And indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. The movie, which takes place in england in late 1969, involves the misadventures of a pair of chronically unemployed actors. Withnail and i is a 1986 film comedy written and directed by bruce robinson and starring richard e. The character is named marwood in the published screenplay but goes. Withnail s lonely, aging homosexual uncle monty has gone home, leaving a note humbly apologising for the desperate sexual advances he made on marwood the night before marwood. Withnail and i, the bracing new english comedy written by bruce robinson who wrote the killing fields and his first film as a director, may also be the first film to contemplate the.
Withnail and i is an honest, human depiction of the contradictory feeling that at once everything and nothing is possible. A comingofage film about two guys who should have grown up a long time ago. Not surprisingly, this original ending was shelved for being too dark. Marwood warns withnail that there are consequences to such. Indeed, withnail and i closely mirrors evelyn waughs interwar novel. Withnail and i frequently unasked questions british 60s cinema. The normal thing that happens at the end of a film os that the vehicles that have been bought for the film are sold. As a lifelong lover of the film, the screenplay could only. Twenty years later, arnett snuck a copy of the same book into a scene in. The next morning, monty is gone and has left a sad, tender, apologetic letter. The end of the novel saw withnail committing suicide by pouring a bottle of. An almost surreal british comedy taking place in the 60s, withnail and i is hilarious and strange, driven by great performances from the entire cast, especially richard e. Unfortunately, this means that, like every other cult flick, its entirely.
He picks up the kettle from the stove then throws it suddenly into the sink marwood. In it, withnail gets having said his goodbyes to marwood and drinks a shotgun full of margeaux before blowing his brains out. It was never published, and few people have ever had the chance to read it. Food, drink and books for time out, the telegraph and others. I didnt expect the film to focus so heavily on the comedic terrors of potentially being buggered by a heavyset, cosmopolitan, fey gay man. A further clue is given at the end, when danny says we are 91 days away from. It is an outstandingly touching yet witheringly unsentimental drama of male friendship, jackson writes, a bleak upending of the english pastoral dream, a piece.
The hilarity comes indirectly through the increasingly bad situations the two main characters end up in. Why does withnail recite the hamlet soliloquy during the. Though the film was released in 1987, the action takes place in 1969, in or about 91 days from the end of this decade and theres going to be a. This account of their trials and tribulations made me laugh out loud.
If youre hanging on to a rising balloon, youre presented with a difficult decision let go before its too late or hold on and keep getting higher, posing the question. Grants withnail and i is finally having its moment. The internet movie script database imsdb heart of shadows. Celebrated for its endlessly quoted screenplay and gleeful evocation of the debauchery of two downontheirluck actors richard e. He is also the last person at the end of the party that is the late 60s. Bruce robinsons original unpublished withnail novel. This most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave oerhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent. Grant source of more deathless quotes than almost any other film, xcept perhaps, steel magnolias.
I hears the tractor once again and goes out to meet parkin. There is always one person left at the end of the party and withnail is the last person at theirs. I think you have gone a bit too deep here, hes probably reading that book because the director saw some affinities between the characters, maybe it was a favourite book of his, there are many reasons it may be there rather than reducing the plot of withnail and i. Browse the amazon editors picks for the best books of 2019, featuring our. In the original ending for the film, withnail goes home and shoots himself. Its the end of the 1960s and two outofwork actors, withnail grant and i mcgann, subsist on a diet of booze, drugs and fags in their revolting camden flat. Withnail and i script at the internet movie script database.
Withnail and i is a comingofage comedy about friendship and a touching farewell to a lost era. In the film as in life, withnail and i live in poverty and disarray and do not waste valuable drinking time by doing anything else. The key reason why a withnail and i sequel is off the cards is due to the original ending. Withnail s im gonna pull your head off has been cut. Marwood is not merely telling withnail that he doesnt have time for a drink. If you remember the sixties, you werent there, the saying goes, but bruce. Its hardly surprising that withnail and i is so popular with students, filled as it is with drinking, drugging and squalor of the sort most young scholars will be familiar with but while its not surprising, it is just a little ironic. Withnail and i by kevin jackson, 9781844570355, available at book. At one point, towards the end of the film, withnail says theres always time for a drink to which marwood quickly and bluntly replies no, i dont have the time. Grant and paul mcgann, whose boozefueled weekend in the country takes various unexpected turns, failed to find an. The scene thus goes from the line i dont feel good to look at my tongue.
Grant withnail, paul mcgann marwood, the i of the title, richard griffiths uncle monty and ralph brown danny. But withnail and marwood thats what i is called in the screenplay. Withnail was born with a silver spoon, but instead of using it to nourish himself both literally and metaphorically, he just holds it, desperately waving it around till the world notices and gives him what he is owed. I have of late, but wherefore i know not, lost all my mirth. The end of the novel saw withnail committing suicide by pouring a bottle of wine into the barrel of montys gun and then pulling the trigger as he drank from it. Its written and directed by bruce robinson, who lived it. Loosely based on robinsons life in london in the late 1960s, the plot follows.
Speaking of cult british humour, did we mention withnail and i. Withnail and i what a piece of work is a man duration. Kevin jackson this virtually plotfree story of two outofwork actors played by richard e. Robinsons original ending for the film had withnail drinking margaux through a shotgun barrel before blowing his brains out. The bfi series includes scenebyscene analyses of movies, and its remarkable the things in the film that jackson uncovers. His ending differed from the one written by robinson only in its method, and i still miss the awful bugger badly all these years after we said our last goodbye. I dont feel that withnail is so worried about his acting career except that it infringes on his ego. Grant and paul mcgann in the late 1960s, its also a key film about the clash between city and country. Come and say hello next time youre spending a delightful weekend in the country. I sits reading journeys end while withnail dozes in front of the fire. Withnail and i is a 1987 british black comedy film written and directed by bruce robinson. Marwoods speech about his thumbs having gone weird has been cut. Grant can be quick to order four quadruple whiskeys and a couple of pints, there is the presumption that he receives funds from his welloff homosexual uncle. Withnail richard e grant and i aka marwood although youd only know this from the screenplay played by paul mcgann decide they need a break from their squalid lives as struggling.
You fill this with piss, take this pipe down the trouser and sellotape this valve to the end of the old chap. Robinsons original ending for the film had withnail drinking margaux. Withnail and i im a trained actor reduced to the status of a bum. A party that one presumes has lasted for several years. As someone i admire once said, i love a little shop, and now i have one, in penrith. Robinson changed the ending, as he believed it was too dark. Kevin jackson recounts that experience in addition to giving a full account of the films production. Theres far more to the film than drinking games and, in truth, it can only really be understood by those who have put such things behind them. The actual ending entails a drunk withnail reciting a line from hamlet to. Withnail and the i of the piece marwood are out of work actors bummed out by poverty, drink and drugs. The greatest decade in the history of the world is nearly over. In order to escape the depressing nexus of visits from their dealer and the months of untouched washingup. Hes not getting parts and hes better than all the rubbish that are.