Barfly
film poster
Directed by	Barbet Schroeder
Produced by	Presenter: Francis Ford Coppola Exec. producer: Menahem Golan Yoram Globus Producer: Tom Luddy Fred Roos Barbet Schroeder
Written by	Charles Bukowski
Starring	Mickey Rourke Faye Dunaway Alice Krige Jack Nance J.C. Quinn Frank Stallone
Music by	Jack Baran
Cinematography	Robby Müller
Editing by	Éva Gárdos
Studio	American Zoetrope
Distributed by	Cannon Film Distributors
Release date(s)	October 16, 1987
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3 million
Box office	$3,221,568

Barfly is a 1987 American film which is a semi-autobiography of poet/author Charles Bukowski during the time he spent drinking heavily in Los Angeles. The screenplay by Bukowski was commissioned by the French film director Barbet Schroeder – it was published, with illustrations by the author, in 1984 when film production was still pending.^[1] Barfly stars Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway, with direction by Schroeder, and was presented by Francis Ford Coppola. The movie also features a silent cameo appearance by Bukowski himself.

The Kino Flo light, now a ubiquitous tool in the film industry, was specially created by Robby Muller's electrical crew for a scene in this film which would have been difficult to light using the conventional lampheads available at the time.

The film was entered into the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.^[2]

Synopsis [edit]

Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke) is a destitute alcoholic who lives in a rundown apartment and works menial jobs when he can find them. An intelligent man and keenly aware of his circumstance, he finds solace in expressing his feelings and perceptions of the world through writing poetry and short stories.

At night, he frequents a local establishment where he drinks, hangs out with other down and out alcoholics, and gets into altercations with patrons and a tough guy bartender he hates, named Eddie (Frank Stallone). One night, Henry comes into the bar very drunk; he begins to drink uncontrollably out of other customers' glasses and Eddie promptly throws him out into the street.

Henry then staggers on to another establishment. There, he meets Wanda (Faye Dunaway), a fellow alcoholic and a kept woman, who, lonely in her own right, invites Henry to drink with her, with booze she buys on her lover's account at the liquor store. She invites Henry to her shabby apartment to drink whiskey, and he quickly takes up residence with her. They share a bed and drink to excess, on the tab of Wanda's older lover.

During routine evening stops at the local bar, Henry constantly challenges Eddie, in a quest to prove to himself and others that he could beat the sober and tough talking Eddie, who represents everything Henry despises, including shallowness and self-promotion. His regular fights with Eddie in the back alley behind the bar attract other bargoers who cheer for their favorite and place wagers on the fight.

Things become very acrimonious between Henry and Eddie when Henry discovers that Wanda has slept with Eddie. Nevertheless, Henry stays with Wanda and continues to drink his nights away with her by his side, writing during the day, and submitting his work to magazines and book publishers.

In the meantime, Henry is tracked down by a wealthy female book publisher, Tully Sorenson, who has been impressed with his writing and is interested in publishing his work. She finds him through a private investigator she has hired, who breaks into Henry's apartment one afternoon and takes pictures of some of Henry's writing to verify to Tully the promise of Henry's work. Knowing Henry is destitute, Tully pays him an "advance" of five hundred dollars and takes him back to her home where, after pouring some drinks for the two of them, the two sleep together.

At first, Henry is impressed with the promise of wealth and security, including an endless supply of booze that working for Tully could provide. However, he begins to realize that he is uncomfortable being involved with Tully, romantically or professionally, because of class differences, telling her that she is "trapped in a cage with golden bars". Henry determines he must leave, that returning to his life of destitution and alcoholism is the only truth he knows.

After leaving Tully's house, Henry returns to his usual bar and to Wanda. Tully heads out to see if she can change his mind, and finds him at the bar where a drunken, jealous Wanda proceeds to beat her up. When Henry doesn't intercede, Tully realizes that Henry does not care about her and doesn't want her help. So she leaves the bar and gives up on publishing his work, realizing that her pursuit of him was futile.

The film ends with Henry buying drinks for all of his "friends" at the bar. Eddie suspects Henry has no money and is itching for a fight, so he tells Henry that he owes him forty dollars for the drinks. To Eddie's surprise, Henry pays with some of the advance he received from Tully and sarcastically leaves a tip for Eddie, saying, "Buy a drink on me." Eddie calls Henry out and they go out behind the bar for another fight. As Henry and the other barflies follow Eddie out the door, the camera pans out to the front of the bar to the sound of punches and the crowd cheering the two men on.

Cast [edit]

• Mickey Rourke as Henry Chinaski
• Faye Dunaway as Wanda Wilcox
• Alice Krige as Tully Sorenson
• Jack Nance as Detective
• J.C. Quinn as Jim
• Frank Stallone as Eddie
• Sandy Martin as Janice
• Roberta Bassin as Lilly
• Gloria LeRoy as Grandma Moses
• Joe Unger as Ben
• Harry Cohn as Rick
• Pruitt Taylor Vince as Joe
• Fritz Feld as Bum
• Donald L. Norden as Man in Alley
• Charles Bukowski as Oldtimer

Production [edit]

• There is a scene where the camera tilts up over Faye Dunaway's legs.^[3] This glamour shot was done at her insistence and was not in the original screenplay.^[4]
• Charles Bukowski later novelized his experiences surrounding the film in the book Hollywood.
• Charles Bukowski wanted Sean Penn to star as protagonist Henry Chinaski, but Penn insisted that Dennis Hopper direct the film. Bukowski had written the screenplay for Barbet Schroeder, who had filmed him for French TV years before, and would not surrender it to Hopper, whom he despised as a gold-chain-wearing Hollywood phony. Bukowski and Penn remained friends for the rest of Bukowski's life.^{[citation needed]}
• Bukowski was disappointed in the lead performance by Mickey Rourke, and in an interview in the documentary film Born Into This, Bukowski says, "[Rourke] didn't get it right. . . He had it all kind of exaggerated, untrue. A little bit show-off about him. So, no, it was kind of missed on."^[5]
• The apartment building where Wanda's apartment is located was an actual building where Charles Bukowski and his lover Jane Baker Cooley, the real-life counterparts to Henry and Wanda, had lived. No one knew this until Bukowski, who was watching the filming, remembered.^{[citation needed]}

Reception [edit]

Barfly received positive reviews from critics, as it holds a 78% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews.

Popular culture connections [edit]

Barfly is referenced in the 2009 movie Precious. When asked by the title character how she is doing that day, the secretary at the alternative school replies, "I went to see that movie Barfly last night... piece of shit." (Note: Precious takes place in 1987, the year that Barfly came out in theatres)

Several Barfly quotes are referenced in the NOFX song, "Green Corn" (including the title itself), from their 1991 album Ribbed.

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Barfly at the Internet Movie Database
• Barfly at Rotten Tomatoes
• Barfly at Box Office Mojo
• Barfly at the TCM Movie Database
• Barfly at AllRovi
• On Set article by Roger Ebert
• Charles Bukowski's Barfly: The Dignity and Depravity of Emotion by Jay Dougherty
• Barfly Quotes