Withnail & I

Withnail and I at 30:  10 reasons why Bruce Robinson’s caper is the greatest British comedy of all time

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Withnail and I is a melancholic masterpiece and one of the funniest British films ever made.

Withnail and I is a melancholic masterpiece and one of the funniest British films ever made. For its one-liners alone Bruce Robinson’s sweary caper is rightly regarded as a classic: “We’ve gone on holiday by mistake”. “Don’t threaten me with a dead fish”. “We want the finest wines available to humanity, we want them here and we want them now”. These droll zingers are fired off at such a clip, multiple viewings are required to savour them in their full glory. [ . . . ]

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The Essential British Films

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By Tom Jolliffe

Any film student worth their salt will tell you that absolutely essential viewing is Withnail & I. When I started at University studying film about 100 years ago give or take (actually it was 14 years ago) I hadn’t seen Withnail. Within two weeks of starting it became apparent that I had not actually lived, and thus needed to see it immediately. I watched it, I like it but upon that first viewing it didn’t quite inseminate me fully with its genius. The second time I got it. The third, fourth and beyond, the film just got better and better.

This is a film that represents Britain at its cinematic finest. Firstly it beautifully captures the [ . . . ]

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Review: Long-delayed ‘Rum Diary’ worth the wait – KVIA

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Bruce Robinson has never topped the riotous comic miserabilism of his first film, the cult classic “Withnail and I” — he’s never even come close — but “The Rum Diary” might be considered hair of the dog after a 24-year-long career hangover. He’s back in his debauched and debunking element, which is reason enough to celebrate.

Read Full Review: Review: Long-delayed ‘Rum Diary’ worth the wait – KVIA

Pulling Focus: Withnail and I (1987)

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Pulling Focus: Withnail and I (1987)26 NOVEMBER 2016 FEATURES, REVIEWS BY SHANE SCOTT-TRAVIS

“The best British comedy ever made? Possibly. A masterpiece? Unquestionably.”– Ali Catterall, Film4

From the tender and impassioned sound of King Curtis’ live recorded cover of Procul Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” in the opening scene to the finishing drizzly goodbye by the wolf enclosure in Regent’s Park, Withnail and I is a funny, affectionate, and wistful perfection from writer/director Bruce Robinson.

While Robinson has never been a prolific filmmaker and his following films so far have proven a tad unfulfilling by comparison, nothing can temper or depreciate the strikingly idiosyncratic pleasures of his coming out party, Withnail and I. A lamentably sentimental comic chronicle of impoverished living in late-1960s Camden Town, the Swinging Sixties as presented by Robinson is a booze-fuelled, bleak and grimy place of dreggy pubs, unkempt cafes, and offensively filthy kitchens.

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