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.

It is an interesting book. I liked that it was thoroughly researched. It badly needs edited, though. Full review attached.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Riverdale Avenue Books for an advance copy of this look at relationship between the writer Charles Bukowski and cinema, as both muse and subject.

Charles Bukowski was a person who lived life as if out of a movie, complete with the the Hollywood ending of dying famous, moderately wealthy, and an idol to millions. Which is amazing considering Bukowski was mostly considered a drunk, a has-been-nothing, or even worse not even thought of at all. Bukowski's writing is a mix of gutter prophet, last man standing at a bar that serves beer and gin in jelly glasses, a slave to his addiction liquid, typewriter and the ladies. Though not the handsomest of men, in fact not at all, he has been portrayed by what could be once called matinee idols, acting their way through a life of drudgery and pain that the author once lived in. A man like this of course has had documentaries made about him, and an author so prolific has been a source for many a film. Marc Shapiro in Bukowski: On Film has brought these disparate works together into one guide looking at all the many movies from factual to fiction, major studios to student films.

The book begins with a look at the man Charles Bukowski the life, and the how this life influenced and created the works that he is known for. One is also introduced to Bukowski's ideas on film, and the people who work in it, actors, producers, and directors. Some he liked, some he thought fake, some he nearly got into fights with, and most of them appeared as characters in his late in life books. The book than looks at the life of Bukowski on film, starting in the late 60's at a poetry reading and proceeding well past his death. Bukowski was not much of a reader, feeling both uncomfortable and confrontational in front of crowds, and a few of these early documentaries show this. The anger he both radiated and needed from the crowds. Bukowski also starred as a dirty old man in a teen sex comedy, Supervan, a role he was probably born to play. The book looks at movies based on his short stories and poetry, from film shorts, to student films and promotion reels. And of course quite a bit of space is given to the bigger films, Barfly and the movie Factotum, with stories behind the scenes, and how Bukowski felt about the movies.

Not only a very well-written study, but a book that is astounding in the research. Shapiro was not only able to find movies that were never distributed, along with student films that their directors didn't even remember well, but was able to come up with facts and interviews with many involved in them. There are not reviews, though sometimes one can tell by the writing the way the author feels, but more of a hey you think you know Bukowski, well here is some stuff you had no idea on. Again the writing is very good, not a hagiography, more a study of film and the relationship a cult author would have with it. Shapiro is very good at giving the outlines of the movie, where the ideas came from, what the author thought, and what the public thought, if given a chance. I wasn't sure what I expected, but I enjoyed the writing, the way it was presented and really am in awe in all that Shapiro was able to discover.

A book for fans of Bukowski of course, but also a handy book for creatives on working with preexisting works and how to make something that is close to your vision. Many of these are available online, Youtube has a few of the documentaries, and a few of the shorts, and are actually quite good. A very good mix of film study and literary study. This is the first book that I have read by Marc Shapiro, I plan to read much more.