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Barfly
The screenplay of the 1987 movie, as written by Charles Bukowski.
188 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 17, 2009
About the author
Charles Bukowski
894 books30.6k followersHenry Charles Bukowski (born as Heinrich Karl Bukowski) was a German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles.It is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books
Charles Bukowski was the only child of an American soldier and a German mother. At the age of three, he came with his family to the United States and grew up in Los Angeles. He attended Los Angeles City College from 1939 to 1941, then left school and moved to New York City to become a writer. His lack of publishing success at this time caused him to give up writing in 1946 and spurred a ten-year stint of heavy drinking. After he developed a bleeding ulcer, he decided to take up writing again. He worked a wide range of jobs to support his writing, including dishwasher, truck driver and loader, mail carrier, guard, gas station attendant, stock boy, warehouse worker, shipping clerk, post office clerk, parking lot attendant, Red Cross orderly, and elevator operator. He also worked in a dog biscuit factory, a slaughterhouse, a cake and cookie factory, and he hung posters in New York City subways.
Bukowski published his first story when he was twenty-four and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. His first book of poetry was published in 1959; he went on to publish more than forty-five books of poetry and prose, including Pulp (1994), Screams from the Balcony (1993), and The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992).
He died of leukemia in San Pedro on March 9, 1994.
Charles Bukowski was the only child of an American soldier and a German mother. At the age of three, he came with his family to the United States and grew up in Los Angeles. He attended Los Angeles City College from 1939 to 1941, then left school and moved to New York City to become a writer. His lack of publishing success at this time caused him to give up writing in 1946 and spurred a ten-year stint of heavy drinking. After he developed a bleeding ulcer, he decided to take up writing again. He worked a wide range of jobs to support his writing, including dishwasher, truck driver and loader, mail carrier, guard, gas station attendant, stock boy, warehouse worker, shipping clerk, post office clerk, parking lot attendant, Red Cross orderly, and elevator operator. He also worked in a dog biscuit factory, a slaughterhouse, a cake and cookie factory, and he hung posters in New York City subways.
Bukowski published his first story when he was twenty-four and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. His first book of poetry was published in 1959; he went on to publish more than forty-five books of poetry and prose, including Pulp (1994), Screams from the Balcony (1993), and The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992).
He died of leukemia in San Pedro on March 9, 1994.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
March 17, 2008
The movie The Barfly peeked my interest in Charles Bukowski and since seeing it I have purchased almost all his books. He is hilarious, dirty, dingy, a drunk, a womanizer, a gambler, and best of all he knows it and does not care. Oh, and he is brilliant. He lived and played in the southern California area of San Pedro, frequenting Hollywood Park Race Track. I grew up in that area and found it easy to imagine that scraggly old man walking down the streets. Maybe I even saw him? His books of fiction, poems, etc. are not for the prudish...
April 6, 2009
A good screenplay by Buk in spite of his later complaints about the film. The dialogue is funny and contains condensed versions of some of his short stories and poems. Contains lot of cool pics of Bukowski cutting up on set with Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway, of whom he once remarked, "I never saw a woman that beautiful in a dive bar". He's the expert!
July 21, 2024
This script is a rare life experience of people from a society who have thrown away the glamorous but dull mask of city life. Those who present a frightening and at the same time comical image of man. People whose god is wine and their worship is drinking. Henry Chinaski, the anti-hero of the book, drinks and fights heroically and painfully to prove his existence. He is a witty psychopath who describes his inner self with serious insight by writing on paper. Perhaps he can be described as an experimental street philosopher. He has no claims or wishes. He represents a different image of the failure of modern man. If Beckett once created Godot to show the futility of life after the post-war, here the character of Henry, although he owes Beckett's absurdity, shows the dark comic face of modern life in a place that was supposed to be a utopia for everyone, that is, America. If Henry is drunk most of the time, but sometimes he has an intuition like a romantic poet and creates a literature of his own kind, a literature that he does not want to owe to anyone but his own conscience. The screenplay's view on the issue of women may be a bit misogynistic because we are faced with all kinds of women who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the not-so-attractive man of the book. Perhaps the anti-feminist understanding of the relationship between men and women in this book is wrong, because although these people are a minority, their morals and self-awareness are specific to their peers, which means they are dependent on each other in this life, or more precisely, a parasitic life. The literature that Bukowski represented was "dirty literature". Literature in which characters and places all serve the problem of "failed man." Although Beckett's characters fell into hysterical stupor in the face of absurdity, but Henry, careless and unconcerned about the coming hours of life, only gets drunk so that he does not even value his literary taste, at least like other people From his own class. It can be said that Henry is a comic version of Albert Camus' creation, Meursault. Both live in the present without past or future. both of them, sudden unfortunate and good events do not matter to them, and both of them do not take love seriously. In the end, it should be said that Henry Chinaski is the crystallization and absolute embodiment of the sentence engraved on Bukowski's grave and may be a new slogan for the absurdists: "don't try".
July 29, 2018
My 1st read for charles Bukowski and will not be the last , I prefer short stories & novels instead of long ones, especially if it involves a deep reflections as this one .like all the charecters , especially Henry ,(the Barfly) who believes that life is free and yours to live like you see fit, and if that in some cases involves copious amounts of whiskey then so be it. but in front all of this He speaks like a philosopher and have an independent vision for the life and society. and Sometimes in the middle of this he finds the time to jot down a few lines of poetry or a short story ,thats the bright side of Henry character, and not anyone can noticed his creativity . Great story highly recommended.
December 15, 2025
Rilettura.
Non un romanzo, ma una sceneggiatura per lungometraggio. Tragica, rozza, divertente.
La prima volta che la lessi, più di vent’anni fa, andavo al liceo, non sapevo cosa fosse una sceneggiatura, e che sarei diventato sceneggiatore.
Ora vivo di storie.
Ne ho fatta di strada. Per fortuna il serbatoio è ancora mezzo pieno, e quando ho paura di restare a secco rileggo Buk e lo sento riempirsi un po’ di più.
Sei benzina, fratello.
Carburante.
Le dita mi fumano quando ti sfoglio.
Non te ne andare, porta da bere, e andiamo avanti finché ce n’è
Non un romanzo, ma una sceneggiatura per lungometraggio. Tragica, rozza, divertente.
La prima volta che la lessi, più di vent’anni fa, andavo al liceo, non sapevo cosa fosse una sceneggiatura, e che sarei diventato sceneggiatore.
Ora vivo di storie.
Ne ho fatta di strada. Per fortuna il serbatoio è ancora mezzo pieno, e quando ho paura di restare a secco rileggo Buk e lo sento riempirsi un po’ di più.
Sei benzina, fratello.
Carburante.
Le dita mi fumano quando ti sfoglio.
Non te ne andare, porta da bere, e andiamo avanti finché ce n’è
March 3, 2017
This is a unique little book, and definitely worth reading – especially if you’re a Bukowski fan. In fact, I enjoyed it more than the movie, and the movie was pretty good. This, though, is the original screenplay, which Bukowski wrote based loosely upon his own life, as he did with the rest of his work. It stars Hank Chinaski, a barfly, and Wanda Wilcox, his woman.
The action pretty much just follows the interactions between the two of them, and so that alone should be enough for you to get a good idea of what to expect here. Especially if you’ve read Bukowski before! And hey – watch the movie afterwards, too.
The action pretty much just follows the interactions between the two of them, and so that alone should be enough for you to get a good idea of what to expect here. Especially if you’ve read Bukowski before! And hey – watch the movie afterwards, too.
March 22, 2010
This is the script to the movie Barfly. It was a bit awkward me for to read something in script form. Its full of all the Bukowski cliches and there are a few laughs. Not that this is bad but I'd recomend Bukowski's Hollywood which is his account of the making of the Barfly movie, and even watching the film before I would reading the script. Really this is probably only worth your trouble if your a Bukowski completist.
July 18, 2010
"HENRY
Sometimes I get so tired thinking about all the things I don't want to be, of all the things I don't want to do - like go to India, get my teeth cleaned, save the whale. All that. I don't understand it.
JIM
You're not supposed to think about it. I think the whole trick is not to think about it."
Sometimes I get so tired thinking about all the things I don't want to be, of all the things I don't want to do - like go to India, get my teeth cleaned, save the whale. All that. I don't understand it.
JIM
You're not supposed to think about it. I think the whole trick is not to think about it."
July 24, 2010
"Who's that one? She looks like some sort of stress goddess."
"That's Wanda. She's crazy."
"Ooooh."
A good read but the movie is a classic.
"That's Wanda. She's crazy."
"Ooooh."
A good read but the movie is a classic.
June 3, 2013
The Iceman Cometh with a happy ending.
September 21, 2020
I thought I would read this as I watched the film. It is purported to be the actual script as shot with omissions from the original screenplay in brackets. It is kinda hard to spot the slight brackets with the inclusions in the exact same font, etc. but it still seems like their are a few parts not in the DVD version that I have. Maybe a longer cut is out there? Regardless, the best parts here are the character biographies and the narration-like explanations of scenes.
Part of me wanted to see Rourke's performance again. For some reasons, I thought I had heard he had gone all method and irritated everyone else with his deep, method commitment to the role. That must have been something else as I felt he just hammed it up and came across as inauthentic and not even committed. Indeed from Mickey Rourke- Wrestling With Demons (Monetti Sandro):
Charles Bukowski himself had mixed reactions about the lead performance by Mickey Rourke. In an interview in the documentary film Born into This, Bukowski says, "[Rourke] didn't get it right... He had it all kind of exaggerated, untrue. A little bit show-off about him. So, no, it was kind of mis-done". Although in a letter written apropos the film, titled "A Letter from a Fan", the writer states
Still, Rourke apparent ad-libbed some cool stuff as I can tell from reading along, including what may be my favorite or at least one of my favorite lines in the film. Chinaski despises bartender Big Ed (Frank Stallone), saying: “He symbolizes everything that disgusts me. Obviousness. Unoriginal macho energy. Ladies man…” I love that "obviousness" and wonder if it is from Rourke, or was fed him by Bukowski, or one of the "barflies".
Part of me wanted to see Rourke's performance again. For some reasons, I thought I had heard he had gone all method and irritated everyone else with his deep, method commitment to the role. That must have been something else as I felt he just hammed it up and came across as inauthentic and not even committed. Indeed from Mickey Rourke- Wrestling With Demons (Monetti Sandro):
Mickey had never heard of Bukowski before filming, but read a couple of his books, met the writer as preparation, and got to like him – as did his brother Joey who became a drinking partner of the writer. Bukowski was a real character on set, drinking beer from early in the morning and trying to persuade Mickey to have one. But even though he was playing an alcoholic, Mickey stuck to ginseng, vitamins, and protein shakes during filming of the movie.
Charles Bukowski himself had mixed reactions about the lead performance by Mickey Rourke. In an interview in the documentary film Born into This, Bukowski says, "[Rourke] didn't get it right... He had it all kind of exaggerated, untrue. A little bit show-off about him. So, no, it was kind of mis-done". Although in a letter written apropos the film, titled "A Letter from a Fan", the writer states
"[...] Part of my luck was the actor who played Henry Chinaski. Mickey Rourke stayed with the dialogue to the word and the sound intended. What surprised me was that he added another dimension to the character, in spirit. Mickey appeared to really love his role, and yet without exaggeration he added his own flavor, his zest, his madness, his gamble to Henry Chinaski without destroying the intent or the meaning of the character. To add spirit to spirit can be dangerous..."
Still, Rourke apparent ad-libbed some cool stuff as I can tell from reading along, including what may be my favorite or at least one of my favorite lines in the film. Chinaski despises bartender Big Ed (Frank Stallone), saying: “He symbolizes everything that disgusts me. Obviousness. Unoriginal macho energy. Ladies man…” I love that "obviousness" and wonder if it is from Rourke, or was fed him by Bukowski, or one of the "barflies".
June 13, 2026
Barfly - The Movie
Charles Bukowski
He fears the life of the dull and the damned, and the eight-hour jobs they hate yet must fight to keep.
*****
He likes Henry Chinaski but is not quite sure why, which, of course, is the best way to like a person.
*****
Rat, hell. He refuses to join the rat-race. He drinks and he waits.
*****
You ought to stop fighting Eddie. You don’t even have a reason, that’s why you lose every fight.
*****
The neon lights of the city are all that light up the apartment. Henry and Wanda lift their drinks in a silent toast, drink them down. Henry mixes two more.
*****
Nothing ever works, nothing in this life ever works right.
*****
What’s crazy? I don’t know. We’re all in some kind of hell. And the madhouses are the only places where people know they are in hell. Who cares, anyway?
*****
You don’t know how men suffer for children.
*****
Anybody can get a job. It takes a man to make it without working.
*****
This is a world where everybody’s got to do something. Somebody laid down this rule that everybody’s got to do something, be something—a dentist, a glider pilot, a narc, a janitor, a preacher. All that.
*****
Sure, the more crap you believe in, the better off you are.
*****
Nobody suffers like the poor.
Charles Bukowski
He fears the life of the dull and the damned, and the eight-hour jobs they hate yet must fight to keep.
*****
He likes Henry Chinaski but is not quite sure why, which, of course, is the best way to like a person.
*****
Rat, hell. He refuses to join the rat-race. He drinks and he waits.
*****
You ought to stop fighting Eddie. You don’t even have a reason, that’s why you lose every fight.
*****
The neon lights of the city are all that light up the apartment. Henry and Wanda lift their drinks in a silent toast, drink them down. Henry mixes two more.
*****
Nothing ever works, nothing in this life ever works right.
*****
What’s crazy? I don’t know. We’re all in some kind of hell. And the madhouses are the only places where people know they are in hell. Who cares, anyway?
*****
You don’t know how men suffer for children.
*****
Anybody can get a job. It takes a man to make it without working.
*****
This is a world where everybody’s got to do something. Somebody laid down this rule that everybody’s got to do something, be something—a dentist, a glider pilot, a narc, a janitor, a preacher. All that.
*****
Sure, the more crap you believe in, the better off you are.
*****
Nobody suffers like the poor.
May 15, 2024
So apparently Bukowski was coerced or encouraged to write a screenplay; this wasn’t his idea. I think it would have worked better as a play, maybe?
It’s good, of course, it’s just…kind of weirdly self inflated. Which is weird to say about a screenplay about a guy who just drinks all the time, but he’s like, better than everybody normal bc he’s a brilliant writer. Which is true and all but there’s a scene with Wanda where she tells him he looks like some kind of royalty, and then there’s that whole useless subplot with Tully where he makes little speeches about how nice furniture and roach free houses just aren’t his bag, baby.
It’s good, of course, it’s just…kind of weirdly self inflated. Which is weird to say about a screenplay about a guy who just drinks all the time, but he’s like, better than everybody normal bc he’s a brilliant writer. Which is true and all but there’s a scene with Wanda where she tells him he looks like some kind of royalty, and then there’s that whole useless subplot with Tully where he makes little speeches about how nice furniture and roach free houses just aren’t his bag, baby.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 14, 2024
“Yeah, they say I’m good with dialogue,I’ve lived a while to hear enough fucking conversations, I oughtta be”-Charles Bukowski
In the Charles Bukowski’s screenplay “Barfly” gives his best work in terms of dialogue. This was his shot in Hollywood but even the man himself hates movies. Nonetheless this script is Bukowski at his finest yet somehow tends to go nowhere with it. Is it poetic? Or is it just a ride with Bukowski behind the wheel leading you astray?
Either way might as well enjoy the ride! I’ll drink to that 🥃
In the Charles Bukowski’s screenplay “Barfly” gives his best work in terms of dialogue. This was his shot in Hollywood but even the man himself hates movies. Nonetheless this script is Bukowski at his finest yet somehow tends to go nowhere with it. Is it poetic? Or is it just a ride with Bukowski behind the wheel leading you astray?
Either way might as well enjoy the ride! I’ll drink to that 🥃
November 15, 2020
Honestly, I love most everything Hank wrote, but I've been trying for decades to dig this one -- both film and screenplay -- and I just have never been able to reach that point. And I feel guilty about that! The sad fact is, I've always thought this was one of his less impressive works. So, recommended for Bukowski fans, but if you're curious about him but haven't read him -- READ anything BUT this first or you may decide to no longer be interested afterwards and that would be a real shame.
September 26, 2019
Vaya joya, me he picado. La belleza está en la simpleza de las cosas. Que buen rato me ha dado.
Bueno, ya sabes lo que dijo Tolstoi:
”Valora la compañía de la mujer como una necesidad desagradable de la vida, y evítala tanto como te sea posible.”
Bueno, ya sabes lo que dijo Tolstoi:
”Valora la compañía de la mujer como una necesidad desagradable de la vida, y evítala tanto como te sea posible.”
February 17, 2018
Tremendo...
April 13, 2020
Divertente e spassoso, da leggere in compagnia!
August 17, 2020
Gotta read some Bukowski, the champion of John Fante' - I owe it to the guy for that alone.
March 12, 2022
Bukowski’s finest work
September 29, 2024
Desperately nihilistic story where hope and kindness mean nothing next to the prospect of a drink.
February 4, 2025
Biblioteca dei nonni. Lo leggevo solo quando andavo lì e me ne ricordavo
March 1, 2025
To All My Friends!
April 8, 2026
The film is almost exact to the film. Some fun behind the scene photos included
February 29, 2008
Anyone looking for the way screen stories should and need to be told, should look to Barfly. I’ve never seen the movie, (waiting for it to come to DVD), but the screenplay by Hank is just the kind of tale that’s lacking in Hollywood. (Actually, with the advent of digtal, I see a trend toward this kind of cinema, but done independently of course.)No car chases, bullet catches, special effects or bullshit, and frankly no beginning and no ending either. Just a glimpse into a real character’s life. A toast to you, CB.
June 29, 2015
This was the last piece by Bukowski I'll ever be able to read. Sure I can break my lifelong record of never reading poetry but I doubt I ever will. I just don't get or like poetry. I can't believe there's no more Bukowski or tales of Chinaski left for me to read. I'm so sad. At least Irvine Welsh is still alive. Okay mayhap I will try one last time with this poetry business. I mean if it's Bukowski. How bad can it be?
January 15, 2008
At a time when I was becoming aware on how the world ticks and my hormonal years were drawing to a close, I fell in love with being drunk and depressed over a 'broad', go figure. Then came along my absent father, my ass kicking mother fucker, my personified conscience, my truth, my being okay with being a pervert.
February 14, 2014
Chinaski works better as a character in a novel than in a film. There isn't enough development, either of him or the people around him, to make this a compelling screenplay. That's the problem with writing for a format that just gives you a couple of hours to work with; I don't think it's the proper format for a Chinaski.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews