The finest wines available to Humanity
by Alex
I was re-watching “Withnail and I”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094336/ recently. In the ‘making of’ bonus feature one of the producers remarks that it is “the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid of the 1980s.” That sent a light bulb off in my head — in terms of fans, followers, and plot, it is actually the British Big Lebowski. Or maybe the feature-length version of the “The Young Ones”? But it’s missing the ska soundtrack.
I forgot how much I liked the film, as well as what a following it had. Some good soul has put “the entire script”:http://www.nasastooge.fsnet.co.uk/withnail/withnail-index.html on-line with audio from key quotes as well (the full script with stage directions is “here”:http://corky.net/scripts/withnail.html.)
“Balls. We want the finest wine available to humanity. We want them here, and we want them _now_!”:http://www.nasastooge.fsnet.co.uk/withnail/sounds/finewine.wav
My favorite line is actually:
Withnail:
At some point or another I want to stop and get hold of a child.
Marwood:
What do you want a child for?
Withnail:
To tutor it in the ways of righteousness and procure some uncontaminated urine.
But they didn’t have a .wav for that one.
Sweet–this goes in the Netflix cue! Do they have Netflix in Hawaii?
Of course they have Netflix out here and thank goodness for it too — we can’t watch surfing documentaries and Korean soap operas *every* night.
To my chagrin I had never heard of this movie. After reading your post I did see it and am deeply thankful. It was a transfixing experience and I have become a different man. (A fairly common event, actually.)
The funniest moment in the movie is Policeman #2′s “Get in the back of the van.” (You had to be there.)