Life After College with Withnail & I

It's been three weeks since I graduated college with a degree in writing and I've done more thinking about writing than actually sitting down and writing something - anything. This is that "something."

The previous posts were requirements for a course which granted me my degree, so this will be the first post solely for my own enjoyment, free of any limitations my senior seminar class may have posed. I can finally say "what the hell" and abandon the guidelines I've established to earn a decent grade in the class, evident in the first post on this blog back in February.

But with this post, I've decided to adhere to said guidelines (this post was originally devised to compliment the batch of posts submitted for my senior project, I just never got around to composing the damned thing...).

The makings of a great writer? More like the makings of a never-ending search for a career. The next film we'll look out is Withnail and I (1986), featuring two characters whose situations mirror the experiences many college graduates entering the workforce face today.

Original Theatrical Poster

London 1969. "I" sits in a pub splurging down pint after pint of the good ole dark brown ale, taking ferocious pulls on his cigarette, his hands trembling, but not from the balanced interchange of stimulants and depressants flooding through his veins, but from the daily newspaper headlines registering in his brain.

"I," credited as Marwood in the finished screenplay, is disturbed from the articles he reads in the paper, but nothing is more disturbing than what is waiting for him back at his Camden Town flat.

Marwood shares his home with Withnail, an acerbic drunk who is the drastic opposite from his anxiety-ridden counterpart. The flat they share is an indication of the time and frame of mind the two  characters are living in. The apartment is dingy: it has no electricity, heat or running water, and the sink is full of plates caked over with week-old food, and then there's the possibility of a creature lurking in the lower depths of the sink...

Okay, the creature is a mere hallucination on behalf of Withnail and Marwood, but the sheer terror induced from the sight of the imaginary beast is a example of the crippled condition of our two characters.

Withnail and Marwood are out of work actors, twiddling the hours away by drinking, smoking and hanging around their flat. Drunk and feeling paralyzed by the events depicted in the national news, Marwood returns home to another undesirable conflict. "I have some extremely distressing news," says Withnail. "We're just run out of wine. What are we gonna do about it?"

Withnail is played by Richard E. Grant, who perfectly captures the over-the-top stupor of a languishing, drunk thespian waiting for that perfect role to land on his lap. Where Marwood schedules auditions for roles, Withnail rather search for another bottle of alcohol to wash down. Withnail comes from a wealthy background, and his sense of entitlement is the only remaining characteristic of a well-to-do chap. Withnail criticizes Marwood over his begging for a role, an action he feels challenges his pride. Frustrated with the lack of booze, Withnail states he is a trained actor before he resorts to downing a bottle of lighter fluid. As Withnail baggers Marwood, the cigarette hanging from his lip mimics the motion of his jaw and looks like a reckless child twirling a sparkler, just pleading to get burned.

With no direction in their lives, Marwood suggests the duo leave the city for a vacation in the countryside. "I think we've been here to long," he says. Marwood represents the better half of the "Withnail and I" dichotomy. Where Withnail is the fly by the seat of your pants, drink hard type of person, Marwood is the shy, soft spoken introvert - always thinking internally about his future and the world around him - but sometimes overthinking his situation to where he finally combusts; their relationship can be compared to a well-mixed drink. Sometimes I feel like each half of the "Withnail & I" friendship: always thinking about the circumstances of my future and lack of career aspirations, and medicating them with procrastination and seeping thoughts of failure. I just hope I never reach the point where burning my esophagus is the only remedy from my situation.  

Marwood entices the stubborn Withnail to ask his Uncle Monty if they can stay in his cabin. Marwood feels the need to escape his reality of having no job, the current state of the nation and his friendship with Withnail. More importantly, Withnail sees a vision of elegant portions of food and copious amounts of booze - so they promptly leave.

Withnail and Marwood arrive in the countryside greeted by pouring rain and unfriendly locals. Withnail and Marwood's unorthodox entrance leaves the locals with a sour taste in their mouths, and the two are asked to leave each establishment they enter.

This scene represents entering the "real world" to me. On the surface it is hilarious and truthful to the emotions of the characters, but under the surface the scene brings to light the ignorance of the characters' views of the world around them. I guess I think upon graduating college that finding a job will be easy, if not expected of me and everyone around me because I have a degree. That's just not the case.  It's like walking into a potential employer's office and demanding a job based off a nonexistent track record and demanding a job much in the same manner Withnail requests wine, only to be turned away. Is this what it's gonna be like from here on out? With a miniscule amount of experience as a writer, should I demand a position as a writer on a staff? I doubt that would happen, and I'm sure someone like Withnail would call me out as not be ballsy enough to go though with it. There's a scene when Withnail and Marwood are leaving the city for their country escape. Withnail sneers and snickers out of the car window at high school aged girls. "Throw yourself into the road, darling. You haven't got a chance," he says. I felt as if he was speaking to me as I try and enter a career as an unproven writer. But that's the essence of this blog and this post specifically. I hope to use Cult Current as an example of what I'm capable of offering for a future employer.

Withnail and Marwood eventually return to their grim realities. Marwood cleans himself up and lands an acting gig. As Marwood packs his bags to leave town, Withnail walks him to his bus station. It is pouring rain and the bus is parked outside a zoo. As Marwood boards the bus and departs for a career as an actor, Withnail is left on the streets, drenched in wet, soggy clothes. Withnail begins to recite Shakespeare to a pack of wolves - jobless, friendless and drunk. I just hope when all's said and done, I'm not left to the wolves.