The band that Paul McGann compared to ‘Withnail & I’
Withnail & I is, on the surface, merely a tale of two chums who find that they have “gone on holiday by mistake”. However, swirling in the welter, beneath the comic surface of quick, sardonic quips, is an examination of the waning ways of counterculture in 1969. In the end, we see a depiction of those that got out of the wild ride alive, and those set to fester in it bitterly ignoring the real world forevermore.
In order to portray this subtext effectively, the film needed to seem like it was a genuine relic from that age. Bruce Robinson and his cinematographer Peter Hannan (as well as costume, make-up and sound) achieved this with such aplomb that Paul McGann – who plays the titular I – says some fans often approach him and are genuinely under the impression that it was, indeed, filmed in the 1960s.
In this regard, he likened the film to the sort of music that effortlessly harks back to an era in a timeless fashion. “It comes from the mid-1980s, but it sticks out like a Smiths record,” he said in glowing reference to the British indie band. “Its provenance is from a different era. None of the production values, none of the iconography, none of the style remotely has it down as an 80s picture.”
The same can be said of the classic Manchester band. They cut through an era of gaudy synths and vapid, rose-tinted lyricism with an assegai of tremolo-loaded guitar and snaky realism. In fact, it would seem that Morrissey might have identified with the film’s intent as he went on to release a solo record titled Vauxhall and I in homage to the cult classic.
As it happens, the way that music defines an era is a central tenet in the cheesecloth fabric of the film. As Robinson told Matthew Barnett regarding the time he met Keith Richards: “We meet for a drink and he’s leaning on the bar, smoking. He says, ‘well you smoke, do you wanna fag?’ I politely tell him that it’s not legal to which he replies ‘who’s gonna stop us?’ And, of course, no one’s going to stop Keith, but they will stop me!” To which Barnett replies, “that sounds like Withnail,” and Robinson revealingly quips, ‘”actually he is!”
In the years since the film was released in 1987, Withnail & I has acquired a timelessness. For all the aesthetics might capture the end of an era, that permeates the subtext of the film in an even more holistic sense. As Withnail famously says: “This is ridiculous. Look at me: I’m 30 in a month and I’ve got a sole flapping on my shoe.” Times change, but for struggling artists in the big city, some things will always stay the same.
