Bukowski: Born into This

Name: Bukowski: Born into This
Genre: Biography, Documentary
Released: May 28, 2004
Duration: 130 min
Rating: 77

2004

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Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

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7.2

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7.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: May 28, 2004 | R

Summary: 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)

Director: John Dullaghan

Genre(s): Biography, Documentary

Rating: R

Runtime: 130 min

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Critic Reviews

100

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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User Reviews

JasonJ

Jul 12, 2007

Anyone who did not like this documentary should be banished from society. Surrender - where ever you are - you have failed the test as a human being. Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider Man were tests sent by God. If you enjoyed them, you failed. Watch (and read) Bukowksi, appreciate it, Anyone who did not like this documentary should be banished from society. Surrender - where ever you are - you have failed the test as a human being. Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider Man were tests sent by God. If you enjoyed them, you failed. Watch (and read) Bukowksi, appreciate it, and perhaps you will get a reprieve from Him. Suckers.… Expand