Barfly

Barfly

United States - 1987

Director - Barbet Schroeder

Warner Home Video, 1987, VHS

Runtime - 1 hour, 40 minutes
Starring - Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway

Loosely based on a romanticized version of Charles Bukowski's antiheroic vision of himself, Barfly ended up being the fuel for another book. Bukowski complained that they got it all wrong, that movie was all wrong he said in an interview you can watch in the documentary Born Into This. I wouldn't have said it like "For my frieeeeeends." I would have said, "For my frieeeends."

One of my friends reproached me for liking this movie so much. How could you betray the vision of a genius and like a film that he condemned?

Here is my answer: Sure Bukowski was a great writer, but he was also a whiny abusive, egotistical jerk, so of course he complained, all the way to the bank. Anyway, it's a good movie.