Barfly — Barfly (Blu Ray boxset

Barfly is boozed up, rough ‘n’ ready, and often haphazardly charming/ darkly amusing mix of skid row drama and addiction romance. The late 80’s film loosely charts the life of Charles Bukowski- who in his often-autobiographical poetry, short stories, and novels charted a life of drinking, fiery relationships, low-rent apartments, and dead-end jobs. The film focuses on his life just before he was discovered - with Mickey Rourke giving a truly great lead performance, with Faye Dunaway believable playing his lover/ drinking partner Wanda. From Imprint here’s a double Blu-Ray boxset, which brings together the film/ bunch of new archive extras, and on the second with a four-hour selection of interviews with Bukowski.

Barfly appeared in the year 1987- it was helmed by Tehran, Iran bourn Barbet Schroeder. In total he had thirteen feature-length credits to his name, taking in the likes of art house drug-taking road movie featuring a Pink Floyd soundtrack More (1969), S&M Romantic drama Maîtresse (1976), psychological thriller Single White Female (1992), and thriller Inju: The Beast in the Shadow (2008).

The film's credits roll to a backdrop of exterior shots of night-time/ neon flickering barrooms, then we drift into the doors of one of them. Here we find Henry (Rourke) boozed up and throwing insults at moustached and macho barman Eddie (Frank Stallone). Fairly soon they are out in the back alley to throw punches at each other, Henry hits the deck bloody & battered, and we find out this is one of many fights the pair have had- and each time Henry has lost. As things unfold, we follow Henry back and forth between his tiny low-rent apartment and his favourite bar- where he has banter with all he meets. One night after having a good feed, he gets into a flight with Eddie- and for the first time ever he beats the barman- this triggers him been kicked out, so he goes for a wander looking for a new place to drink- he finds it, and with-in he finds the world-worn and lank-haired Wanda(Dunaway), and fairly soon the pair bound becoming drinking partners/ lovers.

Towards the mid-way point into the plot drops thirty-something literary agent Tully (Alice Krige), who wants to publish one of the stories he sent in. So will his story get published, will Tully ruin the relationship between Henry and Wanda, and what else will happen? It’s fair to say Barfly isn’t the most complex of storied films, but it’s lined with at points amusingly snipping dialogue, general barroom banter and a good selection of fellow barflies.

Rourke truly becomes around in his 30’s Bukowski, with his hunched stagger, split knucks, greasy hair, ragged stubble, and clipped voice. Dunaway makes her boozed-up goddess very believable, and real. The supporting cast, for the most part, is also well realized/ good, with the film running at just about right one hour and thirty-nine minutes. It must be a good thirty years since I last saw Barfly, as I was a huge fan of Mr Bukowski when I was in college- and it stands the test of time well, been a compelling study of the man- maybe it would have been nice if we’d got more snippets of his work, though I guess that may have made the film a little clunky/ less flowing.  

Moving onto the release its self- and the first disc takes in the Barfly and its extras. The film itself is given a 1080p HD scan, and this is very good giving depth to the bars & seedy rooms- as well as extra glint to the neon. Moving onto the extras side, and we get a great selection of new stuff- first off, we get a commentary from Kim Cooper and Richard Schave of Esotouric Tours, Los Angeles historians and preservationists who give regular tours around Bukowski LA. And this is a great chatty and informative track. They begin by giving a rundown of the bars featured in the credits, letting us know which are still existing today. We find out the film is very roughly based on Bukowski's exploits as a twenty-one-year-old man in Philadelphia - though of course transferred to LA and Culver City. They point out filming locations, most of which were real places and not just sets. We get quotes from interviews with both Bukowski and Rourke from the time of the release. They talk about one the film's key locations- which was Big Ed’s bar in Culver City- which had a single occupancy hotel above it. We find out that when its real barflies were in it, the bar was making $200 a day, and for its use for filming Ed got paid $14,000. In the LA night-time street scenes, they point out more bars & locations. We get brief quotes of interviews with Dunaway from the time of the film's release, and how pleased she was to get the role. We find out who the real Wanda character was- Jane Cooney Baker- and she beat, abused and loved Bukowski. We get talk about the differences between the script and the finished film, and how the script had more moments of surreal and racist tones in it. Later on, they talk about LA buildings in one of the film's longer-day drive-through scenes. Who the real literary agent Tully was based, and how she was very different to the film character….plus much more- a really worth a play track.
Next, we get a good selection of new on-screen interviews- these take in High Society (19.42) with actress Alice Krige. Another Round (13.41) with actor Frank Stallone. To All My Friends (9.33) with editor Eva Gardos. Low Lifes and Dive Bars (13.32) with production designer Bob Ziembicki. Otherwise on the archive side of things we get director Barbet Schroeder, making of featurette, and trailer.

The second disc in the set features The Charles Bukowski Tapes. This is from the year 1985, and basically finds director Schroeder interviewing/ chatting with Bukowski. On the Blu ray it’s broken up into two parts- the first runs just over the two-hour mark, and the second just under the two-hour mark. Then these are each broken up into small segments- if you have seen any documentaries about the writer, then I’m sure some of these clips you’ll recognise. On the whole, a fair bit of ground and topics are covered, and as you’d expect Bukowski is often dryly funny and wonderful sharpe in places. I’d say it’s a doc best played in clunks, but there is a lot of worth to be found- giving a one-off insight into the world of Mr Bukowski.

Both discs are presented in their own blu ray cases- with these both coming presented in a glossy flip-off top- with new artwork on the front, and a Bukowski poetry quote on the back….so it's a really nice presentation. This edition is Ltd to just 1500 copies, so I’d say if you’re a fan of the film/ and or a Charles Bukowski fan, this is most certainly a must. I’d not seen Barfly since the 90s, so it was great to revisit it once again- and it still has the same punch and swagger I remember.