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IMDbPro

Barfly

  • 1987
  • R
  • 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
21K
YOUR RATING
Barfly (1987)
Home Video Trailer from Warner Home Video
Play trailer2:01
1 Video
99+ Photos
ComedyDramaRomance

Based on the life of successful poet Charles Bukowski and his exploits in Hollywood during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.Based on the life of successful poet Charles Bukowski and his exploits in Hollywood during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.Based on the life of successful poet Charles Bukowski and his exploits in Hollywood during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

  • Director
    • Barbet Schroeder
  • Writer
    • Charles Bukowski
  • Stars
    • Mickey Rourke
    • Faye Dunaway
    • Alice Krige
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.1/10
    21K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Barbet Schroeder
    • Writer
      • Charles Bukowski
    • Stars
      • Mickey Rourke
      • Faye Dunaway
      • Alice Krige
    • 106User reviews
    • 56Critic reviews
    • 70Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 5 nominations

    Videos1

    Barfly
    Trailer 2:01
    Watch Barfly

    Photos103

    Barfly (1987)
    Barfly (1987)
    Barfly (1987)
    Mickey Rourke in Barfly (1987)
    Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway in Barfly (1987)
    Roberta Bassin in Barfly (1987)
    Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway in Barfly (1987)
    Faye Dunaway and Charles Bukowski in Barfly (1987)
    Mickey Rourke and J.C. Quinn in Barfly (1987)
    Alice Krige and Mickey Rourke in Barfly (1987)
    Mickey Rourke and Stacey Pickren in Barfly (1987)
    Barfly (1987)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Mickey Rourke
    Mickey Rourke
    • Henry
    Faye Dunaway
    Faye Dunaway
    • Wanda Wilcox
    Alice Krige
    Alice Krige
    • Tully
    Jack Nance
    Jack Nance
    • Detective
    J.C. Quinn
    J.C. Quinn
    • Jim
    Frank Stallone
    Frank Stallone
    • Eddie
    Sandy Martin
    Sandy Martin
    • Janice
    Roberta Bassin
    Roberta Bassin
    • Lilly
    Gloria LeRoy
    Gloria LeRoy
    • Grandma Moses
    • (as Gloria Leroy)
    Joe Unger
    Joe Unger
    • Ben
    Harry Cohn
    • Rick
    Pruitt Taylor Vince
    Pruitt Taylor Vince
    • Joe
    Joe Rice
    • Old Man in Bar
    Julie 'Sunny' Pearson
    • Hooker in Bar
    Donald L. Norden
    • Man in Alley
    Wil Albert
    • Carl
    Hal Shafer
    • Mike
    Zeke Manners
    • Roger
    • (as Zeek Manners)
    • Director
      • Barbet Schroeder
    • Writer
      • Charles Bukowski
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The apartment building where Wanda's apartment was 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.
    • Goofs
      When Henry and Wanda, two career alcoholics, meet at the Kenmore, he exclaims after their scotch and waters that he has no money left. But when they go, he leaves behind his half-finished bottle of Miller High Life on the bar. Alcoholics do this all the time.
    • Quotes

      Wanda Wilcox: I can't stand people, I hate them.

      Henry: Oh yeah?

      Wanda Wilcox: Do you hate them?

      Henry: No, but I seem to feel better when they're not around.

    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Suspect/Killing Time/Barfly/Weeds/Hope and Glory (1987)
    • Soundtracks
      Hip Hug-Her
      By Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones, Al Jackson Jr. and Donald Dunn

      Published by Irving Music, Inc. (DMI)

      Performed by Booker T. & the M.G.s

      Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.

      By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

    User reviews106

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    Drinks for all my friends...
    Despite Bukowski's condemnation of Mickey Rourke's portrayal of him/Chinaski in the film (claiming Rourke was too cocky with the role, and didn't stick to the character of Chinaski as Bukowski intended) states Bukowski in the documentary "Bukowski: Born Into This", I still view it as one of the highlights of Rourke's career.

    Whether the depiction of a character is exact in the fashion of perfect mimicry is often irrelevant to me in relation to biopics. As a matter of a fact, I often find it the downfall of some biopics, where the physicality may be captured, but the meat and potatoes of the character's are often left by the wayside. Not so in the instance of "Barfly." Rourke nailed Bukowski/Chinaski's crazy, alcoholic, free spiritedness brilliantly, I felt. There was a humor, a tenderness, a coldness, a twisted romanticism, and a bleakness, all wrapped into a greasy, overweight (Rourke pulled a "De Niro", gaining weight and not bathing months before the film's shooting) package you could almost smell from the theater seats.

    Faye Dunaway as the aging, sad, beautiful barfly Wanda, gives a performance that yet again reminds us why she is a cinematic legend in her own time! She plays the subtleties and intricacies of Wanda with such aplomb, offering even this - the most pathetic of her roles - a dignity and a sad beauty that not many actresses can pull off.

    The casting of this film deserves a round of applause! I've tended bar and worked in the sorts of joints where these all too real people can be found, and I felt as if I was right there again, pouring shots of bourbon, polishing glasses, and making certain that the brawls boiling in the bar get taken to the streets. Frank Stallone's swaggering, bully-of-a-bar tender, macho-man Eddie is hilarious! Gloria LeRoy as "Grandma Moses" the ancient prostitute infamous for her ability to "swallow paste" is priceless. I could go on and on, but I won't! Bukowski's male character counterpart is a macho, beer swilling, bare knuckle fighting, farting kind of man who some may not appreciate, considering that outside of the seedier bars in North America, these types of fellas are a dying breed. With males being force-fed the over-sensitive, turn the other cheek, annoyingly "metro sexual" kinds of roles models and ideals these days, it must be a strange look back over the evolutionary shoulder for some men to see the realities of people like Bukowski! Don't get me wrong - I'm not applauding all of the Chinaski character's behaviors, but I think that some guys could learn a thing or two about themselves from the worst example of the diametric opposite of what they've been told they should be. Sometimes a fight has to be - sometimes it's just plain pathetic, and both examples can be found in Barfly.

    Bukowski has always dared to put to page whatever entered his head, and did so with a twisted lovely flourish.

    Barbet Schroeder, the man behind such brilliant and critically acclaimed films such as "More" (1969), his work with director as Jean-Luc Godard, his contribution to French "Nouvelle Vague" or New Wave cinema, and his more mainstream flicks such as "Single White Female", places him in a category above many directors working in North America today.

    With Barfly, Schroeder captures the gritty realities of lives given over to the excesses of substances and circumstances in a true-to-life way, as he did with his first film "More", a flick about heroin addiction done at a time when the subject was still considered very taboo. The musical score for Barfly supports this film perfectly, too, with the Hammond organ whirling out Booker T. Jones' "Hip Hug Her" as we P.O.V. our way through the film's first scene, past the bar sign, to the bar's door, and into the world of Henry Chinaski. This is all counter-pointed wonderfully by the use of Mozart and Beethoven under Rourke's voice-overs of Chinaski's writing.

    To sum it all up - as much as I dig and respect Bukowski, I have to say that even though he wasn't a fan of the flick (long after its release I may add, and he was on set as an adviser and unaccredited cast member - why didn't he say something at the time?), I look at this movie as a wee gem and as a masterpiece daring enough to capture life's underbelly with an acuteness and accuracy many wouldn't dare to put to screen.

    ~T.Paul

    www.t-paul.com
    helpful•35
    8
    • t-paulsm
    • Nov 21, 2005

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 16, 1987 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Завсідник бару
    • Filming locations
      • Bryson Apartments, 2701 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA(Interiors and exterios. As Wanda Wilcox's apartment.)
    • Production companies
      • Golan-Globus Productions
      • Zoetrope Studios
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $3,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $3,221,568
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $45,900
      • Oct 18, 1987
    • Gross worldwide
      • $3,221,568
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 40 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Ultra Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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