This film may now have become the property of students, but that fact should not allow us to stop looking at this film as being anything other than a true classic of British cinema. It is perhaps one of the most quotable films I have ever come across and one could say that it is this fact that has made the film a `cult movie'. The truth of course is, that this film is far more than just endlessly quotable lines; it is far too fine a film to be herded into the cult category. This said, it is the outrageously amusing lines that punctuate this film and the sharpness of the comedy that can survive endless re-watchings, but I prefer to think of it as something more than just a comedy. This is a very personal story to director Bruce Robinson, a fact that comes off very clearly by his outstanding direction. Robinson lived the life of 'Withnail and I' himself in the late 60's and Paul McCann's character being referred to as `I' is no coincidence, Robinson's friend Vivien (who unfortunately died) being the real life Withnail. When you have a film that is so close to the director as this, it always clearly shows. This film is about friendship, it's about loss and it's about what to do when you are out of work actors in the final months of the 1960's. There has been such said about the homosexual references in this film, im sure many believing that Withnail and I have some kind of repressed desire for each other. I certainly do not go along with this theory; it seems to me that they have a repressed friendship, which is finally and movingly realised when Marwood (I) leaves Withnail at the end of the film. This is of course a tragic ending, or more fittingly, the character of Withnail is a tragic figure, who, despite our better hopes, we all know will not cope on his own. Despite what would seem an unhappy ending, it has a kind of raw emotion to it. What we are seeing is not a man about to fall apart, we are seeing a man finally realising his true and brilliant potential as an actor with a searing performance from Hamlet. Only upon watching the film a second time and hearing Uncle Monty announce `it is most shattering experience of a young mans life when he awakes and quite reasonably says to himself 'I will never play the Dane', when that moment comes, one's ambition ceases' that you realise the epic nature of Withnail's ending speech. The real beauty of this film is that you can look at it as deeply as you like, or you can look at it as a film about a couple of alcoholics going on a drinking spree to the countryside. Either way, you can't help but look at it as a truly magnificent piece of work that really deserves to be recognised as more than a `cult comedy'.
Review of Withnail & I
