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Summary: Now Read "Hollywood" by C. Bukowski
Review: If you love Barfly as much as I do don't let a second pass by without reading Bukowski's literary account of the making of Barfly in his 1989 novel, Hollywood. The names have been changed to protect those involved, but none of the characters are strangers if you've seen the film. So punch in Hollywood in the Amazon search field and get ready for a ride as wild as the film!
Rating: 
Summary: In The Gutter Glancing At The Stars
Review: While on the surface this disarming comedy-drama may seem like an endorsement of alcoholism as a path to enlightenment, it remains at the core an examination of one writer's life and quest for individuality. Based on the life of underground writer Charles Bukowski (who also wrote the screenplay and appears briefly as a bar patron), this film is a prose poem on life in the gutter. Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke) is a bum and a drunk, but as he states it, you have to have stamina to be a real drunk. Henry's life consists of finding drink and fighting the barkeep at his local pub in a spiral of existential angst. He's at war with the world and his frenzied and violent existence is punctuated with his observations on the human condition and a flirtation with a fellow drunk (Faye Dunaway) who has a steady supply of liquor to nurture his thirst. Both Dunaway and Rourke are superb as losers who nevertheless take a stand in their own way against society's values. They may be drunks, but they're not hypocrites. Henry's world is invaded by a book editor (Alice Krige) who offers him a way out of his world, but Henry rejects her offer as too cosmopolitan and provincial, not wanting to end up writing "in a cage." He returns to his life on the street, and to his inspiration for his art. There's some nice support work by J.C. Quinn and the late Jack Nance in this beautifully photographed film. You can feel the griminess of the bar and the cheap hotels and almost smell the alcohol on the characters' breaths. My favorite scene involves two impatient EMS workers who answer a call and confront a gashed and bloody Rourke at the door. "Where's the body?" one asks, completely looking past him.
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Summary: Masterpiece
Review: I really enjoy(ed) this movie. In fact I don't treat it as a movie at all, I treat it like one of my favorite CDs. I put it in while I'm preparing a meal and it gently brings me into another world. So I guess what I like about it is the realism of the characters, as far as the 9 or 10 major actors go its absolutely perfect. I think I've watched it about 30 times.
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Summary: BEST MOVIE EVER
Review: The first time I saw this movie, it was playing late on emorning at around 3am on HBO. I watched it, and bought the VHS tape about two minutes later on Amazon. It is a great film with such a simple yet intricate plot that makes it one of the most amazing films i've ever seen. Mickey Rourke is excellent, and Faye Dunaway is the best i've ever seen her.
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Summary: Gritty, honest portrayal of a good man's life
Review: Barfly is one of my favorite movies of all time. If you want to witness a gritty, honest portrayal of a good man's life rent Barfly. Henry Chinaski is like you or me but Henry is an alcoholic who, by choice or not, chooses to live his life drink to drink. He makes no excuses for his lifestyle and as he asks Jim the Bartendar, "Who made up this rule that we all have to do something, we all have to be something, like a guider pilot or a Narc? Sometimes I get tired of all the things I don't want to do, all the things I don't want to be." Pure Genious!!! If we are honest with ourselves, haven't we all asked ourselves this very same question? Henry meets his match in Wanda and together they persevere in a hopeless world where the only thing that keeps them going is that search for their next drink and their next drunk. Some people who watch this film might view Henry as a bum, but I tend to disagree. As Jim the Bartendar tells Lily the Barfly, "He's as right as any of us." I've seen this movie many many times and each time I see something new and magical. Henry is an almost "Buddah" like character who just accepts his lot in life and lives day to day, drink to drink. He isn't vicious or cruel, rather a kind hearted man who simply does not fit into "societies" rules of success. Henry is true to himself and the life he has chosen for himself, and agree with his choices or not, how many of us can say that of our own lives? Watch Barfly and while viewing it, don't judge Henry but accept him and maybe you'll make a friend in the process.
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Summary: intelligent with attention to detail
Review: This movie, as apparently simple as it is, is in fact very entertaining, to the point of addiction. This is one of the few movies that I am able to watch over and over and never tire of it. The highlight of the movie to me is the writing of Charles Bukowski; it's obvious that every word has a purpose in this movie--namely, to express the general theme of lack of purpose and circularity in the life of Henry Chinaski, the film's main character. Despite the repetitiveness of the movie, the film never drags and there is something genuine about each and every scene. This film pays attention to every detail. Although there is no single plot, there are instead several interwoven themes and sub-plots that come and go effortlessly (For example, the violent couple that lives next door to Wanda's apartment. Throughout the film, we hear the anger of these people through the walls, contrasting with the strange peacefulness of Henry when he is alone and when he is with Wanda. Finally, this sub-plot comes to the forefront when Henry is visited by the publisher: "It's love!" shrieks the beaten woman. Another example is the extended theme of angels--Wanda's angel, Henry's angels [Wanda and the rich publisher], and the neon flying horse with angel wings in the window....) Overall, this film expresses an honesty that is rare in today's movies and is full of interesting mazes and crevices beneath the simplicity of the surface.
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Summary: A Film That's A Poem
Review: Some folks who have seen "Barfly" like to pronounce the name as if it were an adverb. Director Barbet Schroeder's screen adaptation of a semi-autobiographical script by Charles Bukowski pulls no punches in portraying the seedy, skid-row existence of a grimy alcoholic (played by Mickey Rourke) who hides a poetic genius under his scuzzy exterior. Henry Chinaski doesn't write sweet, flowery poems. He writes gritty, raw poems, filled with the hunger of his impoverished, addicted existence. He stokes his fires with alcohol, starts quixotic battles, and then usually crawls home drunk and beaten. Rather than manipulate the audience's sympathies or try to come up with a pat, satisfying ending that provides a moral and an uplift, author Bukowski and director Schroder make Rourke's poet neither wholly tragic nor wholly heroic, neither genuinely likeable nor genuinely despicable. That's perhaps the best element of the film, because like much of Bukowski's work, it tries to paint an unvarnished picture of a human being, warts and all, without seeking to condemn or redeem. Like a good poem, the poet just *is*, and it is up to the reader/viewer to come to their own conclusions.
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Summary: To all my Frieeeeends!
Review: Every once in a while a film comes out that has such a visceral quality that you end up watching it a dozen times and subjecting all you friends to it whether they like it or not. Barfly is one of those films. Barbet Schroeder has done an amazing job of bringing Bukowski's semi-autobiographical masterpiece about a skid-row poet to life. Mickey Roarke, who plays Henry the alcoholic writer, is an inspired piece of casting and Roarke carries it off his character with a certain regal vulgarity that I'm not sure any other actor could have matched. Funny, poetic and very well made- I highly recommend this film. PS...Look for Bukowski sitting at the bar in one of the scenes.
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Summary: Barfly is a slice of life
Review: Barfly shows the compassionate human side of the of the alcoholic. It shows that alcoholics are compassionate people just like non-alcolics. One sees that the compassion, generosity, and greatness of the alcoholic in his/her own microcosm is no different from the same characteristics in the non-alcoholic arena. They are good people with an alcohol problem. This is one of the few films that expresses that alcoholism is a disease afflicting basically good people, rather than weak or evil people.
Rating:
Summary: worth it for one great line (and then some)!
Review: "its not that i don't like people...its just that i like them better when they're not around." Spoken like Snagglepuss that line sums up the movie in a nutshell (along,of course, with "drinks, for all my friends". First saw this movie when it was released. My friends then spent the next six months reciting lines from memory. Fun, great flick.
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