Excellent. I must have been one of the comparative few who saw it when released in the cinema (but in true Withnalian fashion, I can't remember where). I also went to the tenth anniversary screening in Leicester Square, where either McGann or Grant spoke. It wasn't packed which suggests the film was still fairly unknown. I liked your evocation of Phillips and London in the early 90s. Spot on.
Fantastic write up! I remember I was in a college and my roommate from the UK turned me onto the film. It was completely different than anything I had ever seen at the time.
Excellent write-up, which, of course, now means I have to dig out this film and revisit it for the upteenth time.
Even though I'm not familiar with the film's very specific time in place, I sensed right from the get-go the authenticity of it, that it was made by people who experienced what they were depicting on-screen and I think that is one of its strengths - a ring of honesty that cuts through all the B.S.
Withnail is one of those films that's like a beloved destination- dangerous to revisit lest the remembered pleasure pales. You conjure it wonderfully well, Luke but dare I rewatch?
Fantastic review of the film, which I love so much. I was on the staff at the NME when it came out, assistant production editor but I also did film, gig and LP reviews. One day the media editor chucked me a press release and asked me if I wanted to review a film about a couple of out of work actors at the end of the 1960s. Me and a then girl friend went and the opening bit about the two of them having been up for 48 hours and waiting for the pubs to open resonated and I was hooked…That bit at the end with the wolves and Withnail is so bittersweet.
That's lovely. Thank you so much. Really appreciate that. I'm very aware that this is a film- loved by many- so trying to approach it from a slightly different, very personal point of view, and again, a film which has been reviewed so many times. Hope I did it justice...
“I fuck arses”? Who fucks arses? Maybe he fucks arses.
Excellent review and I am extremely envious of your wife for having been at the premiere. It’s a film utterly unlike anything else, screamingly funny but, as you say, also moving and sad. Richard E. Grant reciting Shakespeare to the wolves at the end is almost unbearable because you suddenly realise that somewhere in the damaged haze Withnail is a great performer.
I know! How 'cool' is that? At the time it was just a 'little, low-budget British film'. Thanks for your kind words. I'm trying to approach this review in a slightly different way- I mean, Withnail's a film which has been reviewed SO many times. So, at least, this is my take on it- which is probably different from others... And yes, it's incredibly sad- beneath the dark humour.
“Let go before it's too late or hang on and keep getting higher, posing the question: how long can you keep a grip on the rope? They're selling hippie wigs in Woolworths, man. The greatest decade in the history of mankind is over. And as Presuming Ed here has so consistently pointed out, we have failed to paint it black.”
Danny nails it. It’s a film of decline and endings, and of a sense of having missed opportunities that will never be repeated. As Robert Browning put it, “the glimmer of twilight/Never glad confident morning again!”
Excellent. I must have been one of the comparative few who saw it when released in the cinema (but in true Withnalian fashion, I can't remember where). I also went to the tenth anniversary screening in Leicester Square, where either McGann or Grant spoke. It wasn't packed which suggests the film was still fairly unknown. I liked your evocation of Phillips and London in the early 90s. Spot on.
Fantastic write up! I remember I was in a college and my roommate from the UK turned me onto the film. It was completely different than anything I had ever seen at the time.
Feels like the London I spent so much time in, late seventies....
Excellent write-up, which, of course, now means I have to dig out this film and revisit it for the upteenth time.
Even though I'm not familiar with the film's very specific time in place, I sensed right from the get-go the authenticity of it, that it was made by people who experienced what they were depicting on-screen and I think that is one of its strengths - a ring of honesty that cuts through all the B.S.
Withnail is one of those films that's like a beloved destination- dangerous to revisit lest the remembered pleasure pales. You conjure it wonderfully well, Luke but dare I rewatch?
Fantastic review of the film, which I love so much. I was on the staff at the NME when it came out, assistant production editor but I also did film, gig and LP reviews. One day the media editor chucked me a press release and asked me if I wanted to review a film about a couple of out of work actors at the end of the 1960s. Me and a then girl friend went and the opening bit about the two of them having been up for 48 hours and waiting for the pubs to open resonated and I was hooked…That bit at the end with the wolves and Withnail is so bittersweet.
That's lovely. Thank you so much. Really appreciate that. I'm very aware that this is a film- loved by many- so trying to approach it from a slightly different, very personal point of view, and again, a film which has been reviewed so many times. Hope I did it justice...
“I fuck arses”? Who fucks arses? Maybe he fucks arses.
Excellent review and I am extremely envious of your wife for having been at the premiere. It’s a film utterly unlike anything else, screamingly funny but, as you say, also moving and sad. Richard E. Grant reciting Shakespeare to the wolves at the end is almost unbearable because you suddenly realise that somewhere in the damaged haze Withnail is a great performer.
I know! How 'cool' is that? At the time it was just a 'little, low-budget British film'. Thanks for your kind words. I'm trying to approach this review in a slightly different way- I mean, Withnail's a film which has been reviewed SO many times. So, at least, this is my take on it- which is probably different from others... And yes, it's incredibly sad- beneath the dark humour.
“Let go before it's too late or hang on and keep getting higher, posing the question: how long can you keep a grip on the rope? They're selling hippie wigs in Woolworths, man. The greatest decade in the history of mankind is over. And as Presuming Ed here has so consistently pointed out, we have failed to paint it black.”
Danny nails it. It’s a film of decline and endings, and of a sense of having missed opportunities that will never be repeated. As Robert Browning put it, “the glimmer of twilight/Never glad confident morning again!”
I have the Ralph Steadman edition with the wine quote brilliant. Great revue top stuff we lived in London in Kensington in 1968 - 1972 fab times
Thanks! Appreciated. One of my favourite periods, especially in London. Has *something* about it...