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Summary: To All My Friends!!! - Hail to the Great Charles Bukowski
Review: This movie is profoundly entertaining. Pick up and read some of the great Bukowski novels (Ham On Rye, Post Office, Factotum, and more), short stories (Tales of Ordinary Madness, South of No North), and books of poetry (Love Is A Dog From Hell, Play The Piano Drunk Like A Percussion Instrument Until The Fingers Begin To Bleed A Bit) and you will get a glimpse into the darkest depths of the supremely talented and tormented Charles Bukowski. This film is filled with so many quotable lines and is the only film of its kind. Mickey Rourke plays a wonderful Henry Chinaski and Faye Dunaway is brilliant. Pay attention to when Henry spots Wanda from across the bar. In that scene, when they pan across the bar, the old man tilting back a bottle of Budweiser is none other than the actual Charles Bukowski himself. For fans of Bukowski, this is a must see. For those of you who don't know him, read his stuff before and after you see this film and you will potentially find yourself turned on to one of the greatest poets and writers of the 20th century.
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Summary: PASTY and TASTY.......
Review: The 'Lower Depths' aka L.A. Skidrow.An excellent realization of the 'other side of the coin' - life amongst the ruins of depleted, exhausted and semi-conscious L.A. losers. Miss Faye Dunaway is stellar in this vehicle - brilliant chemistry with the enigmatic Mr. Rourke - also quite unforgettable, and then we have the highly talented, and sometimes overlooked ALICE KRIGE as Tally - the 'rich-[woman]' who tries to 'reform' and 'rehabilitate' Mr. Rourke - Good Luck! Great barfight between the two ladies! Treat yourself to a meal - a good one after this viewing - you'll need it - just for comfort!
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Summary: Rourke at his best
Review: Enjoyed it. If you've ever had to spend any amount of time in a residential hotel and/or lived in a roominhouse then you know there is nothing humorous about it, in addition to that, if you've ever spent time in the kind of bar depicted in the movie there isn't anything funny about that either, etc. But Bukowski fills it with humor and the tale is engaging. Rourke and Dunaway are good together, play well off each other. No, it isn't a great film, but it is entertaining and can be viewed more than once. That's more than you can say about a lot of other movies.
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Summary: Gritty and disgusting
Review: This has to be one of the movies that has had the most adverse affect on me (Pink Flamingos was less offensive to me!). I went into it with a completely misleading description that the main character was some sort of intriguging and strangely endearing schizoid personality. WRONG! He's just a disgusting, fat, filthy, antisocial drunk who belches, farts, goes through a string of pointless unprovokative cheap relationships/one night stands, and most annoying of all, spews sentimental stream of consciousness poetry that is dumb and ridiculous coming from such a disgusting and slovenly pig. ... You might ask how a movie that was boring as hell (which believe me IS) could also incite strong disgust from me...well, it is just that. Offensive and boring. ...
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Summary: Drunk and then this is not real...
Review: Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke), a nihilistic drunk and fighter, floats around in bars and is constantly drunk. When he is not drinking he writes poems on napkins in his cockroach infested apartment for which he does not have rent and eats other people's food. On a regular evening he meets a woman, Wanda Wilcox (Faye Dunaway), in who he falls in love with. She wonders if he hates people and he answers, "No, but I seem to feel better when they are not around." This is the slogan that manifests the story, which is to drink and forget the miserable existence in which they live. Barfly is an interesting film that discusses and argues that there is nothing real in life if you choose it to be that way. At the end, the film is presented with an interesting point of view.
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Summary: great "guy" movie
Review: this is the typical case of "the movie grew on me". when i first seen this "epic" some 12 years ago,i wasn't overly impressed. but the more i seen it,the more i loved it! a certain must have for anyone's dvd collection. this dvd will charm you time and time again! this film can shake the blues right out of you at mickey rourke's expense. so fire up this dvd and have a "...drink to all my ...friends!!"
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Summary: a bukowski primer
Review: if you liked Barfly, then i recommend the book Hollywood by charles bukowski. this book chronicles the making of Barfly. it is, perhaps, his most mainstream book if only because he wasn't drinking quite as heavily in his later years and his wife took very good care of him (both emotionally and dietarily). in it, the actors, producers and filmmaker are talked with and about at great length. it is a standard memoir setup (as is most of his prose), but, if you've seen Barfly, it is an amusing look at the making of it and the innate insanity of hollywood. it is, also, a poignant (yet heartwarming and affirming) bookend to bukowski's life- both as a novel writer and as a human being (though, after, he kept playing with the poem and did some more short stories).
a note to readers of bukowski who haven't read this one yet- it isn't really about the movie. the movie is the pretext and insinuates itself throughout, but it is just another slice of bukowski's life.
by the way, bukowski loved the movie. he had, perhaps, two criticisms of singular scenes. other than that, he fell in love with the bukowski that mickey rourke portrayed all the way down to the alley fight scenes. both movie and book are unique in the american artistic landscape.
the only reason i give the dvd 3 stars is because of the lack of special features. the film is a very quiet gem, full faceted.
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Summary: Absolutely Brilliant!
Review: You either love and adore this should-be classic or it disgusts you! This film has had quite an influence on me personally, in both good and bad ways (laughs).
There can be little denying that this is one 80's film that has not dated poorly; it is a timeless gem that almost feels like a great noir film. Mickey Rourke is fabulous here, giving one of the greatest performances of his career. Somehow, actor Mickey Rourke, writer Charles Bukowski, and director Barbet Schroeder have created the least likely protagonist imaginable, and yet the viewer cannot help but root for this genuine underdog!
The DVD of this wonderful film is in widescreen format with a crystal clear picture, a great commentary by director Barbet Schroeder, a making-of documentary, and filmed interviews with Bukowsi himself. This is a first-rate DVD, and a must-own for even those who are curious about the film.
Barbet Schroeder states it best when he says the film is intended to be uplifting and funny, which it truly is. Watch this film drunk and you'll be in danger of laughing to death.
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Summary: Attn. Teenagers: Before Drinking - See This Film!
Review: It's about time! This film is the flipside to the Budweiser Frogs, Spuds McKenzie and idiots with "bitter beer face" and for anyone who doubts the acting ability of Mickey Rourke. An excelent film!
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Summary: Introduction to Bukowski
Review: This movie was my introduction to Bukowski. Back in 1987 I was an 18 year-old suburbanite on the verge of college and, without knowing it, many great discoveries. This would be one of the most enduring. I went to see it because I had loved Rourke in ANGEL HEART. I had no idea what to expect, I had never read Bukowski and only knew the name from a couple of songs that mentioned him. Rourke was absolutely fantastic in the film...I'd never seen a charcter like this (and haven't since). But what hit me was the writing--the script--how the life of down-and-outers could be so compelling and human and humorous. These bums weren't to be pitied, laughed at, or condemned. Wow. Since no bookstores in Fresno sold Bukowski I had to check out his books at the CSUF library, and thank God they had them all. POST OFFICE was the first, and I immediately saw the same wild humor from BARFLY. I've been hooked ever since, and to this day anxiously await each new Buk book. I also wish someone would turn either POST OFFICE, WOMEN, or HAM ON RYE into a movie. Paul Verhoeven had supposedly started shooting WOMEN back in the early '90s. What happened. Taylor Hackford has never filmed PO, which he owns the film rights to. Bits of HAM ON RYE are in the Belgian film LOVE IS A DOG FROM HELL (CRAZY LOVE). Someone out there in tinseltown has got to be able to do Buk justice and not let BARFLY be the only worthwhile bit of filmdom attributed to him (forget about the utterly disappointing TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS, Gazzara is awful, and the script is filled with pomposity that would make Buk himself puke). Until then watch and rewatch BARFLY as often as you can.
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