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Withnail & I

Withnail & I

Withnail & I (1987)

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Two unemployed actors, a flat full of unwashed dishes, and a holiday to the countryside that solves nothing. The trip was meant to be a cure. It becomes a bender with hedgerows.

WITHNAIL & I (1987) follows Withnail, played by Richard E. Grant, and his friend, the unnamed narrator, played by Paul McGann, through the last days of the 1960s, as the drugs run low and the acting work never arrives. They borrow a cottage from Withnail’s uncle Monty, played by Richard Griffiths, and discover that the countryside offers no comfort to men this committed to ruin.

Bruce Robinson wrote and directed the film, drawing heavily on his own lean years as a struggling actor sharing a flat in Camden. Grant, who played a raging alcoholic, was reportedly a teetotaler and had never been drunk before making the film.

George Harrison’s company Handmade Films produced it, one of several films the ex-Beatle bankrolled after the company was founded to finance Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

The film found little audience on release but was kept alive by word of mouth and repeat viewings, until its lines became a kind of shared password among people who had properly wasted their twenties.

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Physical media

4K UHDArrow VideoUnited KingdomRegion free2025UPC 5027035029023

4K UHDCriterion CollectionUnited States2025UPC 715515313513

Part of Withnail and I Criterion Collection Comedy

Blu-rayCriterion CollectionUnited StatesRegion A2025UPC 715515313612

Part of Withnail and I Criterion Collection Comedy

4K UHDArrow VideoUnited KingdomRegion free2024UPC 5027035026879

Blu-rayImage EntertainmentUPC 014381663754

DVDCriterionUnited StatesRegion 12001UPC 715515012225

LaserDiscCriterion CollectionUnited States1997

DVDIMAGE ENTERTAINMENT INCUPC 014381658729

VHS1988

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About the film

If you don't remember the 60s don't worry, neither can they.

Directed by
Bruce Robinson
Runtime
108 minutes
Released
June 19, 1987
Certification
R
Country
United Kingdom, Canada
Starring
Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths, Ralph Brown, Michael Elphick
More credits
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Language
Latin, English
Origin
GB
Studios
Handmade Films, Cineplex-Odeon Films
Written by
Bruce Robinson
Produced by
Denis O'Brien, George Harrison, Paul M. Heller
Cinematography
Peter Hannan
Music
David Dundas, Rick Wentworth
Also starring
Daragh O'Malley, Michael Wardle, Una Brandon-Jones, Noel Johnson, Irene Sutcliffe
Box office
$1,544,889

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

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Comments

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  3. Seen it not your usual, kind of weird, not super weird, but not your usual indie drama either. It’s like if kevin Smith was a skinny brit from london writing about rural townies, from the perspective of someone who had just written dazed and confused and wanted to write something more mature.

    1. Michael Hasek couldn’t agree more. I’ve watched it so many times and yet every time I do it seems, there’s something else I’ve missed. The edginess of some of the scenes also indicates a sense of some things lost (perhaps just as well) from that period. “Ponce !” still gives me a hair raising shiver whenever I see that scene again.

      1. Mike Haft nah mate.. I know those people.. met plenty of them…play acting at being bohemian for a while ..until the inheritance materialises..or a family friend gives them a nice job…but Brits love toffs.. a people born to grovel.

    2. Wayne Elliott I saw it for the first time recently, and wasn’t keen. It’s maybe not worn well, only I/Marwood comes across ok. Richard E Grant’s character is boorish and, in 2026 terms, simply an entitled wanker.

  10. This is, in my opinion, pretty much a perfect film. I saw it in the ’80s and thought it was hilarious, which it is, but over time the melancholia around the edges of the film has come to mean much more. It resonates, and there is a depth to this film that is wonderful.

      2. Jackie that was so unexpected & so beautifully embroidered into that chaos, lack of hope, dashed dreams, new beginnings, some things that never end but like a guttering candle, just go out…….

      1. Dean Lee very much so. Withnail is a tragic figure. I think the sympathy for me comes with the inability he has to see how he can get out of his situation. I feel the same way about Jimmy in Quadrophenia

      1. Richard Castles In the alternate ending of Withnail and I, written in Bruce Robinson’s original draft, Withnail commits suicide after Marwood leaves. Alone in the flat, he pours a bottle of fine red wine down the barrel of Uncle Monty’s shotgun, puts it in his mouth, and pulls the trigger.

        Although not filmed, I can see that being the unseen destiny of Withnail.

  26. This is a ‘black hole’ for me – I tried to watch it a couple of times, but it just irritates me! 😕 Reading the quotes people are posting is giving me the same reaction as seeing a trailer for Mrs Brown’s Boys! 😆 Humour is very subjective.

    1. Rhys Jones I agree, they are both brilliant films. A lot of Dead Man’s Shoes was filmed in and around my home town Matlock, some of the scenes are on the street where I grew up. Riber Castle, which overlooks the town, was another location. It was a ruin at the time but has since been converted into luxury apartments. As for Withnail and I, I never tire of watching it. It’s not just the quotes but some of the things that you might have missed the first time round, like the old lady in the cafe with the fried egg sandwich.

    1. Mal Greenley I got it as soon as it came put on video ( we only had a one screen cinema and it would never be shown there ! )and watched it 3 times in a row. I loved it but it seemed like my little secret for years. I got bizarrely quite put out when it became a cult film and everybody and their aunty loved it.

  82. as a add one of my friends saw Paul McGann at a washed out glastonbury ooh about 10 plus’s years ago ,,,Laura Garner am i right in thinking you still have the peice of paper rained soaked sez ,,, i’ve come to a festival
    by mistake 👍💙

      1. Laura Garner it says on one side “ To Helen, I’ve come on holiday by mistake. Love Paul McGann x” and on the reverse “ I’m sitting down to enjoy my holiday”. 😆🤣😆 Love it!! You’ve gotta love a Withnail quote, especially from the iconic Mr McGann ❤️ x

  91. Watched it at Somerset house about ten years ago with my wife and a pal of mine.
    They didn’t get it I absolutely loved it having been a fan since the late 90s.
    I seem to remember Bruce narrating. Great night (for me at least).
    American Werwolf was the second show,another great film they didn’t like. 😳

  102. I watched this again last week. I know why I love it. It’s completely crazed, drug fuelled and driven by Richard E Grant as Withnail, ably assisted by “I” and Uncle Monty. Hang on for the ride!!

  109. “They’re selling hippy wigs in Woolworth’s 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.”

  138. My favourite film of all time. Full of brilliant dialogue and desperate characters. I had a Withnail t shirt for years, which my daughter now owns. I first saw it an old cinema on Commercial Drive in East Vancouver. It was the back half of a double feature. Can’t even recall what the other film was.

  153. Withnail & I has one of my favorite movie lines. When they go to Withnail’s rich gay uncle to try and get some money he becomes enamored with “I” (Marwood) who is not receptive to his advances. The uncle tells him, “I shall have you, even if it must be by burglary.” The whole movie is brilliant!

  159. For the scene in which he drinks the lighter fluid … they replaced the contents (presumably water?) with vinegar but didn’t tell him ..in order to get a better reaction from him on the taste. 🤔😬

  195. You’ve got soup. Why don’t I get any soup?
    Coffee.
    Why don’t you use a cup like any other human being?
    Why don’t you wash up occasionally like any other human being?
    How dare you! How dare you! How dare you call me inhumane?!
    I didn’t call you inhumane. You merely imagined it. Calm down.
    Right you f***er, I’m going to do the washing up!
    No you can’t, listen to me, listen to me! There are are things in there; there’s a teabag growing!
    What do you mean, a rat?
    It’s possible, it’s possible.
    Then the f***er will rue the day! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

  261. The best and possibly the most underrated ( unless you’re in the know) film ever produced. I have watched this masterpiece somewhere approaching a 100 times since the 90’s when I used to watch it almost every weekend on VHS after mucho 🍻, not quite as often on DVD in the 00’s and so on until 2-3 x a year now.
    Beautifully made, incredible script and wonderful acting by all concerned.
    A film I know off by heart but never tire of ❤️

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