Withnail and Us

Withnail is a terrific film, at root an excuse for actors to act as actors.

This adds another level, where we see those actors — now much older — as actors. The added depth is effective.

DVD extras are generally pretty bad, and often they damage a film. Why would someone assume that an actor knows much about a film? Why would someone assume that a director is articulate and honest enough to extend what he made?

But this works. It is a DVD extra wit "Withnal and I," though originally made for TeeVee.

What is so great is seeing how actorly these actors are, how much they are like Withnail minus the theatrics. This director also wrote "In Dreams," which is an under-appreciated, ambitious project, and "Killing Fields" which is probably overappreciated.

If you see "I," I very much recommend seeing "Us."

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This is well worth watching if you liked the film. There are some good (and quite funny) interviews with the major actors (No Richard Griffiths! A major letdown, that's why I've subtracted one star), as well as Robinson, the casting director, Robinson's old flatmates and some fairly good examples of student fandom.

Many of the stories are genuinely interesting, although the one about Zefirelli doesn't get a look in.

It also includes some of Robinson's old silent footage of himself and some of the other real life people who inspired the film.

Danny the Dealer gets well covered, and both the inspiration for the character and the guy who plays him (Ralph Brown) are not quite as you might expect.