On Criterion Collection Blu-ray - Rod Bishop welcomes the 4K restoration of WITHNAIL AND I (Bruce Robinson, 1987, UK)

They're selling hippie wigs in Woolworths, man. The greatest decade in the history of mankind is over.

There’s not much of a plot, just a couple of-out-of-work actors in London in 1969 who decide to take a holiday in Cumbria. There are no plot twists, no romance, and no action sequences either. 

But it does have a cracking screenplay from Bruce Robinson and superb, unforgettable performances from Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths and Ralph Brown.

On the first day of shooting, Robinson stood on a chair and said ‘Hello, I’m Bruce Robinson, I’m directing this movie and I don’t know what the hell I’m doing so any help you can give me is gratefully received.’ 

He has also said film crews are, in fact, conspiratorial endeavours. 

I don't advise a haircut, man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. Hair are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight.

In The Loser Chronicles, Charles Epstein’s “compendium of world-class failures, misfits, fools…”, he writes:

“I have been futilely trying to get people to watch this movie since its release in 1987. That’s 36 years of stony indifference.  My friends and the people I tend to associate with generally respect my recommendations: books, movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, articles, restaurants…[but]…apart from my friend Paul (we’ve been quoting lines at each other for three-plus decades, and never fail to laugh ourselves into a respiratory condition even though we’ve long beaten them into the ground), not a single person I’ve recommended it to has, to my knowledge, watched it.  If any of you losers - yeah, I said it - are reading this, now’s your chance, it’s the last time I’ll mention it.

Here was a man with 3/4 of an inch of brain who'd taken a dislike to me. What had I done to offend him? I don't consciously offend big men like this. And this one has a definite imbalance of hormone in him. Get any more masculine than him and you'd have to live up a tree.

I called him a ponce. And now I'm calling you one. Ponce!

Jason Hill, a brewer in Cumbria, says “In my opinion, Withnail and I is the best film in the world, but unfortunately you can’t set a record for that…” So, eleven years ago, he made an audacious attempt to set a world record at an open-air screening of the cult classic. The Westmorland Gazette reported: “Eden Brewery, based near Penrith, will attempt to set a new record for the number of people simultaneously saying a film quotation. The brewery will attempt to get the audience to shout out the line ‘I demand to have some booze’ in unison… 

Withnail fans have descended on Sleddale Hall - the location used for Uncle Monty’s cottage Crow Crag in the film – annually since 2012. Jason Hill said he was relishing the chance to get one of his favourite films into the record books. 

Paul McGann, Richard E Grant

Speed, is like a dozen transatlantic flights without ever getting off the plane... Time change. You lose, you gain... Makes no difference so long as you keep taking the pills. But sooner or later you got to get out, because it's crashing. And all at once those frozen hours, melt through the nervous system, and seep out the pores.

Unlike the otherwise exemplary A Complete Unknown, this film is far more honest about the drugs consumed in the late 1960s. Apart from the alcohol and weed, there’s speed, anti-depressants, and in desperation, lighter fluid and anti-freeze. There’s even an invented pill called Phenodihydrochloride Benzelex. “Street name The Embalmer”.

Richard E. Grant

The joint I'm about to roll requires a craftsman. It can utilise up to 12 skins. It is called a Camberwell Carrot…

Who says it’s a Camberwell carrot?

I do. I invented it and it looks like a carrot.

 I think we've been in here too long. I feel unusual.

We are indeed, drifting into the arena of the unwell...

Wikipedia: “There is a drinking game associated with the film.  The game consists of keeping up, drink for drink, with each alcoholic substance consumed by Withnail over the course of the film. All told, Withnail is shown drinking roughly 9¹⁄₂ glasses of red wine, one-half imperial pint (280 ml) of cider, one shot of lighter fluid (vinegar or overproof rum are common substitutes), 2¹⁄₂ measures of gin, six glasses of sherry, thirteen drams of Scotch whisky and a ¹⁄₂ pint of ale.” 

Paul McGann

We went on holiday by mistake.

Actor Paul McGann, in his first film, has plenty of reminiscences. He used to have strangers suddenly whisper or yell lines from the film at him in the streets of various cities around the world. He still laughs that someone once chalked on the pavement outside his house - apropos of that drunken Irishman - the word "'ponce' with an arrow pointing at his house. “I kind of like that."

McGann has also observed: “You see these TV documentaries about the sixties and the way it ends. You get Janis Joplin dying, you get Jimi Hendrix dying, Jim Morrison is dead…It’s all over in that particular few months. And you know that 12 months later you’re gonna get the Carpenters…”

Flowers are essentially tarts. Prostitutes for the bees. There is, you'll agree, a certain 'je ne sais quoi' oh so very special about a firm, young carrot. 

And this 4K restoration? 

Who knew the red blob on Monty’s lapel was actually a beautifully rendered brooch of a radish?

Richard E Grant, Richard Griffiths 
.....and the red blob on Monty's lapel