One of only a tiny handful of 'perfect' films. The script, the casting, the performances, the music - there isn't a single flaw in it. Pure movie-making magic.Thank you Bruce et al.
There are a few flaws in it. Most by McGann not understanding the nuances of language. Strange how he didn't get it really. Also the left slow hander that should have been a slow left hander. There were some flaws but they could be put aside due to what a great film this was and still is.
I watch Withnail & I on average once a year, every year since it was first released here in Australia. Back then I was bit more like one the characters, hunkered down in the inner city of Sydney on benefits with a journalism degree that meant very little, waiting for the pub to open. Bruce's film gave creative folk a lot of hope that we might dig ourselves out of our post punk dreaming and launch ourselves into a world a bit more colourful and outspoken. I've introduced the film to my son and daughter, my son's and daughter's friends, and passed it onto a much younger generation, and it still passes the test of time. Beautifully written and directed and everytime I watch that final scene it still tears my heart out. So Bruce I raise my glass to you and thank you for getting off your arse to make that film because it's part of me and my history and it has definitely shaped my world.
Almost exactly the same. I saw it at The Valhalla in Melbourne when it came out, I have two Withnail & I DVDs, and I probably watch it twice a year. I only watched it 3 months ago, but after seeing this little RU-vid clip and reading the comments, I'm going to have to watch it again tonight!
When I work with younger people ,who have nothing better than marvel films to watch, and recommend this ,they just look at me like I'm some kind of nut job out of touch grandpa . I was 18 when this come out and London was, even in the 90's, similar . I lived in hovels in Hackney , going around the streets at night picking up dog ends , playing playstation games until 4 in the morning drinking cheap vodka and smoking myself to death
My Group of Mates that stayed together after we left school ,grew up on this movie. We would always get home at midnight , start rolling up and watch THIS or Spinal Tap , or played some old computer games. This didnt seem that far removed , even though it was in Bracknell/Reading . When I moved to London in the 90's this definitely resonated
Having been at London Uni in the late 60s and early 70s this film resonates with me like no other. I've shared flats like theirs where you piss in the sink at night cos it's much closer than the loo and think nothing of it. Any time I feel nostalgic I watch it again and those times are immediately brought back to me. This is a true work of art and one of the reasons I'm so thankful I lived when I did. Thanks Bruce for reviving those memories and making such a fabtastic film.
Best film ever. Back in 1988 I was supposed to be studying for my A level retakes, but was bored. Picked up The Standard, looked at the film section, for some reason chose Withnail (probably because it was starting soon at that time) and went to the cinema (Prince of Wales, Leicester Square). Pure serendipity. Magnificent!
A delightful accompaniment to one of the greatest movies ever made. "Why does the film have cult status"? Because it is superbly scripted, acted and filmed, a true work of cinematic art.
What you say are components of why it is a cult success - but it is not the only film to ace those components but not be called a cult success - e.g. The Third Man is a fantastic movie - a very successful movie that I gladly rewatch - but I would never give it the moniker "a cult success". First of all - this film was NOT a resounding success on its original cinema run, but became gradually more and more successful on video & DVD release later on. So I would suggest we could add to your list its almost hypnotic rewatchability that has an effect not dissimilar to the Rocky Horror Picture show where the viewer is constantly anticipating the next line and wants to say the line out loud as it is said. To be clear I put Withnail & I well above the Rocky Horror Picture Show - it is much more nuanced and intellectually stimulating. The other key factor is that I think Withnail & I has applicability - there are parts of that movie that I relate to because I remember having no money (having left University) and the silly things you can get up to with friends and yet no assets - as Bruce says - a feeling of total freedom and anarchy. It is a fantastic movie to rewatch with a bunch of like-minded souls. Love it.
Richard E Grant as Withnail is the only convincing drunk I've ever seen in a film. You see on screen boozing all the time but they rarely get 'paraletic'. American films tend to go over the top with it but real piss artists affect a feigned sobriety and Grant nailed it.
You sould see Jim Layhe in Trailer Park Boys lol.. Best drunk actor I have ever seen and he was consistent through 10 season. Played by John Dunsworth. I will miss him dearly.
I met mr Robinson many years ago when I worked for Monty Don, they are good friends. Bruce was very pleasant and I was a bit of a fan boy, great memories and I was very privileged.
I first seen it aged 16 and i is still my favorite little film i Love every moment every word.No film will every be made like this again its more than a classic.
With 'Holy Grail' and 'Brian' in my book...There's a handful of comedies I can watch over and over...Those 3 and 'Bad Santa', 'Lebowski', 'Fargo'...not many more...'Withnail' is right up there
Went to see this film in 1988 or 89 when it opened in Paris where I lived as a drama student in a shared flat and we were all broke and exotic too - and we watched the thing through and simply without much said stayed right there in our seats until it was projected through again… Gobsmackingly perfect film. Beautifully made in every way. I returned to Paris many years later and I swear, it was still running in the same cinema (Rue des Ecoles, I believe)! What can you say but thanks to Bruce R!! By the way, in case he ever reads this, I also grew up in Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Margate, Birchington… ! Greetings and salutations from an old English poet now living out his days in Mexico! 🍻🍻🍻👆
The swears are expressed with such expert enunciation and with exact use of purpose ..such a rare treat! The exact use of expletives as words of expression rather than as a means to offend is so refreshing. Brilliant.Thank you.
Loved his Ripper book; a true classic if you haven’t read it. You don’t have to agree with everything he says - or who he says the Ripper actually was - but he evokes that period and mood so well. I’ve read it twice now... big old book that it is.
He’s brilliant. He’s one of my top “desert island” or “best dinner party if you could have anyone dead or alive” guests. I’d love to see him talk to whoever Shakespeare really was. I’ve longed to have Mr. Robinson explore the Shakespeare controversy with the same determination he gave J t R.
I have parrots. One of them, Rosie, follows me around and will occasionally tap his beak on a door if I'm on the wrong side of it, and offer, "Sherrih?" Cracks me up every time, even though I know he hasn't got any sherry.
I worked at a law firm years ago and for a while had a fling with one of the solicitors (she is an author of repute now). She could recite the entire script.
I think Bruce's last comment is the perfect one to end on. The first time I saw Withnail it was like gazing into Nietzsche's abyss. I lived in an absolute dive with a group of wastrels with highfalutin ideas but who weren't above casually pissing into the great mass of empty milk, wine and beer bottles we had collected outside our backdoor to save on the 30 seconds it took to reach the godawful portal to pubic hell that was our lav. One moonless Saturday night and unable to score our weekly class Cs by the usual route on account of the guy being detained by her majesty (how very dare she!), we decided to cut the tops off the next door neighbours weed, wrapped it all in foil and 'cured' it in the stove so we could smoke it. And then spent a good few weeks waiting for him to break in and cut off bits of us with his gangster machete by way of like payment.
Genius director who pursued absolute authenticity in the art of original filmaking of a great biographical piece. He was friends with the late Barney Platts-Mills who also an eminent filmaker from the 60's to much later. Only met Barney through my ex and his widow. Amazing man also
I can empathise. We had no electricity, played chess by candlelight and made rollies.from discarded cigarettes. We cooked rice or pasta in a wok over four bricks using old fence panels for fuel. It was sh#t but we didn't die so that's something.
Withnail & I is the only film I have watched multiple times. I recorded it off the telly and for a month or so I watched every day I came home from work. I've watched several more times since. But why? I think it's because, although nothing outrageous happens, it is an adventure of the kind most young guys have experienced. The boys are likeable, intelligent and not above getting earthy. They're simply great fun to tag along with.
"You have done something to your brain.. Why trust one and not the other?" I am sure that quote is wrong but anyway.. What amazing reasoning and so long ago. I am shocked that people have never heard it before, every time.
I can see how it wouldn't have gone over well with a room full of German students but I'm Dutch and I got introduced to the movie by a Norwegian guy so it definitely does travel well with a certain kind of person.
I'm German and it stands as one of my favorite comedies. But Withnail is very little known in Germany, far behind Mr. Bean, Monty Python and Ealing Studios etc ... I loaned it to a friend who is also a cineast and he gave it back to me with the comment that he switched it off for being dark and "humorless". But I finally found a German who knows and likes it a few weeks ago - but then he is Half-British.
'Magnificent anarchy' is a great phrase to explain the enduring success of the film. It's also about lost friendship. Speaking of that, does the film appeal more to men than women (because there aren't many women in it and because society allows men to be more irresponsible than women)? Just a thought.
Check out a film Bruce Robinson was in called Private Road, the second half is an influence on withnail... It's a very slow film, but very interesting.
Are those Robinson's own books, behind him? If so, am curious to read some of the titles, get an insight into the man's creative mind. Though unfortunately, I can't make very many of their names out...
I don't know if this counts, but I'd swear in the tea room when Withnail says "liven all you stiffs up a bit", Grant breaks character laughing so much at the joke and McGann picks up on ot and laughs harder, too.
@@craignightingale8022 apparently he hears the dog make a noise and he thinks its one of the old ladies and he breaks character. Brilliant scene, especially as Marwood goes with it seamlessly.
@@samgalloway8696 cheers, that adds another dimension to it. Glad I was right about spotting the break in character and yes, props to McGann for rolling with it!
My father, the actor Lawrence Trimble was in Central School of Speech of Drama with Bruce Robinson and they were friends and had various mutual friends. Daddy was an intellectual, a cosmonaut and a wit. I believe the idea for Withnail and I was Daddy's. We lived between London and Kent. Robinson reconnected with Daddy in the 80s when he was then living in LA to ask him to remind him of certain plot points as he was then writing the script. My father therefore was very much a part of the .conceptualisation but sadly was not credited with his contribution.
"Daddy was an intellectual, a cosmonaut and a wit." He went into space with the Soviet space programme?! Wow!!! That's far more interesting than whether or not he was integral to the conceptualisation of "Withnail and I".
I love this film, but when I 1st saw it I was thrown into the doldrums, because I'd lived a similar short magic period of time, for about 2 years in 1994-1996. Too young and moronic to know you're nearly homeless...and the 1st time that kind of crashed into me. It was sad. But now it's so much finer and funnier to me.
Danny embodies that 60s elusive stoner mystique that all at once on the brink of something profound, having realized and have important truth and wisdom to share but in the workaday world comes off as total bullshit…brilliant.🔥
