Review of Bill W documentary 2012

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.