Barfly

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🎙️ EPISODE 542: 08.29.22 This has to be the only Francis Ford Coppola presents… / Cannon production crossover, right? On some level, that juxtaposition explains not just the appeal of this film but Charles Bukowski's whole lowbrow meets high aesthetic in general. We're introduced to Mickey Rourke as the Bukowski avatar Henry Chinaski getting pummeled in an alley outside a bar in Los Angeles. Rourke is pure gold here, embodying this caricature from head to toe from his odd constant limp and shuffling gait to his ever-present sly sneer. It's a magnetic performance and Faye Dunaway as the female counterpart to this deadbeat alcoholic is equally great. There is a subtle ugliness in their faces even when they're not covered with blood and grime.

When an old lady prostitute brags about her prowess at giving $20 blowjobs in the first ten minutes, I wasn't sure I was gonna be able to stomach this one. But it settles in nicely and wound up being a really enjoyable watch primarily because of Rourke and Dunaway's fucked up charisma and chemistry. Plot-wise, there ain't a whole lot going on beyond that duo's daily struggle to merely exist. Jack Nance plays a detective working for a magazine publisher who briefly gives Henry a taste of how the other half lives. Frank Stallone plays a bartender who's constantly fighting Henry....


(That is an immortal line: "I'd hate to be you if I were me.")

But the movie is at its best when it simply lets the two leads wax poetic in their various states of inebriation. Rourke can do so much without even speaking...


Things turn when Henry finally wins a fight, and gets a little cash. He meets Wanda (Dunaway) in the bar next door and they go steal some wild corn before shacking up at her place....


There's even some prophetic dialogue about Henry being a wrestler...


Nice title drop. I could watch scenes with these two all day...


I often given Bukowski shit, but there's a bunch of nice lines in this one. Like when Henry attempts to answer the eternal question with the eternal answer...


The middle act is easily the strongest section of the film. When Henry and Wanda are feeling each other out as they continue to fuck up. Like when Wanda sleeps with Eddie the bartender...


... and then bashes Henry's head in...


We learn, through all the ups and downs, that it always comes back to hatred, "the only thing that lasts"...


It definitely loses some steam in the final act, but is still enjoyable overall. I'm not sure if this is more "Wow, Bukowski actually wrote a good screenplay" or "Wow, look what Rourke and Dunaway did with this Bukowski material" but either way, solid 8 in my book. Recommend.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 541 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 543 ⫸

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Barfly is a 1987 American film directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway. The film is a semi-autobiography of poet/author Charles Bukowski during the time he spent drinking heavily in Los Angeles, and it presents Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski. The screenplay, written by Bukowski, was commissioned by the French film director Barbet Schroeder, and it was published (with illustrations by the author) in 1984, when film production was still pending. It was released on October 16, 1987.