Critique: Film> Reviews.

Charles Bukowski has the reputation of being a drunk, a womanizer and a frequent gambler. His work combines fiction with real life, and director John Dullaghan attempts to challenge the common perceptions of the writer by exploring the background of the character. This documentary draws information from poetry readings, as well as interviews with friends, his old publishing companies and Bukowski himself.

As with most documentaries, the information collected is not always 100% reliable, but will provoke a variety of debate anyway. Are his ex-girlfriends speaking the truth in their interviews, or are they just selling a story for five minutes of fame? Of the various celebrities paying their respects, which of them really knew Bukowski's when he was alive? Of course, you never really get a definite answer to each of these questions, and that's mainly due to Bukowski not being with us (physically) anymore to back up the stories concerned with his life (he died in 1994, after a year-long battle with Leukaemia).

The raw footage of Bukowski reading his poems in front of various audiences, and the interviews where he speaks of his relationships with other women, are where things really become interesting. A scene shot in 1986 shows an intoxicated Bukowski becoming agitated by his wife and then attempting to kick her off the couch. It hardly sheds any positive light on the already controversial life of the writer, but such an instance really makes you want to explore the conflict in Bukowski's life even further. Why does he seemingly hate people, for example?

Unfortunately, the overall mix of associate stories and Bukowski giving his own account in front of the camera means that we never really achieve a better understanding of the writer than the one we had before. This may be because Bukowski actually was a drunk, a womanizer and a frequent gambler, as first thought, or it may be because the film doesn't really delve any deeper than this.

Whereas I won't deny that Born Into This is an interesting account of the author in question, in places it does feel as if it was made to portray the influence Bukowski had on the lives of others -- Bono, Sean Penn and Tom Waits each give their story -- rather than go for broke and uncover the man behind the writing pen. Having just read his novel Women, there's a contrast in his chauvinistic sexual tendencies with some of the most touching moments he spent living in isolation, which can be seen in some of his poetry.

Dullaghan has collected a lot of information on Bukowski, but still we only get to see glimpses of the writer's sentimentality shining through. It may not be entirely the director's fault, considering that Bukowski much prefers to portray his drunken alter-ego within view of the public, but I still cannot help but feel a little disappointed.

Perhaps I am blinded by my admiration for the writer's work, but I can't help but think there's more to Bukowski than meets the eye here.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2009.