Forgotten Classics: Barfly

Henry Chinaski is a drinker, a barfly. All he does is drink, that’s all he wants to do and all he needs to do. He only works when he needs the money. But mostly he just drinks. The first time we see him is in the middle of a fight. He loses the fight, but the day after he fights the same guy again and wins. Henry may be a drinker, but he’s not a bum. He does not give up easily. This is the protagonist of Barfly.

Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were a couple of Israeli guys who ran the film company Cannon Films, that thrived in the 80’s on making cheesy action films starring Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson and the alike. They made rather cheap actioners that were quickly made and usually turned a profit, although the company eventually became bankrupt, but that’s another story. But in between those dumb action flicks they made a few small, somewhat “arty” (at least compared to Chuck Norris action films) films like the John Cassavetes movie Love Streams,  Norman Mailer’s Tough Guys Don’t Dance and Barfly. Barfly was indeed highly unusual for Golan & Globus as it was directed by a foreign (he’s Swiss-German, born in Iran) art house director named Barbet Schroeder, had Oscar winner Faye Dunaway among the cast and its main character was a drunken writer-poet who never uses a gun, though he does get into fights. The film was in fact written by none other than Charles Bukowski, the only film he ever wrote, and the main character Henry Chinaski was his alter ego and hero of most of his books. Mickey Rourke played Chinaski and this came out at the height of his fame (long before his comeback with The Wrestler), not long before his career went down the drain and he ruined his face with boxing.

The film describes a few days in the life of the unemployed, alcoholic writer Henry Chinaski. There’s not much of a plot to speak of, only that Chinaski meets and older woman named Wanda (Faye Dunaway) and finds a kindred spirit in her, as she also lives for drinking alcohol. “No money, no job, no rent. Hey, I’m back to normal,” is how Chinaski describes the status of his life when he meets Wanda. Then there’s also a mysterious man and woman chasing Chinaski around.

A large part of what makes Barfly so great is it’s lovable loser protagonist and his wonderful way with words, as noted by lines like “Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead,” and “as my hands drop the last desperate pen, in some cheap room, they will find me there and never know my name, my meaning, nor the treasure of my escape.”  Chinaski is a true gutter poet, a man who lives for the word and for the drink. But really he mostly just lives. He tries to avoid normal things, like work and paying rent, and just wanders about. He’s a a nihilist with a purpose, unlike the “cherman” ones in The Big Lebowski, who “believe in nozhing“. In the movie he goes to a job interview and on the application he writes: “Hobbies: None. Religion: None: Education: None. Sex: None.”

The movie begins with a series of shots of bars with neon signs, and blues-rock on the soundtrack, and the tone is set. You immediately know what world you are about to enter into. The very first scene has Chinaski in a fight with a bartender (played by Frank Stallone, Sly’s brother) and his first line is “Quittin’ to you would be like swallowin’ piss for eternity.” Chinaski is a man without a care in the world but he also has his principles and won’t give up easily. The reason for him not having a job or not wanting to tend to responsibilities is not necessarily that he’s lazy or that he’s given up on life, he just simply isn’t interested in these things. He makes do with just being.

Wanda is also a fascinating character and Dunaway is absolutely brilliant in the role. Here below is the first scene in which Wanda appears:

You can immediately tell a lot about her from just this short clip. She appears as pessimistic, depressed and somewhat sleazy person but Dunaway also manages to give Wanda a certain elegance. The difference between her and Chinaski is quite clear in this scene, as well as what unites them. They both share a certain world view and a certain sleazy elegance but maybe not for the same reasons. She admits to hate people while he just feels better when they’re not around.

This movie isn’t necessarily concerned with realism, yet it feels somehow authentic. It’s filled with lovely little details, with supporting characters who appear briefly but live a life or their own, rather than just being plot devices or background filler. One good example is a scene where Henry and Wanda are sitting in the bar and in the background an old man is trying to drink from a shot glass, but he just can’t seem to be able to drink it because of his shaky hands. This bit of business really has nothing to do with the rest of the scene other than to give the background a little life, but still creates an intriguing character who seems to have his own tiny little character arc.

There are many more of those little details, characters in the background shouting random things and bits like the bartender who “never gets to see the fights” because someone has to tend the bar while the other bartender goes to fight Chinaski. All those details also contribute to Chinaski’s view of himself as insignificant, there’s a whole world out there that’s no less significant than he is.

The technical side of this movie doesn’t call too much attention to it, as the main focus here is on the characters and the atmosphere. The style can be described as natural and laid-back, but there’s also a certain flash to the movie, which mostly lies in all the neon lights spread around and the brightly lit bars. Seedy bars like the ones here are usually quite dark in real life, but they’re brightly lit here to reflect that even though all the characters are low-lives, they still enjoy life, they see the light through the misery. Chinaski sums it up nicely: “I’m not pretending to be anything, that’s the point”, to which he gets the reply “I’m glad you have a point.”

Barfly was a hit with the critics when it came out but didn’t make much of a dent at the box office. It has gained a cult following but when people talk about the best movies of the 80’s it’s rarely mentioned. It truly deserves to be mentioned alongside 80’s classics like Blue Velvet, Do the Right Thing and Raising Arizona.