Bill W. film “documents” a modern day miracle
By Tim Campbell ©
September
14, 2012
Bill W., the documentary now showing
in cinemas throughout the country, is a delightfully presented look at the
story of William G. Wilson, the original public face of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
The
documentary takes live recordings of the voice of Bill Wilson himself speaking
and then synchronizes that tape with video of actors in period attire
impersonating Wilson saying what’s actually heard on the tapes. No particular
effort seems to have been made to lip-synch the passages and that is probably
good. The audience gets the impression
it is seeing Wilson on film. This makes
for super easy viewing and listening, even for people with just a grade school
education. Hats off to directors Kevin
Hanlon and Dan Carracino!
This
is, however, a film that presents itself as an historical documentary. Respected historian Ernest Kurtz comments on
much of the story line in person on screen.
Kurtz is the author of Not God—A
History of Alcoholics Anonymous. This work began as research for Kurtz’
doctoral dissertation. It was published
by Hazelden in 1979.
New
York Post reviewer Ernest Hardy opines in a May 20, 2012 column “...the film is a bit disjointed. Its elements never quite gel. They do, however, serve up an engrossing
portrait of a remarkable man who remained humble even as he became something of
a revolutionary.” I agree with Hardy
on that and find in his words a springboard for my own assessment.
A documentary in which the
drama never gels
I
believe this documentary never gels like a finished drama because its directors
chose not to tell the dark story behind Bill W.’s resignation as the public
face of A.A. In doing that, Hanlon and
Carracino created a documentary which will be popular with the A.A. crowd, but
which leaves a lot to be desired as unbiased history.
Behind
Bill W.’s resignation as the number one guy in A.A. was a separate drama
involving prudish members of A.A. who were scandalized by Bill W.'’ sex life,
among other things. Had the documentary
told that part of the story, the drama would have gelled into the tragedy it
really was. However, it would have been
more difficult to call Wilson “a remarkable man” had the documentary gone into
that part of the story. For my part, I
think Bill W was a remarkable man in spite of the fact that the more prudish in
A.A. pushed him out.
Wilson gave Dr. Bob a goof
ball the day A.A. calls its birthday and requested liquor for pain relief on
his deathbed
On
the positive side, Hanlon and Carracino’s documentary taught me two things I
did not yet know. First, that Bill W.
gave Dr. Bob both a bottle of beer and
a “goof-ball” on June 10, 1935. That’s
the day A.A. calls its birthday. The
bottle of beer is old news...recorded in Dr. Bob’s story in the Big Book.
The
“goof ball” was news to me. My Merriam
Webster defines a “goof ball” as slang for a barbiturate pill that entered our
language ca. 1950. Without being able to
date the recording heard on screen, I assume Bill W. offered this piquant
detail in comments shortly after Dr. Bob’s death in 1950.
Second,
the documentary tells us that Bill W. asked for liquor to ease his pain as he
lay dying (1971) from emphysema, an enormously painful death. Lois Wilson
recorded that in her diaries. She
refused. Bill retorted perhaps cruelly
that her refusal proved the imperfect nature of their love or union of
spirit. For me, that’s where this
tragedy hits operatic bottom.
To
help the reader understand Lois’ refusal to give Bill W. the liquor, note that
in the 1970s many recovery professionals claimed doctors were over-prescribing
painkillers for alcoholics.
Consequently, some doctors reacted by being stingy with them. The
documentary does not note whether Wilson’s doctors were giving him other
painkillers at the time. I left the
Sundance Theater in Houston thinking, “I probably would have given Bill that
liquor.”
Bill W’s “white light”
experience
Perhaps
the least rigorously historical scene in the documentary is the presentation of
the night when Bill W. had his “white light” awakening. The documentary presents him on a bed in
Towns Hospital looking fully alert.
There is no mention of him being knocked out, on goof balls, Belladonna
or paraldehyde hypnotic syrup. These
meds were used generously at Towns and elsewhere back then. Nonetheless, for viewers who enjoy seeing
miracles, the sequence works...without being Cecil B. DeMille stuff.
Bottom line?
Don’t
miss this documentary if you have any interest in the history of alcoholism and
addiction. And don’t be surprised if
soon we have another “documentary” telling the whole story, including how and
why Wilson was ousted as the public face of A.A. A tragic opera lurks just off stage in the
story of Bill and Lois Wilson. I don’t think this drama will gel completely
until that entire sad story is told.
For
more details on that story, see Lois Wilson’s diaries and Francis Hartigan’s
authoritative work Bill W.: A biography
of the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Hartigan was Lois Wilson’s editorial consultant during her final
years. His work was published in the
year 2000.