Withnail and I - The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Withnail and I is an underappreciated masterpiece of British comedy - and the whole of British cinema, for that matter. Released in 1987 to positive acclaim the remains beloved among a cult audience, it is my opinion that the only people who don’t adore this movie are those who haven’t seen it yet. Written and directed by Bruce Robinson and executive produced by George Harrison (the quiet one), Withnail and I is a semiautobiographical farce that explores London and the surrounding countryside at the end of the 1960s.

Richard E. Grant (Saltburn, The Little Vampire) is Withnail, and Paul McGann (Empire of the Sun, Alien 3) is I. The film follows our two heroes as they rot in their empty bottle-strewn London flat. Withnail and I are out-of-work actors who just ran out of booze, trying to keep warm the only way they know how - by kvetching dramatically about how they have no work or booze or heat. After an attempt to get out of the house, the two are met with grotesque tabloid-toting Londoners, beastly bar brawlers, and boredom. They return to their flat only to be met by their terrifying drug dealer, Danny (Ralph Brown - he’d reprise a version of this character in Wayne’s World 2), who pontificates at them about his toy doll ideas and the strength of his product. 

The duo decide they need to get out of London for a holiday in the country and procure a cottage from Withnail’s wealthy dandy uncle Monty played incredibly by Richard Griffiths (The Harry Potter Series), under mysteriously dubious conditions to our protagonist I. Once Withnail and I arrive at the cottage in the rain, they realize that maybe they’ve gone on this holiday by mistake. They try to navigate amongst the locals trying to avoid hunger, cold, and a surprise visit by Uncle Monty in the process. The rest would be giving too much away but this movie is perfect and you should absolutely find out for yourselves what happens next.

The writing, acting, and cinematography of Withnail and I are all phenomenal. The movie is endlessly quotable, if I quoted all my favorite lines in this review, I would just be reproducing the screenplay. This film resembles the wild travels of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, albeit as a far more grounded version. Not just because the two films include incredible artwork by the legend Ralph Steadman, but they both highlight the grotesqueries of everyday life from the point of view of the “freaks”. They both tackle the liminal feeling at the end of the sixties and ask who would be left behind in the epochal shift. Withnail and Danny the dealer are the ones left behind in the sixties, the freaks left to fend for themselves as the world moves on from the free love and drugs of the past decade, encapsulated by Danny’s line “London is a country coming down from its trip. We are 91 days from the end of this decade and there's gonna be a lot of refugees,” and knowing their time is up because “They’re selling hippie wigs in the Woolworth’s, man.”

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! This long-awaited and updated re-release of Withnail and I the Criterion Collection includes the classic cover by legendary artist Ralph Steadman. The two discs are nestled, overlapping each other within the case with enough space in between them to protect the discs. Along with the discs, this edition includes an insert that unfolds into a small poster of the Steadman artwork cover as well as an essay by critic David Cairns

This director-approved 4K restoration by the Criterion Collection is gorgeous. Supervised by the original Cinematographer Peter Hannan, the 4K restoration is presented in Dolby Vision HDR and is clean while still maintaining the grittiness of late 60s London and the dreary English countryside. In the directors’ commentary included in this release, Bruce Robinson discusses how he didn’t want any sunlight included in the photography of Withnail and I, and Hannan succeeds spectacularly. This film is set mostly in dark bars, a dark cottage and an even darker London flat. The exterior shots of the countryside are so vividly green while still maintaining a gloomy atmosphere, its simply gorgeous work. Hannan somehow makes this darkness and captures the grotesqueries of the conditions in which the two leads live in their shared rodent infested flat. Capturing not only a dark time in their lives but the darkness of the future of England and the end of the hippies in the post 1960s.

The audio included in this restoration is equally as good as the visuals, a lossless LPCM mono track. This movie is both quiet at times and boisterous—mostly every time Withnail is speaking. The dialogue comes through crystal clear, and the needle drops are phenomenal in this picture.  There are three songs used in Withnail and I, the first being King Curtis’ live rendition of Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale,” which sets the mood for the story incredibly over the opening credits as the camera pans over the detritus of the flat to show our protagonist ”and I” as he is coming down from a bender full of want for something different. Robinson uses two Jimi Hendrix songs to bookend the escape from London to the country as well as the triumphant return after the two lads’ ersatz holiday. Interestingly, the Hendrix song used as the two drive out of London is a slowed-down version of "All Along the Watchtower" - not a slow version of the song but rather the original recording of the song slowed as if someone switched the speed on a record player. “Watchtower” is used to say “there must be some kind of way out of here” for our two heroes. On the mad dash back to London from the countryside, Robinson uses the frenetic Hendrix track “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” as Withnail and I speed back to London so “I” may make his audition. These three needle drops elevate the picture just as much as the perfect dialogue throughout because they provide the feeling of the end of the '60s while also not simply being contextual signifiers of the '60s itsef. All around excellent audio throughout this edition.

The special features are excellent in this edition. Along with a 4K restoration is a Blu-ray edition of the film as well as a plethora of extra features listed below. The 1999 short documentary, Withnail and Us, was very cute in seeing how the film became a cult classic and an inspiration to indie filmmakers of the time. That feature also shows how great the restoration is in comparison to the low video quality of the prints used in the '90s. The features are all great to spend more time with these characters and with those who helped bring them to life.

• Audio Commentary - Director Bruce Robinson
• Audio Commentary - Ralph Brown and Paul McGann
• New Short Program - Featuring Robinson and actor Richard E. Grant
• Withnail and Us (1999), a documentary on the making of the film
• British Film Institute Q&A - From 2017 with Robinson and Grant
• Stills Gallery - Featuring photographs by artist Ralph Steadman
• Trailer

I cannot recommend Withnail and I highly enough; I would recommend this movie on a tattered, magnetized VHS tape if that's all that was available - it’s that good. Lucky for us, Criterion has remastered and re-released this film in gorgeous 4K Dolby Vision with an excellent audio mix to match. Watch as our two drunken heroes attempt to conquer unemployment, alcohol withdrawals, the English countryside, handsy uncles, and the destruction of the '60s. Richard E. Grant plays such a great character in Withnail that it is impossible to look away. Criterion includes great supplements with this release so you can spend hours with your favorite drunk actors long after the film is finished. This is a Must, Must, Must Own.