Faye Dunaway's best work since Network! She really nailed this role. Mickey Rourke was superb, so sleazy you could almost smell him through the screen. His character's way of speaking and walking were such affectations that I would normally consider overacting, but here they were just right.
Barfly
1987
Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance
Barfly
1987
Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance
Plot summary
Henry Chinaski never cared for the American dream, the thought of needing to become 'something' and fit into the system disgusts him. He 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. Henry spends his days drinking and listening to the radio, and he spends his nights drinking and fighting against Eddy who he thinks personifies shallowness and shameless self promoting. Sometimes in the middle of this he finds the time to jot down a few lines of poetry or a short story. After fighting Eddy and winning for a change Henry is thrown out of his regular bar where Eddy is a bartender. This leads him to seek another watering hole where he happens to find Wanda who is a barfly, in her own words "if another man came along with a fifth of whiskey, I'd go with him". Henry is not fazed by this thou and moves in with her. Of course Wanda immediately goes off and sleeps with Eddy, but after some clothes throwing and two visits from the paramedics Henry and Wanda manage to patch up their relationship. Then Henry gets a visit from a literary agent who has decided to publish one of his stories that he sent in because he "liked the name of the mag". He follows the agent home to her place in order to receive his payment and with the help of a little whiskey sleeps with her. When he leaves to go back to the bar and back to Wanda the agent is heartbroken, she sees something special in Henry and has fallen in love with him. She follows him to his usual bar and gets into a cat fight with Wanda that Wanda wins. In celebration of new found love, happiness and money Henry buys a round for everyone at the bar and toasts them "to my friends!"
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Mickey Rourke as Henry
Faye Dunaway as Wanda Wilcox
Alice Krige as Tully
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Joe
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 828.93 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
"Anyone can get a job. It takes a man to make it without working."
Reviewed by
Drunk in East L.A.
Say what you will about Faye Dunaway, but when she gets her heart into a character, she loses all of her inhibitions and really becomes that character. Here, she loses makeup, a good hair stylist and apparently through the magic of good makeup even a tooth. Coming on 24 minutes into this movie, once she's on, you can't forget her, and it is obvious as to why she got a Golden Globe nomination for this.
Before that, the focus is on Mickey Rourke, an East L. A. drunken bum who keeps getting into fights with bartender Frank Stallone. One night he wins and get a little bit of money in the process, and heads over to another bar where he meets the already tipsy Dunaway. They have a wacky encounter with the cops, threatened open gunfire thanks to their theft of some corn, and end up spending the night together. She dislikes people but sees him as an intellectual equal oh, probably the first person to treat him as a human being. They unleash their souls to each other, but can two barflies really find happiness together?
Her character of Wanda is the type that starts off glamorous when she first starts drinking, but by the end of the night is disheveled and an emotional wreck. It's obvious that her glamour days are over simply because of the booze, and his days as a poet (a character based on Charles Bukowski) don't make him any money anymore. Alice Krige is a glamorous young woman who comes in between Rourke and Dunaway, who in spite of her claims that she never wants to be in love again, it's obvious that she is not willing to be without a man even if love isn't there.
Both Rourke and Dunaway give their all in this dark comedy of a side of life that usually isn't funny. It isn't until the story is established where it is made clear that the poetic side of Rourke's character is based on Bukowski. This view of a long gone part of Hollywood east of Vine ( most likely on Sunset Boulevard heading down to where it hits Santa Monica) is a fascinating time capsule, and while not a perfect film has very interesting characters, even among the smaller parts which includes cheap old women who provide thrills for a $20, and old drunks waiting for their inevitable exit from the planet. Fascinating if eventually depressing, this is the type of film that not everybody will enjoy, but no one who sees it will certainly ever forget it.
Reviewed by
no redeeming characters, but still likable
It seems that it would be very easy to hate a movie like "Barfly". Focusing on an ugly part of life and containing no redeeming characters, it almost seems impossible to like this movie. But the characters, wretched as they are, do elicit a certain charm. Mickey Rourke is great as pathetic drunk Henry Chinaski, spending his entire life in the bars and getting into fights whenever possible. But I actually liked Faye Dunaway even more as his hubby Wanda Wilcox; she's as pathetic as Henry, but somehow never gives up.
So, most of this movie will probably make your stomach turn, but you might end up liking it. Charles Bukowski must be a real loser if this is his life story. Also starring Alice Krige, Jack Nance and Frank Stallone.