Barfly vs Factotum.
I am a huge fan of Factotum and am considering buying Barfly. How do the two compare? Which is the better film?
Eight year olds, Dude!
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Thanks for the input. I'm gonna buy Barfly anyway but was just interested in what other people thought of the two movies.
Eight year olds, Dude!
Mickey Rourke's performance in Barfly is gold. He embodies him in such a way that you don't even recognize Rourke. His voice, looks, everything is different. Great film. Well worth the money.
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I love Barfly too and don't expect Factotum to be as good. Barfly is one of my "Top 10" movies and that's hard to compete with. What I really don't understand is why they didn't use Rourke for this film. Oh. Maybe he was too old? Man, I would love to see Rourke to another movie playing Bukowski. He was Stellar...!
But I'm going to buy a copy of Factotum and watch it anyhow. At least Factotum is affordable. Going rate for Barfly DVDs seems to be double its original retail value due to the company who put it out not making enough copies when they did a release of the DVD in 2002. Which reminds me: anyone who loves Barfly, PLEASE sign the petition to re-release it. You can find the online petition very easily just by googling "barfly dvd petition."
Criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, friend, acquaintance or stranger.
Well here it is...
If you're a fan of Bukowski...you will greatly enjoy Factotum, specifically because of the narration, most of which is lifted from the novel. Also, the book is an adaptation (though loose) of a specific book, whereas Barfly was written as an original screenplay.
Rourke is wonderful as a Chinaski, though you can't really see that character holding jobs for periods of time as he did in the novels. He was too much of a mess. Then again, depending on the novel, Chinaski is sometimes more of a mess and sometimes more together.
Dillon's Chinaski is more realistic, I think, but he also doesn't seem to have the capacity for insanity that Rourke's version did, however Chinaski was much more subdued in Factotum than in other novels. If he were to portray the role again, say in a film version of Post Office, I would totally watch it.
They couldn't get Rourke to do it again for a few reasons. His voice is destroyed, not even a shadow of what it was...and his face is a mask of plastic surgery. He looks like a bad characiture of himself. If he had sideburns he could still do it. If he'd let himself age naturally, he could do it, but not with that face.
BTW, if you can find someone selling the Greek version of Barfly on eBay...it's worth it. I got it for about $12. The transfer is a bit crappy, the dark scenes are very shiny, but it's the movie in complete and it isn't $100. All you have to do is turn the Greek subtitles off and you're ready.
"When you're pushed, killing's as easy as breathing."
Bukowski said Rourke's performance was over the top, untrue and *beep*
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