Barfly (1987)

Crappy film

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"Barfly" is a semi-autobiography of legendary Charles Bukowski, directed by Barbet Schroeder. Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway are fantastic in roles of Bukowski's alter-ego Henry Chinaski and his lover Wanda, two people with a soul, but soaked in alcohol. This, at times comical drama represents the bottom of society in all its glory. The movie does not have an original soundtrack, but most of the time characters listen to music in bars and on the radio. There are big names such as Booker T. & The M.G.s, The Nighthawks and John Coltrane, and at the initiative of Mickey Rourke, several pieces of great classical composers were included. There is no plot, culmination and denouement, but we look at a few days of bohemian life of Henry and Wanda, in a film where accent is not so much on the story as on the construction of the specific atmosphere. The main assets of this film are wacky, but essentially deep dialogues and the brilliant one-liners by Bukowski.10/10Do you hate them? - No, but I seem to feel better when they're not around.Hey baby, nobody suffers like the poor.Anybody can be a non-drunk. It takes a special talent to be a drunk. It takes endurance. Endurance is more important than truth.No money, no job, no rent. Hey, I'm back to normal.And as my hands drop the last desperate pen, in some cheap room, they will find me there and never know my name, my meaning, nor the treasure of my escape.Nobody who ever wrote anything worth a damn could ever write in peace... Jesus.So you hired a dick to find an asshole?Growth's for plants. I hate roots.Oh, I had an idea that I'd be discovered after my death.

Take a drink of Barfly, for a heady cocktail of the low life. Take a walk through the gutter and soak up the smells. Welcome to the world of Henry Chinaski, the alter ego of social realist writer Charles Bukowski. If you're a Bukowski fan, this is the ultimate picture for you!Barfly is a love story in the light drama genre. It follows the trials and tribulations of a true drunken barfly, as he floats from place to place in the streets of East Hollywood. Chinaski is played by Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, Angel Heart). Back in the '80s, Mickey Rourke was like a poor man's Bogart and he shines as the alcoholic writer. He's a flop and a loser starving artist type but despite all this, he has two women in his life. One is a high class publisher, the other is a depressed lush. They represent the two sides of Chinaski and his two lives. He would define himself by his habits: drinking and writing, but the world would remember him for his voice. The story behind the story is told in the pages of Hollywood, Bukowski's recounting of the making of Barfly. Legend has it director Barbet Shroeder (Single White Female, Murder by Numbers) threatened to cut off his own finger to make this picture. It was hard to get funding for what was considered to be an art house picture. One of the producers was Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now). Barfly tells a small story. The plot is thin but it is more of a character study. Barfly has style. It's based on the eponymous book by Bukowski. If you can't get enough of Chinaski, he's back in Factotum, as well as many of the novels of Charles Bukowski--the real life Barfly.

"Henry Chinaski" (Mickey Rourke) is a drunken bum who is a regular customer of a nightclub in Los Angeles called "The Golden Horn". He disdains one of the bartenders named "Eddie" (Frank Stallone) which results in frequent fistfights which Henry typically loses. One night, however, he manages to beat up Eddie and because of it he is ejected from the bar. Needing a new place to satisfy his alcoholism he wanders into another nightclub where he meets "Wanda Wilcox" (Faye Dunaway) who is just as alcoholic as he is. Naturally, they hit it off right away. When she tells him she dislikes people in general, he responds by saying that he doesn't dislike them so much as he simply feels better when they're not around. Anyway, rather than spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, I will just say this isn't just a film about barroom brawls and drinking. Instead there are some philosophical points made in the midst of the squalor that even "Tully Sorenson" (Alice Krige) may not quite understand. At any rate, while I'm not a huge fan of either Mickey Rourke or Faye Dunaway, I have to admit that they both put on a good performance in this film. Above average.

I saw Barfly when it was first out not knowing anything about Charles Bukowski. After reading Bukowski and watching him recite some of his work on You-Tube, I gained a renewed appreciation for Mickey's portrayal of Bukowski. He talks like him, acts like him and demonstrates the values of Bukowski. Maybe his best role ever. A truly artful movie - you can almost smell the bar smell - and Bukowski. You can feel the view Bukowski has for the world around him. I'm glad he was able to achieve some of the notoriety in his life before he passed in 1994. This movie is a glimpse into the lifestyle of bar-life and of a man who lived in, knew well and wrote about the underbelly of that life. I can't think of anyone else who could have done a better job than Mickey. Mat Dillon tried in Factotem but he's too pretty to be Bukowski.