Book Review- Bukowski: On Film by Marc Shapiro

Charles Bukowski never liked movies. And Hollywood never knew what to do with his books. Yet, the life and work of Bukowski were always an inspiration for generations of filmmakers, and many dozens of movies were made during and after his lifetime, with only a very few of them being established Hollywood productions. Most of these movies were short films, a majority of them student films directed on shoestring budgets solely out of a passion for the author and his works.

Who was Bukowski? A rebellious poet and story writer, he wrote six novels and countless poems and short stories in many literary magazines, including some obscure ones, which are collected in over sixty books. Called by Time as 'the laureate of American lowlife', Bukowski wrote about the poor by living among them. He wrote about impoverished Americans, alcoholism, sex, and the drudgery of ordinary living. He lived in L.A. and based all his writing around the city. He wasn't noticed much in America at the time, but Europeans celebrated him. Today, he is very popular the world over, with a dedicated fanbase and numerous academic studies being made about his life and work.

Bukowski: On Film is a volume written by Marc Shapiro that tries to list out the movies that were about Bukowski, by Bukowski, or based on the work of Bukowski. This is a tough work because, like his scattered collection of numerous poems and stories, a lot of the movies based on his works are condemned to obscurity. Many of the first-time directors who created them changed their fields, and many others consider them too benign to revisit them. To his credit, the writer has painstakingly tried his best to find out the majority of them and include the details in this book. I received an advance review copy of this book from its publisher, Riverdale Avenue Books, through Netgalley in exchange for my feedback.

The book consists of seventy-six chapters, of which the first few give the readers an overview of the famed writer, his life, and his rebellious ways. Then each chapter describes a movie that has the Bukowski name associated with it. It can be deduced that Marc Shapiro is a true fan of Bukowski, and his thoroughness is evident in that he has included some really obscure movies that have only a very distant connection with Bukowski. For example, we find a chapter on a surfing film in which a Bukowski poem is read in the first few minutes, and then the remaining footage is surfing footage with other tunes playing in the background.

There is another chapter about his movie debut in a B-grade movie in which he plays a dirty old man for a few seconds with no dialogue. Then there are footages of his infamous poetry reading sessions, in which he appears fully drunk and creates tension by exchanging abuses with the audience. His forays into the Hollywood system through movies like Barfly are described in more detail in multiple chapters. His abhorrence towards the system comes through very vividly, though he is portrayed as a man of his words who respects the contracts and is always cooperating with his director and actors.

With many short chapters focusing on obscure movies, the book is never a deep study of Bukowski or the movies that have his stamp on them. The whole endeavour, while reading, appeared to me like an effort to just list the movies out before they fall into the darkness of perpetual oblivion. But once I put down the book, I am feeling that through all these short reviews and the descriptions of the production of the movies, a larger picture of the nonconformist dissident genius gradually forms. It becomes clear why many young people, who are eager to make their mark on the world, take up the poems and stories of Bukowski and decide to associate with them and make them their own by creating movies out of them.