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Bukowski: Born into This
Magnolia Pictures


8.7

based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 11 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Charles Bukowski, Bono, Sean Penn, and Harry Dean Stanton

The first comprehensive documentary on author Charles Bukowski, one of those rare writers whose work created a myth of epic proportions around its creator. (Magnolia Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Documentary
DIRECTED BY:	John Dullaghan
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 21, 2006 Theatrical: May 28, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	130 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Documentary), 2003 Sundance Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Film Threat Eric Campos

Bukowski is one of my all time favorite writers and now I have an all new respect for the man thanks to John Dullaghan’s phenomenal film. I’ll be breaking out “Post Office,” “Ham On Rye,” and “Notes of a Dirty Old Man” again very soon.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It reveals Bukowski to be a far grander artist than his bum's armor would suggest.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Often-brilliant, often-reverent documentary deconstructs Bukowski's bad-boy literary persona, finds a fascinatingly messed-up guy behind the words.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

A portrait of a sometimes surly, often foulmouthed, always brilliant artist that is at once humane, horrific, hilarious and deeply moving.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

About as good a picture of a writer's real life as we are likely to get. It is wide-ranging, it is fair, it is thorough, and although it admires, it is also tough enough to condemn.

Village Voice Mark Holcomb

Charles Bukowski, the bard of post-war L.A.'s working-class underbelly, was no ordinary cult writer, and John Dullaghan's thorough, compelling doc Bukowski: Born Into This does a credible job of showing why.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The bulk, the heft, and the girth of Bukowski: Born Into This arrives in the form of the author himself, giving beery readings to Berkeley audiences clearly enjoying a contact high or sitting, ill-kempt but quiet, pensive, Heineken in one yellowy paw, in his apartment.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

How much was legend, how much was pose, how much was real? I think it was all real, and the documentary suggests as much.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Wants to claim Bukowski (1920-1994) as a 20th-century West Coast Walt Whitman -- a people's poet of modern degradation. Through a selective presentation of his writing and a reverently crass treatment of his life, it makes a funny, often intensely moving case, and you're having such a good time that you're glad to let it.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Makes a compelling case for raising him (Bukowski) from cult status to the top rank of 20th century U.S. literary figures -- while providing ample evidence of a very colorful life and times.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Definitive and engrossing documentary.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

A remarkable movie, because, like "Crumb" or even "American Splendor," it adores the very people most of us might ignore if they passed us on the street. It's a love letter to someone who desperately needs one, even 10 years after his death.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This documentary profile of poet and novelist Charles Bukowski exploits the writer's counterculture persona but also works to dispel it, revealing a gifted and extremely complicated man.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Excerpts from Schroeder's long video documentary about him, and from the flawed melodrama "Barfly" they made together, add more variety.

Baltimore Sun Stephen Kiehl

Some of the most affecting moments in the film show Bukowski walking the streets of his Los Angeles, a barren suburban hell, as he reads his poems and the words appear on and then fade from the screen.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

The dirty old man who became a cult poet and author was a true original, and every minute he's on screen, whether it's reading from his brutally honest work or musing on a hard-lived life for the cameras, it's hard to look away.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

He's not someone you may wish you'd known, but he's a fascinating street character.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

Raw and defining documentary about the man--and the myth.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

It's the portrait of an artist who had neither time nor respect for literary niceties -- he was, in the words of publisher John Martin, a "man of the street writing for the man of the street."

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Accomplishes beautifully what it sets out to do, which is to reveal the man behind the crusty, hard-drinking, tough-talking persona Charles Bukowski so artfully crafted.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

Dullaghan's film is a bit too straightforward and introductory to be declared a definitive portraiture. The gold nuggets worth sifting for lie in the anecdotal minutiae.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

By turns profane, vulgar, unpredictable, scabrous and perpetually somewhere between buzzed and three sheets to the wind, Bukowski opened a window onto a fringe world of blue-collar drudgery and alcoholic self-obliteration with his blistering, bleakly comic dispatches from the gutter.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Goes to great lengths to show the man-child behind the barfly, but in its rush to deify its subject, it lacks critical voices and context.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

As factoids do-si-do with testimonials from the likes of drinking buddy Sean Penn and fan-boy Bono, the movie all but becomes the very A&E Hagiography for which Bukowski would have had little or no patience.

The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis

Despite the fact there's no lack of raw material, Bukowski fails to place its subject's actions and statements in any psychological or literary context. It's simply a celebration of Bukowski's misogyny and self-abuse.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
This is a must-see for anyone who is a fan of Bukowski. A lot of this footage is unique, never seen before home movies, interspersed with an ongoing interview with German television.

Gerry gave it a9:
Where have I been the last 40 years! The Beats are great but this guy is incredible and this documentary seems to have profilied him particularly well.

Mick . gave it a9:
One of the best things made on the life of.

Keith P. gave it a10:
Turns myth into man - a remarkable man who persisted in his art despite a mind-numbing job and way too much alcohol. Very well done doc.

Chloé T. gave it a10:
If you didn't know Charles Bukowski was a GOOD man, now it's done.

Blake W. gave it a 0:
A joke on the movie-going crowd.

Robley B. gave it a 10:
Two previous biographies have demonized and idolized him. One previous film personified him... but THIS bio gets it right, captures the REAL man. Fantastic.

Bukowski: Born into This Magnolia Pictures

Bukowski: Born into This
Magnolia Pictures