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Bukowski: Born Into This
R1 - America - Magnolia Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Shahir Daud (30th May 2006). |
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The Film
 I was asking someone ‘What would Freud have thought of the 20th Century?’, and she answered ‘there’s one thing Freud would not have forseen: Walt Disney’ (William Packard, Publisher, New York Quarterly) The notion that Walt Disney would turn a world, which Freud envisaged as primarily sexual into something palatable for children and their protective parents, was engrained in the pathos of Charles Bukowski‘s work. His everyman stories of misaligned anti-heroes who grunt and trudge against the absurdities of modern living became cult in literary circles, around the same time Jack Kerouac went On The Road and long before Harvey Pekar gave those same stories their Splendor. Mentioning Pekar is perhaps not the most appropriate comparisons (although their ‘common man’ stories do have similar groundings), but Pekar’s name is more evocative as part of a recent film trend: the artist biography. Like American Splendor (2003) and The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005), Born Into This submerges us in the murky depths of Bukowski’s life; his rough childhood (which he describes as a horror story and later publishes his account of it in his 1982 novel Ham on Rye), his daily drudgery as a mail sorter at the post office (which forms the basis of his aptly titled first novel Post Office) and finally onto his literary success (his 1998 novel Hollywood recounts the first adaptation of his novel into film, the Barbet Schroeder directed adaptation of Barfly in 1987) For Bukowski admirers, Born Into This crafts an intriguing portrayal of a man who yearned for artistic livelihood, and achieved it, though never straying too far from the rough and tumble life which inspired so many of his collected poems and stories. For such a gruff, beer swilling character, Bukowski’s poetry has an ungainly elegance, which belies his non-formalist approach. Bukowski himself has often been criticized as a misogynist, and his on screen abuse of his wife Linda Lee Bukowski may not do much to refute the image, but as close friend Sean Penn recounts of Bukowski; ‘On a percentage basis, he treats men worse every time’. Indeed Bukowski’s thoughts on women seem to be the very antithesis of misogyny, coming from a genuine bewilderment of the fairer sex, and childlike tantrums when due attention isn’t paid. And like Harvey Pekar, the narrative of his life is transformed by his long suffering lover, who endures his alcoholism, abuse and depression if only for those few moments when Bukowski lets his guard down. In a particularly heartfelt moment, Bukowski is caught off guard by reading the wrong poem, and bursts into tears as he remembers a lover who’d left him. Linda reminisces, ‘He was appalled by Mickey Mouse - this three fingered son of a bitch who has no soul!’ It may have been the pain, suffering and hardship, which Bukowski sought to illuminate. The stuff of life that is so arduous, so unglamorous, and so sanitized by the mass media, that a writer like Bukowski, whose stories of alcohol, drugs, sex were hastily written, without any pretence of literary worth became exactly the kind of material which enriched so many lives, in ways that Mickey Mouse would never be able to. The soul Bukowski spoke of, were the scars he carried from his painful life. Driving through the foggy Los Angeles streets, an interviewer asks Bukowski about his cracked windshield, which Bukowski explains is a result of a girlfriend wearing heels with her feet up on the dashboard. ‘I like it though; the car’s beginning to look like me’. John Dullaghan‘s documentary may not illuminate anything new about Bukowski, but allows the writer to share a few more wry observations about the life of a human being in his usual dry, crooning way.
Video
Presented in 1.33:1 this film was patched together using various different clips from various different stock, some original 8mm, some 16mm some videotape, beta, etc. Therefore the quality varies from scene to scene. This is not related to the transfer but rather the source materials alone and the state of distress some of them are in. Scratches, overall softness and tracking problems exist. This patchwork feel adds to the simplicity of Bukowski’s writing and matches the tone well. Since this film is largely made up of archival footage it’s not fair to place the transfer under the same scrutiny new release films are subjected to.
Audio
Only one audio track is included here, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Same deal goes for the audio as for the video, considering its archival audio it’s in relatively good shape, all the recent interviews all appear clear and distortion free. The film is entirely dialogue-centric and the track does its job, that’s all one can ask for in this case. This film unfortunately does not include any optional subtitles.
Extras
First up we have a feature-length audio commentary by director John Dullaghan. This track is not entirely scene specific, however he does provide a wealth of information regarding his subject matter that he was not able to get into the final documentary for whatever reason. He provides an interesting background to the figure and also comments on the making of the film from start to finish, his the various people involved who helped make it as well as the challenges of getting facts right. Dullaghan provides a thorough analysis of the man and his life, this track is well worth a listen if you’d like to know more about Bukowski and how this film came together. Next we have "Dinosauria, We" and a sneak peak at unpublished poems included in this section are 6 poems, 5 of which have not yet been published and will be available in a new book entitled People Look Like Flowers At last: New Poems By Charles Bukowski to be released in January 2007. The poems included in this section are: - "Dinosauria, We" which compromises of 8 text pages. - "War and Peace" which compromises of 7 text pages. - "Inverted Love Song" which compromises of 2 text pages. - "Breakfast" which compromises of 4 text pages. - "Grip The Dark" which compromises of 7 text pages. - "Brainless Eyes" which compromises of 6 text pages. These poems should be interesting to Bukowski fans considering the last 5 have never been previously available. Next up is Bulowski's final home video footage taken in 1992, just two years before his death. This clip runs for 13 minutes 10 seconds and was originally shot by his wife, here Bukowski can be seen reading out loud from the literary magazine ‘Now and occasionally have a drink and lighting a cigarette. This clip is somewhat boring to be honest, however die-hard fans will likely get a kick out of seeing the man in what is believed to be last known footage of the author. Following that is a single deleted scene entitled "Blowing my Hero" which runs for 3 minutes 37 seconds. This scene tells of an encounter Bukowski had with a young woman who idolized the man, he writes of his encounter in his book Women however fails to mention many touching moments the two shared and made it seem like a rough sexual encounter. The actual woman he writes about, Amber O’Neil also wrote a book Blowing my Hero and recounts what happened. A series of 4 extended interviews are included, all of which can be viewed individually or with a ‘play all’ function. The interviews included are with: - Taylor Hackford which runs for 6 minutes 58 seconds, in this clip Hackford takes us through Bukowski old neighborhood in East Hollywood. - Linda Lee Bukoswki which runs for 9 minutes 21 seconds, in this clip Linda talks about her late husband’s writing speaks to everyone, among other things. - Bono which runs for 6 minutes 29 seconds, the singer tells us about his attraction to Bukowski’s work. - Publisher John Martin which runs for 13 minutes 26 seconds, in this clip Martin discusses how unsocial Bukowski actually was an how he overcame that with alcohol. He also reminisces about he was called at 3am to get Bukowski out of jail after an argument with his wife as well as other stories. Tom Waits and Bono read Buloweski Poetry clip follows the interviews and runs for 1 minute 15 seconds, the two musicians read The Laughing Heart on screen. "Born into This: Behind-the-Scenes" featurette follows that and runs for 8 minutes 50 seconds, in this piece the director takes us through the making the making of the film, how he came across the author and the decision that led him to make a documentary, learning to operate the camera himself and keeping the look of the film simple to reflect the simplicity of his subject’s writing. Although brief this clip is informative, some of this however is repeated in the commentary. Next up is a single page of information on Bukowski published works, the page shows covers of his novels and also includes web-site and purchase information. A single page of DVD credits is also included followed by a collection of bonus trailers that are for: - "Bubble" which runs for 1 minute 25 seconds. - "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" which runs for 1 minute 56 seconds. - "Klepto" which runs for 2 minutes 23 seconds. - "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen" which runs for 1 minute 48 seconds. - "Pulse" which runs for 1 minute 39 seconds. - "Seat Filler" which runs for 1 minute 47 seconds. - "The War Within" which runs for 2 minutes 2 seconds. There are also 3 start-up trailers (to skip them just press the 'menu' button on your remote) for: - "The Worlds Fastest Indian" which runs for 2 minutes 9 seconds. - "One Last Thing" which runs for 2 minutes 15 seconds. - "HDNet" promo spot which runs for 30 seconds.
Overall
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