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starring: Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, Alice Krige, Jack Nance, J.C. Quinndirected by: Barbet Schroeder
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301008907
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
ISBN: 6301008901
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: September 01, 1998
Running Time: 99 minutes
Sales Rank: 55
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: October 16, 1987
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
The script for this movie was written by outrageous poet-author-alcoholic Charles Bukowski. But director Barbet Schroeder makes it into an oddly amusing story of a pugnacious drunk writer (Mickey Rourke) based on Bukowski himself. Rourke spends almost all of his time at the bar, struggling with sobriety (he's against it) and, occasionally, having fistfights with the bartender (Frank Stallone). He meets another souse, a formerly attractive woman (Faye Dunaway), and gets involved with her, which means they drink copious amounts of liquor and try to have sex. Not much happens beyond that, yet this film is strangely entertaining, for all of its bottom-of-the-barrel humanity. Maybe that's the secret: 'Oh, the humanity....' --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - I Love This Film and Watch It Over and Again -- A CLASSIC
This is an excellent film. Nonconformists and those who like to look at things differently than the "regular consensus" might appreciate this film the most.
Yet it is not strange or uncommon. It is brilliantly honest and truthful in a way few films are. It is (somewhat) based on a portion of the life of Charles Bukowski who wrote the screenplay and claimed not to feel the film portrayed what he was really like. It actually probably flattered him a bit much, as Rourke was incredibly ... Read More
Rating: - Bukowski's Only Screenplay is a Masterpiece
Anyway who criticizes Mickey Rourke's performance in BARFLY has never really been really drunk. Even if Bukowski himself never wanted Mickey Rourke to play the role, it doesn't mean much. Bukowski would of hated anyone who played the role of his alter ego Hank Chinaski. I don't think he would of cared much for Matt Dillon in that role either.
The Charles Bukowski novel "Hollywood" chronicles the disastrous making-of this film as well as the haphazard screen writing assignment of BARFLY. ... Read More
Rating:  - 20 Years Later: Not nearly as good as I remember.
Barfly (Barbet Schroeder, 1987)
When I was a young poet, like most people who became young poets in the seventies and eighties, one of my idols was Charles Bukowski. So when Barfly came out, I rushed to see it, and was awed. I've carried the nostalgia for it around for twenty years, and finally decided to see it again. Somewhat to my surprise, I found I'd been looking at it through rather rose-colored glasses all this time.
Watching it now, the biggest problem with the movie ... Read More
Rating: - I fell in love with it...
Very few movies have that certain something that just makes them so endearing that a viewer can just keep coming back and watching the movie maybe 100 some odd times and never tire of it. For me, Barfly is one of those few.
I was a big fan of Bukowski's writings long before I saw this movie, and while Bukowski himself may not have liked this film, I would remind those that agree with him that Bukowski didn't like any movies, so naturally he's going to be inclined to hate one that he wrote most of ... Read More
Rating: - Best Movie Ever... For Bukowski Fans
This is my favorite movie of all time.
Bukowski wrote the screenplay which draws from various short stories and novel chapters that he had written about his younger days as a disillusioned and unemployed drunk who dabbled in poetry.
Bukowski wrote a book about the making of this film, titled Hollywood. And that's a good read, if you like the movie. In the book, Bukowski talks about how Sean Penn originally wanted the lead and demanded that Dennis Hopper direct. Hard to imagine ... Read More
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