Barfly (1987) on Netflix
Henry Chinaski, a destitute alcoholic in Los Angeles, writes poetry and drinks at The Golden Horn, feuding with the bartender Eddie. At the Kenmore he meets Wanda, a fellow drinker.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.1/1023,753 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes76%
Trailer
Plot summary
Henry Chinaski is a destitute alcoholic living in a rundown Los Angeles apartment, taking menial work when he can find it while writing poetry and short stories that he sends to magazines for little pay. He spends his nights at The Golden Horn, drinking with other alcoholics and trading insults with Eddie, the bartender he hates. After losing one fight to Eddie, Henry eats to build up his strength, naps, and returns to win the next one. He drifts to the Kenmore, where Wanda, an alcoholic kept by another man, says she hates people yet takes an interest in him. They buy liquor, and Wanda steals corn from a field, drawing the police. Back at her apartment she boils it, finds it green and inedible, and declares that nothing in her life works out.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Barfly (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Kino Flo light, now a common tool across the film industry, was specially created by cinematographer Robby Müller's electrical crew for Barfly's bathroom scene with Henry and Wanda, because the conventional lampheads of the time could not light it.
- Charles Bukowski wanted Sean Penn to play Henry Chinaski, but Penn insisted Dennis Hopper direct; Bukowski refused to give the script to Hopper, whom he despised as a Hollywood phony, and he and Penn stayed friends for life.
- Faye Dunaway insisted on the scene where the camera tilts up over her legs; the glamor shot of her as Wanda was not in Charles Bukowski's original screenplay.
- The building used for Wanda's apartment was the real Los Angeles building where Charles Bukowski and his lover, the real-life counterparts to Henry and Wanda, had lived; no one knew until Bukowski, watching the filming, remembered.
