is someone you love an alcoholic?

It really doesn't matter. This movie, regrettably is available only on VHS, will give you insight, understanding, and hope. Hope, that most fragile of words, is the basis of this incredible made-for-TV motion picture.

Bill Wilson comes home from World War I a hero. He then conquers Wall Street. He marries the love of his life, Lois. He then discovers both a new god, a new lover, a new idol; the bottle. This unflinching film looks at the descent of of alcoholic into hell, and his journey back, guided, not by the spirit of Virgil, but by another alcoholic, Doctor Bob. Together, they find a "cure" for an "incurable" disease. The disease of alcoholism.

Neither could cure themselves, but together, they could find the way out of hell into if not paradise, at least life; life on life's terms.

This film has been called the AA "Roots." I won't take up that guantlet. This film stands alone. The performances by James Woods, JoBeth Williams and James Garner stand on their own merits. It tells the story of one man's descent into the hell of addiction < and YES, alcoholism is an addiction >, and his return to the land of the living.

Woods plays Bill W. with remarkable restraint, not denigrating into the hystrionics of Jack Lemmon in "The Lost Weekend"; as brilliant and well-meaning as that film is. Nor does this movie fall into high camp, as did "Reefer Madness" in the late Thirties.

Instead, in "My Name Is Bill W.", we see a man driven to the depths of despair. A man beaten is beaten into the dust. To quote Cecil B. DeMille, "the dust from which prophets and holy men are formed. . ."

Yet, this film is not preachy. It tells a story. A true story, all the more frightening, because it is true.

Watch this movie. Listen to its message of hope, of truth, of honesty, openness, and willingness. Hear the story of the damned, who somehow, someway, found salvation.

You will be moved. I promise you.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Movie on The Birth of A. A., September 29, 2002

By	Kelly P. (Tyler, TX) - See all my reviews

As a recovering alcoholic myself, I find this movie an accurate and moving portrayal on the life of Bill Wilson and the early history of Alcoholics Anonymous. James Woods is always a marvelous actor, but here he delivers a tour de force performance as Bill Wilson. Also in the cast is the ever-delightful JoBeth Williams of Big Chill fame. James Garner plays Dr. Bob Smith, who, along with Bill, founded A. A. in 1935. Garner also co-produced the project. This was originally aired on television as a Hallmark Hall Of Fame movie in 1989. Very inspiring!