My Name is Bill W.
August 2006 Reviewed by: Mischa Hayek Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

My Name Is Bill W. is the story of William Griffith Wilson. You have probably never heard of him. In fact, most of the people who owe their lives to him know him only as "Bill W." and sometimes refer to themselves as "Friends of Bill W." But Time Magazine considers William Wilson one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century and has placed him on its list along with the likes of Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Theresa. William Wilson is pretty much an ordinary man, but what he did was extraordinary. You see, William Wilson founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

My Name is Bill W. begins with Bill Wilson (James Woods) returning from service in World War 1 to his loving wife, Lois (JoBeth Williams) and his good buddy Ebby Thatcher (Gary Sinise). They are drinking, celebrating the Allied victory and the promise of what the future holds. Wilson has a zest for life and apparently no drinking problem. He has bold ideas on how to make money and build a life with Lois. Wilson works hard and builds a prosperous career for himself as an investor and stock analyst, but drinking becomes more and more a part of his life. Ultimately, it begins to destroy the very life that he created.

After many "rock bottoms" and treatments at sanatoriums, Wilson still keeps getting worse. Both Lois and Ebby try to help him and eventually, at Ebby’s behest, Wilson joins the Oxford Group, an organization that offers hope and assistance to alcoholics through religious conversion. Wilson and Ebby go about saving other drunks like themselves, but Wilson experiences no permanent success with those he helps, and he still has to fight his own cravings for alcohol. While on a business trip to Akron, Ohio, and desperate to keep from taking a drink, Wilson feels that he must save someone else or he will drink again and be lost. Through a church representative in Akron, he obtains the name of another drunk, Bob Smith (James Garner), a physician who has struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. Wilson heads over to see Smith to save him but realizes he is really there to save himself. The men get together and discover that only their mutual understanding of their problem can offer them salvation. An alcoholic needs the support of another alcoholic to stay sober. Thus, the beginning of AA.

My Name is Bill W. was originally broadcast in 1989, and it has a made-for-television feel about it. But it tells a very interesting and important story in an authentic, matter-of-fact way. The sometimes over-the-top James Woods received an Emmy for his role because of his relatively subdued and nuanced portrayal of Bill W., a man desperate to stop drinking and save his family but helpless to do so.

The special features of this DVD release are sparse. There is only one bonus feature, "The Making of My Name Is Bill W.," which is about 20 minutes long and adds some flavor and background to the story. But it is sadly lacking in depth. I wanted much more.

The sound and picture of this DVD release are good enough. Since this is a made-for-TV movie, one doesn’t expect the jaw-dropping visuals and sound effects that one might expect from a Hollywood blockbuster created to play at the multiplexes. The picture here is fullscreen, which is exactly what TV is, and a tad murky; however, one could argue that the murkiness mirrors the look of the time portrayed and is not necessarily an indication of poor picture quality.

Language features are also pretty rudimentary. Audio is English only, but subtitles can be either French or Spanish.

If you do watch the 20-minute special, "The Making of My Name Is Bill W.," pay attention to a street scene between James Woods and James Garner. Notice the contrast between the unedited raw footage, filmed in bright daylight, and the interspersed final product. You may notice that a blue filter has been applied in order to give the scene an authentic Depression-era feel.

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