CHERYL CORLEY, HOST:
All summer long, we've been asking people who work in film about the movie that changed their lives, including this one from the director of "Con Air."
SIMON WEST: Hello. I'm Simon West, and I'm a film director. And the film I've seen a million times is "Withnail and I." It stars Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann and was written and directed by Bruce Robinson.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
WEST: It did rapidly become a cult film, and so it was played in art house movie theaters in London a lot. And so I caught it about a year after it was actually made and I instantly fell in love with it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
WEST: It's just two desperate guys, out of work actors, living in this terrible flat in London that they never do the washing up. They have no food, no money.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
WEST: They're just getting more and more depressed and more and more down about their lives and their careers. And so Richard E. Grant's character, who is the Withnail of the title, goes to see a rich uncle who has a cottage in the country.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
WEST: Of course, it's a disastrous trip. When they get there, it's raining, it's dark. They get in an accident with a bull.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
(SOUNDBITE OF SCREAMING)
WEST: All the way through this, Paul McGann's character is waiting to hear whether he's got this job, a sort of minor role in a film. When Paul McGann's character finally does get the message whether he's got this minor part, they've actually offered him the lead in the movie.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
WEST: The whole film ends with Paul McGann's character cleaning up, cutting his hair, sobering up, basically, and going off for his new life and his new career. And you obviously get the feeling that he is going to blossom and be successful. And Richard E. Grant is probably going to go down further and further.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
WEST: I think my favorite scene is quite near the beginning where they're drunk and hallucinating from lack of food, and they have to go into the kitchen - because they're trying to make a cup of tea - and the sink is full of dirty dishes and Paul McGann is convinced that there's something alive living in the kitchen sink.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
WEST: And so Richard E. Grant puts on these big rubber gloves and is going in to attack whatever is living in the sink.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
WEST: It's like something out of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and it's just very funny and very well written. And I don't know anyone that's watched it that hasn't fallen in love with it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "WITHNAIL AND I")
CORLEY: That's director Simon West talking about "Withnail and I," the movie he could watch a million times. West's new film, "The Expendables 2," opened in theaters this weekend.
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