This is the soul-crushing moment when Withnail realises that he will never play the Dane. It's even more tragic because it's the moment we see that Withnail ISN'T delusional, that he's actually a fine actor. But we are the only audience he's ever going to have..
Well put. One of the best films ever made itself to celluloid. and two of best actors of our generation. And Richard Griffiths as well..brilliant.! Was there a single bad frame here. No.
Darth Bossk - Woody Allen said "80% of success is showing up." People don't simply show up, say who they are and plainly ask for what they want, as if it's possible the world shall magically come to them… shall discover their 'talent.' We have to learn to be proactive and actually find joy in the freedom of that. I guess we are the _puer aeternus_ unless we do hit rock bottom & then finally take stock and engage. It's a kind of death and rebirth we should stop being afraid of.
+deadbutdreaming Very interesting analysis, actually. Never thought about it like that. I wonder if Bruce Robinson ever considered that interpretation.
Yup, that feeling of not making the cut, and absolutely nothing is down for you, is utterly indescribable. Before the age of 30 it's not so bad, but the loss you'll experience in the circumstance played in this clip is unbelievable.
The saddest part of the scene is when Withnail turns to swig from the bottle and misses his last moment with I. The look on his face says he knew instantly that moment was lost. Life is fleeting, embrace every moment - even the last. Especially the last. It is the one that you will remember the most.
RE Grant plays it so well, that ambivalence. Even in a moment of real platonic connection, genuine and appreciative Withnail still deflects from the honesty of the the moment with what could be a really flippant 'cin cin 'gesture - and then immediately regrets it as Marwood walks away. But it stays with Withnail, that moment of his own jackassery and disconnection... it really gets to him and the Hamlet soliloquy is as much regret of himself as it is a comment on Marwood or others.
I was struck by both the first time I saw it, back when it came out. I watched it only because a friend had recommended it as "...maybe the sort of thing you might like." This was before it became recognised as a classic. Talk about bitter-sweet.
It's like watching a nihilistic genius waste his potential away because he can't get past his meaningless outlook on life and summon up the courage and strength to put his talents to work. Crushed by loneliness, insecurity and cynicism... With an addiction to all manner of stimulating substances to boot. Great performance, very sad indeed.
AlexLordAlcyone - stop stealing lamps, don’t make Genies derelict. Look, if you know a Genie that needs a home, just fit them in a lightbulb or something. If you rub them the right way they might give you wishes. I don’t know what your long career in the arts has taught you, but patronize magical Middle Eastern spirits.
So absolutely perfect. If you've ever had a Withnail in your life you know the frustration of seeing someone so talented battle the demons of depression and/or mental illness with booze and anything else that dulls the pain; this speech, it perfectly reflects Withnail's talent, it references old Monty...but it also captures that feeling that needs stamping down with the bottle. It gives the humor it's truth, and in doing so takes it from clowning to poignant, and gives it the real and THAT is why it is a cult classic.
Mind you, at least Withnail stands a chance of a bequest or two coming his way at some point, so Chateau Lafitte rather than lighter fuel or White Lightning will accompany his final years (he hopes).
Yes of course Hamlet is about a guy who is incredibly privileged, to be a Prince in Shakespeare's time meant you had a divine right to be one of the few rulers, yet the speech basically says "but life is shit then you die" making it clear that he is clinically depressed, as he has little to whinge about. Depression is a bastard thing. Booze & speed (withnails fave combo) is likely to make it far worse. Mushrooms, ketamine, cannabis - all likely to help or not make it worse. The problem with alcohol is the physical damage it does on the way to you might quit drinking due to ill health at 50 or 60 and discover your organs are fucked and you have sever nerve damage resulting in loss of fingers toes or even legs *If you don't eat properly and drink too much take vitamin B6, and all the other B's and they will stop this happening. My friend lost 5/10 fingers several toes and his left leg due to alcoholism.*
This is hands down one of the most soaring and heart-wrenching performances of anything ever. Richard E Grant's performance here basically made him one of my favourite actors. An amazing ending to one of the greatest films to ever come out of Britain.
The real power in this scene is here you realise that Withnail is a great talent and could have been everything he thinks he is but he's thrown it away with his own arrogance and self pity
I have seen many performances of "The Dane", including the RSC and the Globe, and none of them ever did it like this, more's the pity, because this is far and away the best performance of this famous speech. Bravo Richard E Grant. You deserved an Oscar for this movie.
I remember slight disappointment when I first came to study hamlet at school and see it on stage at this part for the same reason - it wasn’t like this version or anywhere near as powerful. I do accept these days that’s because it’s not a soliloquy but part of the dialogue with two others on the stage. It’s conversation, tho also a reflective moment for hamlet of course Just seems hard to believe words so beautiful could be part of the dialogue and not given all the attention possible set on the page in verse you know ? But it kind of makes sense withnail is reapproriating a bit. He also misses a few lines - always wondered if that’s intentional or just cut for time ? Surely the former
The speech in Hamlet has an entirely different context to what it does here. It's an "Oh, woe is me!" moment with all the over excessive adjectives to boot. The adaptation here repurposes that to reflect what the audience has seen of Grant's character throughout the film. That gives it a level of tension: we're essentially seeing a confession - at minimum an understanding of the road that led here - but we are not given the catharsis of an answer. Of course, life doesn't always work out. I think that is what gives this scene so much power.
Such a sad ending. Withnail is pretending to be on stage at the London Palladium, putting on the performance of a lifetime. But, in reality he's in the miserable pouring rain, his only audience a pack of wolves and he's destined to drink himself to death.
Thank you A.R. and perhaps therein lies another truth and observation; that those most gifted with the integrity of insight, are also, the most sure to be amongst the outcasts in this game we call life, the so-called failures and mis-fits. "Thomas: Blessed are the poor ..."
Well this is me. Best at art in all my schools, PHD in English and history, homeless, liver gone as is everyone I ever loved, including my partner who just passed suddenly.. She was a beautiful soul that deserved far, far better. All you who have nice lives try not to judge others. We all end up dead anyway. Phil.
@user-fz6xn3sj7t Thank you so much. It was a beautiful ceremony. ❤️ As there is no one left, at least I won't have to go to another one apart from my own. 😢
I think you realise at this moment, that Withnail is by far the greater talent, but as he also realises, he's destined to piss it up the wall. The pathos and futility of this scene makes my hair stand on end, each and every time.
@@oddunb6190 No, it isn't. Who is the friend Hamlet lost, a lesser talent, who left by his own choice, who left to go on to better things, in stark contrast to Hamlet? No one. Literally.
0:32 that teary-eyed, barely-there nod might be the only fully heartfelt sentiment Withnail expresses in the entire film. It's a second of artless, childlike, vulnerable and total authenticity, from someone who is otherwise more or less a shabby patchworked construction of performances, "a piece of work..."
All of us who fell into that world of squalor, of drink, drugs and joyful chaos... all of us who escaped had to leave a Withnail behind along the way. Someone we loved but who couldn't be saved from themselves.
Love how layered this becomes - not just my fave speech from Hamlet and in context of that character, but also in how it relates to Withnail's dying ambitions and complete despair in that moment toward everything. Very much a Goodbye Cruel World, but filled with so many emotions. Love, hate, passion, despair, piteousness, loneliness, anger, arrogance, longing, sadness, tiredness. If you've ever been there at the end of your rope and left behind with nothing, you'll know this whole scene sums it up so well.
I had the great pleasure of watching this movie in a small cinema several years ago as part of a film festival. Richard E Grant sat at the front and just off to the side of the screen. His reactions were priceless and he said afterwards in a lengthy Q & A that it was his first time sitting through the entire film since its premiere. What a delight.
He knows the true pain of existing in this utter cesspool of a world. Beautifully acted. I am on my way out from all the obscene things that have happened to me. Those of you with a relatively mundane lives should cherish it. I will say no more than that. 👍
"This most excellent canopy, the air..." as the rain pounds harder. That look to the heavens gets me in the gut every time. The grand ego ultimately unimpressed with the infinite splendor that is life.
I don't think there's a single scene in Withnail & I that isn't excellent; the acting and the writing are superb. Paul McGann and Richard E Grant both give performances that I don't think they've ever bettered. The mood and the look of the film are so far removed from the typical idea that people have of late 60s "swinging" London, but the film is a reflection of the life Bruce Robinson was living, so it has that gritty, dirt under the fingernails kind of reality and this final scene is so brilliant and heartbreakingly sad as Withnail delivers a brilliant performance that no-one will see.
The original ending was even darker, poor Withnail goes home, fills the shotgun with wine and blows his head off. However Bruce Robinson thought it was too dark, and actually Withnail being left behind to live in failure in the squalid flat, was a sadder fate.
That's a horribly cheap idea for an ending. It certainly appears that that path is the one that Withnail will inevitably choose, but it doesn't need to explicitly shown.
You really get the feeling Withnail could be a creative genius and a great actor if he could only get out of his own way. Instead, he wallows in his cynicism and self pity and pushes everyone away from him and that’s the real tragedy. An all too relatable one.
Now imagine he breaks out the good glassware so it can breathe, and then puts on some mood lighting and makes canapés for a snack. He presses play on a CD, and we hear James Brown "I feel good" and just before we cut to credits, Withnail looks directly into the camera and smiles from somewhere deep like it's the first time he was truly happy.
@@michaelunderhill8847 For me, I figured he’d end up like Monty. Lamenting the olden days about his time with “I” just as Monty mentioned how he and a friend would drive out to the country side and fall asleep in a barn somewhere together. I always figured that the entire plot of them taking a trip to Monty’s cottage was similar in a way to Monty’s short story, but not completely. In a way, Monty lamenting those moments were romantic. As it was made clear he was homosexual. But Withnail won’t remember it that way. Since he cannot love man nor woman. Nor “I”. He is jealous that “I” put himself out there, even for the smallest of roles and eventually made something of himself. While Withnail thought those roles too beneath him, he never put himself out there really, he never took a risk. He wanted the main role immediately while “I” was willing to put in the work. And now he’s stuck in the dust, after giving this last performance. He’d swagger off back to his apartment before being kicked out. Ending up like Monty, alone, and reminiscent of the “good” times with his old chum. He’d probably not be well off as Monty, or maybe he would be, settling for something else than theatre just like Monty. Giving up that dream and being alone forever, just like Monty. As much as Withnail liked to say he didn’t care for his relatives, and even though he would use Monty for his money (and the vacation), he seemed to get along rather well with him and even enjoyed his same love for the theater even if Monty came to believe he wasn’t good enough for it. I assume Withnail would do the same, eventually, his world crashing as he believed he wasn’t good enough. But In reality he just never had the work ethic for it, or was too prideful, never having the passion to pursue it as much as “I”, just as Monty did. Even though acting was Withnail’s desire. While Monty found his “salvation” from this “hopeless” endeavor in homosexuality, Withnail would probably do the similar except with booze and drugs. Maybe he would die in a gutter sometime after this, or just end up a drunken lonely shell. Alone either way. Following in the footsteps of his Uncle.
I think Bruce Robinson said somewhere that about 70% of the film is inspired by things that really happened. However, there was something that happened very like the end of the Film in real life that he may not know about, because, as far as I know, he wasn't there when it happened. He has made it clear several times that his friend and former flatmate, Vivian MacKerrel was the main inspiration for Withnail (though the trip up to the Lake District re-created in the film was with future "Game of Thrones" actor, Michael Feast.) In Vivians biography (which to be honest, is not really worth the money overall!), one of the bits that is more interesting, is that actor, Gregory Floy says that he was a couple of years below Bruce and Vivian at drama school and used to hang out at their flat in Camden regularly. He said that years later, when he sat down to watch the film, he expected to hate it, but loved it right from the start and remembered so many things happening in real life, including Vivian drinking lighter fluid! He said that, despite this, he initially didn't like Viv that much, but became friendly with him a few years later, when they were both in an open air production of "Romeo and Juliet" in Regents Park. He said that after that, they would regularly hang out together around London for a couple of years, but finally a time came, when they were about to go their separate ways. He was due to go out to the US for 6 months, to appear in a play and Vivian's place in Camden was getting sold and he was moving back up to Nottingham. He said that just before they did go their separate ways, there was an occasion when they both walked round Regents Park and it was raining and winter. Also Viv was dressed in a long coat and a scarf. He said that Viv didn't recite Hamlet, or anything, but that it really did feel like the end of an era and very like the ending of the Film, though that wouldn't be made for years yet! 6 months later, when he returned from the US, Viv was gone. He said he came down to visit for the day, but it wasn't the same. It looks like that may possibly have just happened like the Film by chance though!
watched 3 other performances of this monologue n richard e grant brings something so different to it n im obsessed with it ALSO he repeats "nor woman neither" make of that what u will
Goddamn, one of the saddest scenes ever. Withnail is a goner, especially after losing "I," who seemed like maybe his one string of a hope, his one chance for anything other than madness and self-destruction. I completely identify with Withnail. I too burn my candle at both ends, and often wonder when I'll finally do myself in.
"Such a courteous display in the face of such crushing emotions and nihilistic petulance, to seize a grip, on what one perceived to be a dull world run by fiendish snarks, who prey on the dispositioned and dispossessed. In such a world, one can only wonder as to how any comfort can be seized, outside of a wide array of substances and fleeting pleasures, and to then smile and repeat the same cycle consistently, knowing that you will never change.
13 years of heavy drinking I'm surprised I'm still here but physically and mentally it's taken it's toll on me my memory is shot to shit and right now I'm having another beer
I drank more than oliver reed n ozzy Osbourne put together from champagne to paint thinners with a twist of cider!!! This film really saved my life by watching it over and over been thru those mad scenes i even remember doin that coffee shop multi millionaires in 79 80 in penrith was bruce there?? I waz extremely drunk , still dry bt living a reality built for withnail.......hell
Very powerful and moving scene. Withnails' loneliness in this scene is palpable and yet even in his inebriated state, manages to deliver a powerful Shakespeare soliloquy that embodies all of his trials and frustrations and what it is to be human with all its frailties.
It's his talent that makes him feel so deeply that he has to constantly drink to numb the world around him - One of the most funny and truly tragic movies ever made.
This movie always hit home for me because I always felt like our emotion never leapt far enough. Artists scream and the rest of us imitate those screams. It hurts to imitate, but the actual pain can never be replicated, and its only when we create a genuine piece of art all of our own that we can truly reach into that space between objects, that sight offset of focus, that fear that is terrifying enough to overcome itself. You have to lose everything before anything starts to really matter.
Is sadness the correct attitude? Perhaps the art they produced changed them in many subtle ways as they created it, and this influence made manifest through their art, in turn may have become manifest in their interactions with the world and with others; no matter how addicted and/or marginalised they may have been. Take heart, and perhaps some joy also, in that deeper reality.
I’ll never forget this beautiful film for this short, powerful soliloquy. I’ve never failed to repeat it at least once a month or so since! And the immortal line: ‘We’ve come on holiday by mistake!’ ❤️
Similar comments below, but this is really the first time you see Withnail actually have to face a challenge or a problem (i.e. tackling the bull by the horns, ironically he dodges that task earlier in the film). He's clearly got talent, he's clearly capable, but you can see the whole time he's just never going to get there... Gets me every time this scene.
The original ending was Withnail went back home, drank a shotgun full of Margeaux and then shot himself in the face. They had to rewrite the ending though because it was considered “too dark”. This rewritten ending however, is such a genius (I don’t use that word lightly) performance and a perfectly written replacement.
The original ending doesn't ring true. Withnail wouldn't do that. He's too boozed up to ever have that period of despair or...clarity. And the real Withnail did indeed drink himself to an early grave. It was cancer that killed him, but Mackerrell's decades of heavy boozing and drugs would've finished him if it wasn't the cancer (which Robinson attributed to Mackerrell having drunk lighter fluid).
This is such a well considered and informative thread ! Chin Chin everyone and thanks for the insights ! I'm never to old to learn ! Neither are any and all of us ! Drink it up ! With ice in your cider !
Ive watched this film over 100 times..im a mega fan bt the end always leaves me sad knowing that sometimes you have to leave people behind to become something but bruce has brought withnail up to where he belongs...A STAAAAAAAAARRRR
Talent is useless if you dont have the dedication and drive to put it to use. You have to have both talent and dedication to succeed. I've known really talented people who just didn't have the drive or dedication it takes to use their talent. And they become depressed once they realize too much time has passed and its become too late in their lives to knuckle down and hone their talent.
Yeah that is a real conceit - that talent is so special - what does it is hard work and "Eighty percent of success is showing up." - Woody Allen would know.
This is beyond bitter sweet. There's not really a way to put into words and describe the way this scene makes me feel. A certain happiness with a fundamental deep lying sadness both equally as prominent and impactful as the other.
Well, in the book he blows his head off. It would be nice to think he gets it together. Gives up drinking entirely and manages to get a good gig and build it from there.
Withnail is based on this guy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_MacKerrell#:~:text=Vivian%20Alan%20James%20MacKerrell%20(23,the%20film%20Withnail%20and%20I. "Mackerell's career was curtailed by heavy drinking. He died from throat cancer, which he contracted in his 40s. After a short remission in the mid-1980s, the illness returned and eventually a laryngectomy was performed. Unable to eat or drink, MacKerrell resorted to injecting alcohol directly into his stomach.[4] In his last days MacKerrell contracted pneumonia after a drunk incident and died in Gloucester Royal Infirmary." So... not a happy ending. :-(
@@Rapscallion2009 Since that's not how the real Withnail died, I think this is the nuch more realistic and fitting ending. Mackerrell continued to drink, even after getting surgery for cancer - he even injected sherry into his stomach! Obviously the drink pushed him along more quickly, but Mackerrell died of cancer. I nevee heard that he'd ever attempted suicide. Constantly being on the booze allowed Mackerrell to avoid the kind of depressing introspection and self judgment that might lead a person to commit suicide.
Absolutely heart wrenching. Unfortunately, i’m Usually the Withnail in this scenario through I’ill health, not taking opportunities or just not trying hard enough, alas.
I'm 52 and re-oriented my journey not so long ago. It's worth the gamble when you find out the gamble wasn't much of a wager at all. The House always wins when you're playing their game at their table and the cards are all marked against your favor. And all it requires is the decision to steer away from the rocks. And the sirens. And the turbulence. Inner-peace is within you. God -- however you wish to imagine such a thing -- is within you. Don't leave the world behind having led a half-lived life. "Life is not tragic. Lives are tragic." -- WB Yeats (Godspeed, Withnail. You taught me what I needed to learn.)
This is a lovely and long clip of this great final scene, including the credit roll and outro music, and I thank you for putting it here on TH-cam. And I’ve always wanted to give a shout-out to the wolves behind the bars of the cage, who were the quintessentially indifferent audience to Withnail’s genius drunken Hamlet and who, it seems to me, hit their marks perfectly.
It's one of, if not thee, saddest endings to a film I've ever seen..two inseparable friends going their separate ways, leaving one to drink himself to death while the other goes onto hopeful success..
Joanna Albright haha oh dear 😬 I’m 18 years old, so wasn’t around for when it came out. I saw it for the first time when I was 16, I think I’ve seen it about 10 or 11 times now. I love Richard E. Grant.
It portrays the bittersweet twists and turns of life itself,.....the ups and downs,....the laughter, the sadness , the yearning to feel wanted and accepted.......their struggles , and the bleakness and emptiness of their seemingly aimless lives,...the magnitude of the film is expressed by humor and quote....and it as a real warmth and charm at its very soul,.. that makes it such a great film on many levels......
In the play Hamlet recites this monologue to convince others that he is suicidal even though he isn't. Withnail recites it sincerely here. Thanks, Mr. Grant.
Actors recite; characters do not recite. This is part of Hamlet's conversation with people with whom he studied, his friends. He's expressing his grief to his friends who were sent to coax him out of it, not trying to convince people he's suicidal. In fact, immediately afterward, he asks why one of them smiled when he said 'man delights not me'. Withnail is also expressing grief.
I am Withnail, I had all the brains and artistic talent in the world but an all boys Catholic school destroyed me I write this homeless with cirrhosis stuck in a graveyard. Not much fun but that is life. You are dust in the end.
Same here. Afraid of becoming one too. I watched this movie years ago and didn't feel the same, now I watch it and it freaks me out how similar life is going. Oh well.
Have you heard of Jordan Peterson? Don't be afraid, just take one day at a time but do something that day that makes you satisfied at the end of the day, and slowly build on it.
I was in a relationship with a Withnail for 16 years. This scene makes me think of the (much less amicable) end of our relationship. I went off and got my life somewhat together; he died last year. Even though he treated me very badly I mourn the loss of his music. I still can't get a lot of the songs he wrote out of my head. I would love to know if there is a link between creative talent and poor mental health, and if so what it is
"Cam Latchford" - Withnail does have some narcissictic qualities (in common with most human beings including you and me), but we must surely accept, he also posessses other qualities that made the friendship/connection of THE WITHNAIL AND I saga,; possible in the first place. Charm / Wit / Artistry / Intelligence - among others ... Let us NOT put simple labels on people (and reject them entirely - calling them 'EMPTY' perhaps); simply because their matrix feels incompatible with our own. Thanks for your comment!
@@getthemusicout3212 i love Withnail but he was a narcissist, OP knows. You can love a narcissist very easily, they are of course charming and witty, but they're fundamentally flawed in a way they are not even conscious of. They cannot be fixed and eventually to live a free life you must leave them, sad though it may be :(
This is the soul-crushing moment when Withnail realises that he will never play the Dane. It's even more tragic because it's the moment we see that Withnail ISN'T delusional, that he's actually a fine actor.
But we are the only audience he's ever going to have..
Yes, that. It is so sad.
What on earth are you talking about? The wolves had front row seats!
Well put. One of the best films ever made itself to celluloid. and two of best actors of our generation. And Richard Griffiths as well..brilliant.! Was there a single bad frame here. No.
Withnail was alcoholic and it was the sole reason he wa snever going to get fame.
There has been many in the entertainment industry that have been raging alcoholics that continued throughout their careers.@@rocksoliddude1
The rain applauds.
The genius of this film is partly that we suspect Withnail is the better actor- talent laid waste
"The rain applauds" - I love that sentiment. Melancholy but lovely. :D
pathetic fallacy at its finest.
Darth Bossk - Woody Allen said "80% of success is showing up."
People don't simply show up, say who they are and plainly ask for what they want, as if it's possible the world shall magically come to them… shall discover their 'talent.' We have to learn to be proactive and actually find joy in the freedom of that.
I guess we are the _puer aeternus_ unless we do hit rock bottom & then finally take stock and engage. It's a kind of death and rebirth we should stop being afraid of.
Genius.
Nothing worse than being left behind while those around you succeed and move on.
+deadbutdreaming
Very interesting analysis, actually. Never thought about it like that. I wonder if Bruce Robinson ever considered that interpretation.
Hmm. Yes, definitely interesting but... wasn't Jesus/God a bit of a sodomite too? I mean, inventing it and all?
Nobody is 'left behind'... we are all headed for the same end, regardless of worldly success.
Nothing worse than selling yourself.
Yup, that feeling of not making the cut, and absolutely nothing is down for you, is utterly indescribable. Before the age of 30 it's not so bad, but the loss you'll experience in the circumstance played in this clip is unbelievable.
In the official screenplay, after Withnail delivers his soliloquy, it says: 'The wolves are
unimpressed.' Just to make you feel even worse for him.
I was watching the grey wolf near the end of the speech and he did seem to be listening,then walked of seemingly unimpressed.
In the book he then goes home to drink wine from a shotgun and shoot himself
Success
@@fegstachops6746 seen it in Old Vic
Everyone's a critic
The saddest part of the scene is when Withnail turns to swig from the bottle and misses his last moment with I. The look on his face says he knew instantly that moment was lost.
Life is fleeting, embrace every moment - even the last. Especially the last. It is the one that you will remember the most.
Some of the wisest words said, couldn’t put it better
RE Grant plays it so well, that ambivalence. Even in a moment of real platonic connection, genuine and appreciative Withnail still deflects from the honesty of the the moment with what could be a really flippant 'cin cin 'gesture - and then immediately regrets it as Marwood walks away.
But it stays with Withnail, that moment of his own jackassery and disconnection... it really gets to him and the Hamlet soliloquy is as much regret of himself as it is a comment on Marwood or others.
Damn this one hits hard
It's better to travel hopefully than to arrive.
Once you die, you exist no more
By the way, ‘I’s’ name is Marwood.
This has to be one of the best British films ever made..
One of?
1220b beautifully put!
1220b Watch it back to back with Performance. It's extraordinary how you can mix and match bits of dialogue from one to the other.
Yes would be the answer
You’re one of the best British film’s ever made, mate, if anyone is...
One of the saddest, most poignant endings ever. Richard E Grant is genius.
Shakespeare is the real genius here
@@melciveng There are 3 geniuses here actually: Shakespeare himself, Richard Grant and the composer of the film's score.
I thought Bruce Robinson had some input, too.
@@Patrick-ig4nd Bruce Robinson was the genius responsible for bringing those "3 geniuses" together.
@@peterburry2531 Agree. Can't believe I forgot Brucey! - I meant 4 geniuses!
0:06 - "No. No more, thank you"
Key line in this scene.
Old life over, new begins.
to meet his father, or his adult self?
When I was younger I revelled in the dark humour. Now much older I am unpicked by it’s melancholy
It's funny how the passing time alters one's grey matter isn't it Mark.
Mark Deamer
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.
unpicked, I like but I can't find an appropriate meaning !
Beautifully said Mark, I feel the same.
I was struck by both the first time I saw it, back when it came out. I watched it only because a friend had recommended it as "...maybe the sort of thing you might like." This was before it became recognised as a classic. Talk about bitter-sweet.
It's like watching a nihilistic genius waste his potential away because he can't get past his meaningless outlook on life and summon up the courage and strength to put his talents to work. Crushed by loneliness, insecurity and cynicism... With an addiction to all manner of stimulating substances to boot. Great performance, very sad indeed.
Beautifully put, Arkenholm.
His agent couldn't get him a job.
Is it? Is it really ‘like’ that? I bet you did well in gcse film studies.
AlexLordAlcyone - stop stealing lamps, don’t make Genies derelict.
Look, if you know a Genie that needs a home, just fit them in a lightbulb or something. If you rub them the right way they might give you wishes. I don’t know what your long career in the arts has taught you, but patronize magical Middle Eastern spirits.
Existential depression. I can relate. Haven't fallen like him, though.
One of the most Beautiful Scenes in Cinema.
I cried so much during this scene and still do. When you live that life as I did and make it out, you never make it out with all your friends
One of the most remarkable sentences I've ever read in a TH-cam comment.
Great comment and completely true. My Withnail is on the other side of the world still, I hope he's still alive.
So sad, thank you for the comment, and I can definitely relate, sometimes you don't make it out yourself, and have to even leave yourself behind
So absolutely perfect. If you've ever had a Withnail in your life you know the frustration of seeing someone so talented battle the demons of depression and/or mental illness with booze and anything else that dulls the pain; this speech, it perfectly reflects Withnail's talent, it references old Monty...but it also captures that feeling that needs stamping down with the bottle. It gives the humor it's truth, and in doing so takes it from clowning to poignant, and gives it the real and THAT is why it is a cult classic.
Yes. Humanity and ones proximity to it lends well to timelessness.
Mind you, at least Withnail stands a chance of a bequest or two coming his way at some point, so Chateau Lafitte rather than lighter fuel or White Lightning will accompany his final years (he hopes).
Yes of course Hamlet is about a guy who is incredibly privileged, to be a Prince in Shakespeare's time meant you had a divine right to be one of the few rulers, yet the speech basically says "but life is shit then you die" making it clear that he is clinically depressed, as he has little to whinge about. Depression is a bastard thing.
Booze & speed (withnails fave combo) is likely to make it far worse.
Mushrooms, ketamine, cannabis - all likely to help or not make it worse.
The problem with alcohol is the physical damage it does on the way to you might quit drinking due to ill health at 50 or 60 and discover your organs are fucked and you have sever nerve damage resulting in loss of fingers toes or even legs
*If you don't eat properly and drink too much take vitamin B6, and all the other B's and they will stop this happening. My friend lost 5/10 fingers several toes and his left leg due to alcoholism.*
Oh Fuck off Popovic and fetch me some delicious wines! Chop chop!
so well said
This is hands down one of the most soaring and heart-wrenching performances of anything ever. Richard E Grant's performance here basically made him one of my favourite actors. An amazing ending to one of the greatest films to ever come out of Britain.
The real power in this scene is here you realise that Withnail is a great talent and could have been everything he thinks he is but he's thrown it away with his own arrogance and self pity
I have seen many performances of "The Dane", including the RSC and the Globe, and none of them ever did it like this, more's the pity, because this is far and away the best performance of this famous speech. Bravo Richard E Grant. You deserved an Oscar for this movie.
Such an underrated performance :(
I see you’ve been around
I remember slight disappointment when I first came to study hamlet at school and see it on stage at this part for the same reason - it wasn’t like this version or anywhere near as powerful. I do accept these days that’s because it’s not a soliloquy but part of the dialogue with two others on the stage. It’s conversation, tho also a reflective moment for hamlet of course
Just seems hard to believe words so beautiful could be part of the dialogue and not given all the attention possible set on the page in verse you know ?
But it kind of makes sense withnail is reapproriating a bit. He also misses a few lines - always wondered if that’s intentional or just cut for time ? Surely the former
@Paddy le Blanc Olivier, Alan Cumming, Benedict Cumberbatch and this. Can't pick one between those 4.
The speech in Hamlet has an entirely different context to what it does here. It's an "Oh, woe is me!" moment with all the over excessive adjectives to boot.
The adaptation here repurposes that to reflect what the audience has seen of Grant's character throughout the film. That gives it a level of tension: we're essentially seeing a confession - at minimum an understanding of the road that led here - but we are not given the catharsis of an answer.
Of course, life doesn't always work out. I think that is what gives this scene so much power.
Such a sad ending. Withnail is pretending to be on stage at the London Palladium, putting on the performance of a lifetime. But, in reality he's in the miserable pouring rain, his only audience a pack of wolves and he's destined to drink himself to death.
Amen
"This most excellent canopy, the air... this majestical roof fretted with golden fire..." In the middle of a London downpour.
Thank you A.R. and perhaps therein lies another truth and observation; that those most gifted with the integrity of insight, are also, the most sure to be amongst the outcasts in this game we call life, the so-called failures and mis-fits. "Thomas: Blessed are the poor ..."
Well this is me.
Best at art in all my schools, PHD in English and history, homeless, liver gone as is everyone I ever loved, including my partner who just passed suddenly..
She was a beautiful soul that deserved far, far better.
All you who have nice lives try not to judge others.
We all end up dead anyway.
Phil.
I'm very sorry for your loss, Phil, and want to believe you'll be okay 🙏
@@user-fz6xn3sj7t
Thank you. X
@user-fz6xn3sj7t
Thank you so much. It was a beautiful ceremony. ❤️
As there is no one left, at least I won't have to go to another one apart from my own. 😢
Sorry to hear this. If you need anything reach out.
@vars666
I have tried to believe me.
But I don't tick any of the correct boxes.
They literally told me that.
Richard E Grant's face at about 28 seconds in is some of the best acting I have ever seen in my life.
It, simply, will never be done better. It is perfect.
I think you realise at this moment, that Withnail is by far the greater talent, but as he also realises, he's destined to piss it up the wall. The pathos and futility of this scene makes my hair stand on end, each and every time.
That’s literally the story of Hamlet
@@oddunb6190 No, it isn't. Who is the friend Hamlet lost, a lesser talent, who left by his own choice, who left to go on to better things, in stark contrast to Hamlet? No one. Literally.
0:32 that teary-eyed, barely-there nod might be the only fully heartfelt sentiment Withnail expresses in the entire film. It's a second of artless, childlike, vulnerable and total authenticity, from someone who is otherwise more or less a shabby patchworked construction of performances, "a piece of work..."
All of us who fell into that world of squalor, of drink, drugs and joyful chaos... all of us who escaped had to leave a Withnail behind along the way. Someone we loved but who couldn't be saved from themselves.
Love how layered this becomes - not just my fave speech from Hamlet and in context of that character, but also in how it relates to Withnail's dying ambitions and complete despair in that moment toward everything. Very much a Goodbye Cruel World, but filled with so many emotions. Love, hate, passion, despair, piteousness, loneliness, anger, arrogance, longing, sadness, tiredness.
If you've ever been there at the end of your rope and left behind with nothing, you'll know this whole scene sums it up so well.
Thank you Flecktarn. Yes, so many emotions, surely perhaps, so aptly described as "a paragon of animals" !!!
@@getthemusicout3212 - And simultaneously, we see a fatigued animal in a cage, reduced to the status of a living corpse.
Probably the saddest ending to a film I've ever seen, so many don't reach their potential for one reason or another.
I had the great pleasure of watching this movie in a small cinema several years ago as part of a film festival. Richard E Grant sat at the front and just off to the side of the screen. His reactions were priceless and he said afterwards in a lengthy Q & A that it was his first time sitting through the entire film since its premiere. What a delight.
do you remember anything of the questions and his answers?
Undoubtedly the best Hamlet ever. Beautiful.
He knows the true pain of existing in this utter cesspool of a world.
Beautifully acted.
I am on my way out from all the obscene things that have happened to me.
Those of you with a relatively mundane lives should cherish it.
I will say no more than that.
👍
"This most excellent canopy, the air..." as the rain pounds harder. That look to the heavens gets me in the gut every time. The grand ego ultimately unimpressed with the infinite splendor that is life.
THE most beautiful scene, anywhere, ever.
I don't think there's a single scene in Withnail & I that isn't excellent; the acting and the writing are superb. Paul McGann and Richard E Grant both give performances that I don't think they've ever bettered. The mood and the look of the film are so far removed from the typical idea that people have of late 60s "swinging" London, but the film is a reflection of the life Bruce Robinson was living, so it has that gritty, dirt under the fingernails kind of reality and this final scene is so brilliant and heartbreakingly sad as Withnail delivers a brilliant performance that no-one will see.
The original ending was even darker, poor Withnail goes home, fills the shotgun with wine and blows his head off. However Bruce Robinson thought it was too dark, and actually Withnail being left behind to live in failure in the squalid flat, was a sadder fate.
Bruce didn't think it was too dark. The producers did. Also, who are we to judge what defines a sad ending? Why is one more than the other?
Even though they didn't show it the very end of the credits music suggests a shotgun blast.
You're gonna need a bigger boat.....
....sorry, I lost the thread there....
That's a horribly cheap idea for an ending. It certainly appears that that path is the one that Withnail will inevitably choose, but it doesn't need to explicitly shown.
I think that young man just needed to get his life together.
Some healthy hobbies, exercise, a nice girl. Chin up Withnail!
You really get the feeling Withnail could be a creative genius and a great actor if he could only get out of his own way. Instead, he wallows in his cynicism and self pity and pushes everyone away from him and that’s the real tragedy. An all too relatable one.
The genius of Shakespeare and the best delivery of these existential lines.
Imagine Withnail back in the cold empty flat, sitting alone in the living room, finishing the last of his wine.
In the original script, he kills himself
Now imagine he breaks out the good glassware so it can breathe, and then puts on some mood lighting and makes canapés for a snack. He presses play on a CD, and we hear James Brown "I feel good" and just before we cut to credits, Withnail looks directly into the camera and smiles from somewhere deep like it's the first time he was truly happy.
oh shit , I can picture it . Because I've been there . Far too often
Imagine Sisyphus happy.
@@michaelunderhill8847 For me, I figured he’d end up like Monty. Lamenting the olden days about his time with “I” just as Monty mentioned how he and a friend would drive out to the country side and fall asleep in a barn somewhere together. I always figured that the entire plot of them taking a trip to Monty’s cottage was similar in a way to Monty’s short story, but not completely. In a way, Monty lamenting those moments were romantic. As it was made clear he was homosexual. But Withnail won’t remember it that way. Since he cannot love man nor woman. Nor “I”. He is jealous that “I” put himself out there, even for the smallest of roles and eventually made something of himself. While Withnail thought those roles too beneath him, he never put himself out there really, he never took a risk. He wanted the main role immediately while “I” was willing to put in the work. And now he’s stuck in the dust, after giving this last performance. He’d swagger off back to his apartment before being kicked out. Ending up like Monty, alone, and reminiscent of the “good” times with his old chum. He’d probably not be well off as Monty, or maybe he would be, settling for something else than theatre just like Monty. Giving up that dream and being alone forever, just like Monty. As much as Withnail liked to say he didn’t care for his relatives, and even though he would use Monty for his money (and the vacation), he seemed to get along rather well with him and even enjoyed his same love for the theater even if Monty came to believe he wasn’t good enough for it. I assume Withnail would do the same, eventually, his world crashing as he believed he wasn’t good enough. But In reality he just never had the work ethic for it, or was too prideful, never having the passion to pursue it as much as “I”, just as Monty did. Even though acting was Withnail’s desire. While Monty found his “salvation” from this “hopeless” endeavor in homosexuality, Withnail would probably do the similar except with booze and drugs. Maybe he would die in a gutter sometime after this, or just end up a drunken lonely shell. Alone either way. Following in the footsteps of his Uncle.
I think Bruce Robinson said somewhere that about 70% of the film is inspired by things that really happened. However, there was something that happened very like the end of the Film in real life that he may not know about, because, as far as I know, he wasn't there when it happened. He has made it clear several times that his friend and former flatmate, Vivian MacKerrel was the main inspiration for Withnail (though the trip up to the Lake District re-created in the film was with future "Game of Thrones" actor, Michael Feast.) In Vivians biography (which to be honest, is not really worth the money overall!), one of the bits that is more interesting, is that actor, Gregory Floy says that he was a couple of years below Bruce and Vivian at drama school and used to hang out at their flat in Camden regularly. He said that years later, when he sat down to watch the film, he expected to hate it, but loved it right from the start and remembered so many things happening in real life, including Vivian drinking lighter fluid! He said that, despite this, he initially didn't like Viv that much, but became friendly with him a few years later, when they were both in an open air production of "Romeo and Juliet" in Regents Park. He said that after that, they would regularly hang out together around London for a couple of years, but finally a time came, when they were about to go their separate ways. He was due to go out to the US for 6 months, to appear in a play and Vivian's place in Camden was getting sold and he was moving back up to Nottingham. He said that just before they did go their separate ways, there was an occasion when they both walked round Regents Park and it was raining and winter. Also Viv was dressed in a long coat and a scarf. He said that Viv didn't recite Hamlet, or anything, but that it really did feel like the end of an era and very like the ending of the Film, though that wouldn't be made for years yet! 6 months later, when he returned from the US, Viv was gone. He said he came down to visit for the day, but it wasn't the same. It looks like that may possibly have just happened like the Film by chance though!
Thank you 'wir1 54'.
Makes me cry this scene! The look on Withnail's face as his only friend walks away.......Superb stuff.
ENERJEE It's beautiful and dramatic because it leaves so much uncertainty about their future
watched 3 other performances of this monologue n richard e grant brings something so different to it n im obsessed with it ALSO he repeats "nor woman neither" make of that what u will
Maybe he is a toilet-trader.
@@Tom-kt8lu What fucker said that?
This movie has slowly become my favorite film of all time.
Goddamn, one of the saddest scenes ever. Withnail is a goner, especially after losing "I," who seemed like maybe his one string of a hope, his one chance for anything other than madness and self-destruction. I completely identify with Withnail. I too burn my candle at both ends, and often wonder when I'll finally do myself in.
Thaaat's the spirit! Perhaps Withnail could have gone on to be a purveyor of rare herbs.
Feeling very Hurt, he went on to form the band Nine With Nails.
Marwood understood and accepted the way the world works. Withnail was too uncompromising.
One of THE great movies.
Play it again Withnail...we'll always have Camden. ❤
"Such a courteous display in the face of such crushing emotions and nihilistic petulance, to seize a grip, on what one perceived to be a dull world run by fiendish snarks, who prey on the dispositioned and dispossessed.
In such a world, one can only wonder as to how any comfort can be seized, outside of a wide array of substances and fleeting pleasures, and to then smile and repeat the same cycle consistently, knowing that you will never change.
Help others
13 years of heavy drinking I'm surprised I'm still here but physically and mentally it's taken it's toll on me my memory is shot to shit and right now I'm having another beer
Same. Im drinking right now and its 5am. man delights not me, no nor women neither.
chin chin!
I drank more than oliver reed n ozzy Osbourne put together from champagne to paint thinners with a twist of cider!!! This film really saved my life by watching it over and over been thru those mad scenes i even remember doin that coffee shop multi millionaires in 79 80 in penrith was bruce there?? I waz extremely drunk , still dry bt living a reality built for withnail.......hell
Always wondered what happened to Withnail. This scene reminds me of when growing older and all your friends leave.
Withnail was a genius all along
One of the most heart breaking and poetically beautiful endings to a movie ever.
I always start this film happy but always end so sad and depressed “what a piece of work is a man”
Very powerful and moving scene.
Withnails' loneliness in this scene is palpable and yet even in his inebriated state, manages to deliver a powerful Shakespeare soliloquy that embodies all of his trials and frustrations and what it is to be human with all its frailties.
Great Film Great Acting. This scene moved me so much that I have learnt this speech and now declaim it when people ask me how I am.
It's his talent that makes him feel so deeply that he has to constantly
drink to numb the world around him - One of the most funny and truly
tragic movies ever made.
This movie always hit home for me because I always felt like our emotion never leapt far enough. Artists scream and the rest of us imitate those screams. It hurts to imitate, but the actual pain can never be replicated, and its only when we create a genuine piece of art all of our own that we can truly reach into that space between objects, that sight offset of focus, that fear that is terrifying enough to overcome itself. You have to lose everything before anything starts to really matter.
It saddens me to think of all the great art produced by addicts and other marginalised people that will never see the light of day
Is sadness the correct attitude? Perhaps the art they produced changed them in many subtle ways as they created it, and this influence made manifest through their art, in turn may have become manifest in their interactions with the world and with others; no matter how addicted and/or marginalised they may have been. Take heart, and perhaps some joy also, in that deeper reality.
The best ending of any film I have ever seen. Such an amazing performance here by Grant!
Shakespeare at his best thanks to Richard E. Grant
Seems to be the way it was written spoken correctly.
I've been given all the gifts in the world, and yet i'm no materialist. Birthdays delight me not. Nor christmas neither. Nor Christmas neither
Favourite movie scene of all time..!
I’ll never forget this beautiful film for this short, powerful soliloquy. I’ve never failed to repeat it at least once a month or so since! And the immortal line: ‘We’ve come on holiday by mistake!’ ❤️
Never heard a Shakespeare expert talk about it, but it looks good to me. Probably my favourite film.
Similar comments below, but this is really the first time you see Withnail actually have to face a challenge or a problem (i.e. tackling the bull by the horns, ironically he dodges that task earlier in the film). He's clearly got talent, he's clearly capable, but you can see the whole time he's just never going to get there...
Gets me every time this scene.
wow! excellent point with the avoidance of grabbing the bull. wow
Finest piece of film available to humanity
I feel like this. A broken masterpiece.
The original ending was Withnail went back home, drank a shotgun full of Margeaux and then shot himself in the face. They had to rewrite the ending though because it was considered “too dark”. This rewritten ending however, is such a genius (I don’t use that word lightly) performance and a perfectly written replacement.
The original ending doesn't ring true. Withnail wouldn't do that. He's too boozed up to ever have that period of despair or...clarity.
And the real Withnail did indeed drink himself to an early grave. It was cancer that killed him, but Mackerrell's decades of heavy boozing and drugs would've finished him if it wasn't the cancer (which Robinson attributed to Mackerrell having drunk lighter fluid).
Ive watched this film so many times the end scene always saddens me i became withnail and now moving towards I .....
This is such a well considered and informative thread ! Chin Chin everyone and thanks for the insights ! I'm never to old to learn ! Neither are any and all of us ! Drink it up ! With ice in your cider !
Such a sad film too:(
One of the great British films of all time.
2020. They sure don't make em like this anymore!
Reminds me of another great speech - "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion..." (Blade Runner)
One of the best scenes in modern cinema 👏
Ive watched this film over 100 times..im a mega fan bt the end always leaves me sad knowing that sometimes you have to leave people behind to become something but bruce has brought withnail up to where he belongs...A STAAAAAAAAARRRR
I watched it every weekend for years, no idea how many times though. Id never tire of it.
Talent is useless if you dont have the dedication and drive to put it to use. You have to have both talent and dedication to succeed. I've known really talented people who just didn't have the drive or dedication it takes to use their talent. And they become depressed once they realize too much time has passed and its become too late in their lives to knuckle down and hone their talent.
Yeah that is a real conceit - that talent is so special - what does it is hard work and "Eighty percent of success is showing up." - Woody Allen would know.
This is beyond bitter sweet. There's not really a way to put into words and describe the way this scene makes me feel. A certain happiness with a fundamental deep lying sadness both equally as prominent and impactful as the other.
I like to think Withnail ended up teaching acting in his later years after he saw his old friend perform and got help to clean up.
It's a nice idea.
Well, in the book he blows his head off.
It would be nice to think he gets it together. Gives up drinking entirely and manages to get a good gig and build it from there.
Withnail is based on this guy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_MacKerrell#:~:text=Vivian%20Alan%20James%20MacKerrell%20(23,the%20film%20Withnail%20and%20I.
"Mackerell's career was curtailed by heavy drinking. He died from throat cancer, which he contracted in his 40s. After a short remission in the mid-1980s, the illness returned and eventually a laryngectomy was performed. Unable to eat or drink, MacKerrell resorted to injecting alcohol directly into his stomach.[4] In his last days MacKerrell contracted pneumonia after a drunk incident and died in Gloucester Royal Infirmary."
So... not a happy ending. :-(
@@Rapscallion2009 Since that's not how the real Withnail died, I think this is the nuch more realistic and fitting ending. Mackerrell continued to drink, even after getting surgery for cancer - he even injected sherry into his stomach! Obviously the drink pushed him along more quickly, but Mackerrell died of cancer. I nevee heard that he'd ever attempted suicide. Constantly being on the booze allowed Mackerrell to avoid the kind of depressing introspection and self judgment that might lead a person to commit suicide.
Greatest film ever written.
Absolutely heart wrenching. Unfortunately, i’m Usually the Withnail in this scenario through I’ill health, not taking opportunities or just not trying hard enough, alas.
Don't be Withnail, be REG.
I'm 52 and re-oriented my journey not so long ago. It's worth the gamble when you find out the gamble wasn't much of a wager at all. The House always wins when you're playing their game at their table and the cards are all marked against your favor. And all it requires is the decision to steer away from the rocks. And the sirens. And the turbulence. Inner-peace is within you. God -- however you wish to imagine such a thing -- is within you. Don't leave the world behind having led a half-lived life. "Life is not tragic. Lives are tragic." -- WB Yeats (Godspeed, Withnail. You taught me what I needed to learn.)
Be your own hero
@@b.strings4325 brilliant stuff
This is a lovely and long clip of this great final scene, including the credit roll and outro music, and I thank you for putting it here on TH-cam. And I’ve always wanted to give a shout-out to the wolves behind the bars of the cage, who were the quintessentially indifferent audience to Withnail’s genius drunken Hamlet and who, it seems to me, hit their marks perfectly.
brings a tear to my eye
There you have it... one of the most potent gateway drugs to Willie the Shake in modern times.
It's one of, if not thee, saddest endings to a film I've ever seen..two inseparable friends going their separate ways, leaving one to drink himself to death while the other goes onto hopeful success..
Love this movie
How great is Richard E. Grant!
Saw this when it came out. Have seen it about 5 or 6 more times. Always great. Shared my love for it with so many.
Joanna Albright haha oh dear 😬
I’m 18 years old, so wasn’t around for when it came out. I saw it for the first time when I was 16, I think I’ve seen it about 10 or 11 times now. I love Richard E. Grant.
It portrays the bittersweet twists and turns of life itself,.....the ups and downs,....the laughter, the sadness , the yearning to feel wanted and accepted.......their struggles , and the bleakness and emptiness of their seemingly aimless lives,...the magnitude of the film is expressed by humor and quote....and it as a real warmth and charm at its very soul,.. that makes it such a great film on many levels......
one of the greatest end speeches, right there with no country for old men.
I love that final scene, watched it many times.
Withnail is a pretty good actor. They should put him in a movie.
In the play Hamlet recites this monologue to convince others that he is suicidal even though he isn't. Withnail recites it sincerely here. Thanks, Mr. Grant.
Actors recite; characters do not recite. This is part of Hamlet's conversation with people with whom he studied, his friends. He's expressing his grief to his friends who were sent to coax him out of it, not trying to convince people he's suicidal. In fact, immediately afterward, he asks why one of them smiled when he said 'man delights not me'. Withnail is also expressing grief.
One of the greatest scenes in cinema and intensely moving
What a brilliant scene. Perfect.
An absolute heart-crushing, sad, poignant, soul-destroying, and uplifting scene. All and nothing. A true lesson x
Anyone who's said goodbye too many times will understand this.
I hope he got the cigar commercial
That's what I want to know! What happened to the cigar commercial?
I am Withnail, I had all the brains and artistic talent in the world but an all boys Catholic school destroyed me
I write this homeless with cirrhosis stuck in a graveyard.
Not much fun but that is life.
You are dust in the end.
He was brilliant after all. That’s the bittersweet end of the film
Alotta Withnails in the comments. Don't give up on yourselves guys! You never know what's waiting around the corner (: Stay focused...
Exactly, there’s always tomorrow
I am sad to say I’ve known a couple of Withnails in my time.
Same here. Afraid of becoming one too. I watched this movie years ago and didn't feel the same, now I watch it and it freaks me out how similar life is going. Oh well.
Have you heard of Jordan Peterson? Don't be afraid, just take one day at a time but do something that day that makes you satisfied at the end of the day, and slowly build on it.
"Oh well" - that's the mind of a Withnail alright, Victor. Perhaps try "oh fuck" instead.
I was in a relationship with a Withnail for 16 years. This scene makes me think of the (much less amicable) end of our relationship. I went off and got my life somewhat together; he died last year. Even though he treated me very badly I mourn the loss of his music. I still can't get a lot of the songs he wrote out of my head. I would love to know if there is a link between creative talent and poor mental health, and if so what it is
Never fails to impress,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,that Shakespeare guy had a way with words.
Such a bitter sweet ending, there is nothing sadder in life than wasted talent....
Absolutely heartbreaking.
this movie shows what its like to be friends with a narcissist. when you leave them, theyre empty. its sad for everyone. but it must be done
"Cam Latchford" - Withnail does have some narcissictic qualities (in common with most human beings including you and me), but we must surely accept, he also posessses other qualities that made the friendship/connection of THE WITHNAIL AND I saga,; possible in the first place. Charm / Wit / Artistry / Intelligence - among others ... Let us NOT put simple labels on people (and reject them entirely - calling them 'EMPTY' perhaps); simply because their matrix feels incompatible with our own.
Thanks for your comment!
@@getthemusicout3212 i love Withnail but he was a narcissist, OP knows. You can love a narcissist very easily, they are of course charming and witty, but they're fundamentally flawed in a way they are not even conscious of. They cannot be fixed and eventually to live a free life you must leave them, sad though it may be :(
One of the greatest British films ......