Mickey Rourke about Barfly (1 Viewer)

Johannes

Founding member
Hope, this hasn't been posted before.

Starting at 0:48 ... Bukowski was "okay for a Junk" and Barbet Schroeder "a prick" ;)

[This video is unavailable.]
 
Well, I don't care if it rains or freezes,
Long as I have my plastic Mickey
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Through all trials and tribulations,
We will travel every nation,
With my plastic Mickey I'll go far...
 
now I have to find out what mickey said in the interview on Barfly were do i go?or who do I pay for that info and when ever I hear rains or freezes all I see is cool hand luke,its like bread and butter.someone let me know.............thanks......wayne
 
It's blocked in the U.S. now, so wayne would have to go to YouTube through a proxy.

Though, to me, that seems like way too much trouble to go to just to hear that plastic-faced goon babble.
 
they have never met nor worked with performers. I say so from experience
You have met performers? OMG, that's AMAZING! You should email me. I don't get to meet many performers, I live in Japan and the ones I have met are all very short. Have you met any TALL performers, who would wear, say, a size 12 or larger wrestling shoe? I have a Mickey Rourke wrestling costume from a movie he made. It's in a vault but I visit it every few days to smell it. Please EMAIL ME. We need to talk. I mean it.
 
I find that disappointing because I love Barfly and think Mickey gave an excellent performance. But I kinda knew he had lukewarm feelings about Buk. after seeing him talk about the writing dismissively on Inside the Actor's Studio. Then again actor's aren't paid to think.
 
I never use Puerile, I don't like those hand cleaners. I don't TRUST them, you know? Ha ha ha. I just don't. Plus there's nothing wrong with having other people's sweat on your hands. But you should know that I like ANARCHY too! I think you are making fun of me, but you should email me. Just don't talk about hand cleaners or smashing the state. Otherwise, I think we have a lot in common.
 
I've always wondered what Buk's personal feelings were towards 'Barfly'. Did he like it? Didn't he actually work with the production of the film from afar? Did he like & approve of the final product?
 
He did write a letter praising the film, but this is usually thought to have been a promotional gimmick. Linda Bukowski has said that he really hated it. I expect he had mixed feelings. Barbet Schroeder had insisted that he have almost total control over the script and I think Bukowski suggested in the novel Hollywood (or perhaps in an interview) that he initially thought that Rourke was really adding some extra dimension to the Chinaski character, although he may have ultimately thought it was too much of a caricature in the finished film.

Here's the promo letter: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://bukowski.net/misc/bukowskimisc018.php
 
He was praising the movie in 'Hollywood', like when he sees the first edited parts and says something like "that was me on the screen, me years before." (NOT verbatim)

But later he said it was overexaggarated, like the way Mickey Rourke had his hair into his face. And he claimed, that even in his worst days he never looked so fucked up as the Chinaski-character in Barfly. (all this in an interview, that Thomas Schmidt did in 1990)
 
Here is a direct quote for Dinosauria. This is from page 464 from "run with the hunted." Linda says....I liked it but there were parts..... Hank says back to her, "I know, it's not an immortal movie but it's a good one." All I can tell you from my own personal point of view is that I may have never known about Henry Charles Bukowski Jr. if it wasn't for the Barfly.

 
Linda Bukowski has said that he really hated it.
he said it was overexaggarated, like the way Mickey Rourke had his hair into his face. And he claimed, that even in his worst days he never looked so fucked up as the Chinaski-character in Barfly. (all this in an interview, that Thomas Schmidt did in 1990)
In Born Into This at 1:40 Bukowski gives a decisive criticism of Rourke's portrayal. It is just as Roni said, exagerrated. The specific scene that Bukowski called out was when he walked into the bar and says 'i've been missed, i should run for mayor.' Rourke did this in a loud obnoxious way, and Bukowski says it missed the point entirely:
I don't think the kid (Rourke) hase ver been on skid row.... he didn't get it right ... see, you don't brag it. it's low key all the time. he had it all .. kindof exagerrated, it's untrue ... a little bit show off about it ... so no ... it was kindof misdone ... i found out that hollywood is more crooked, dumber, crueler, stupider, than all the books i'd read about it. they didn't go enough into it, how it lacks art .. soul .. art ... how its really a piece of crap. there are too many hands directing, they'res too many fingers in the pot and they're all kindof ignorant about what they're doing, they're greedy and they're vicious so you don't get much of a movie
having said that (and let me know mods if this citation is a violation of copywright), the movie IS a Bukowski, and if you're going to watch hollywood, you might as well at least watch something with writing in it and a couple of good lines.
 
I've got a quote from Howard Sounes, "Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life." This is from page 212. At fisrt Hank says he didn't like what he was doing, then he changed his praise. "He really became this Barfly. He added his own dimension, which at first I thought, this is awful, he's overdoin it. But as the shooting went on, I saw he done the right thing. He'd created a very strange, fantastic lovable character." So, the opposing views continue to pile up.

A young man like you...drunk everyday at noon...you outta get yourself a job. Chinaski replies, Hey I gotta job...killing cockaroaches in that place of yours!
 
What I've seen of Bukowski's interviews, it seems he would have liked the way Mat Dillon played him
more than the way Rourke portrayed him. Dillon's performance was much more measured and thoughtful than Rourke's.
 
I've always wondered what Buk's personal feelings were towards 'Barfly'. Did he like it? Didn't he actually work with the production of the film from afar? Did he like & approve of the final product?

I think he had mixed feelings about it, which also changed depending on his mood, it seems - I've read most of his short stories about that period (as well as Hollywood, of course) and he likes some bits, dislikes others. Generally it seems he wasn't over the moon with Rourke, but generally thought it was OK. Kinda get the impression he wouldn't have been content however it turned out though to be honest!
 

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