Barfly Movie Analysis

The movie Barfly stars Mickey Rourke as Henry Chinaski. Henry is an alcoholic and writer who spends his days abusing alcohol and fighting a man named Eddie at a bar in Las Angeles, he frequents. Henry is jobless, never cared about the American dream of becoming someone, and just the thought of trying to become someone to fit into societies normal role expectations makes his blood boil. Henry meets a woman in a bar one night, by the name of Wanda, who is played by actress Faye Dunaway. Immediately the two connect and begin a volatile relationship of arguing and abusing alcohol. The movie follows Henry through his days of alcohol induced dialogue with himself and his efforts at finding a job or money to pay for the alcohol, he and Wanda consume

This leads to a handful of fights with Eddie the bartender. Another example is when his lover Wanda, sleeps with Eddie, and Henry becomes emotionally distraught and begins to argue and become confrontational with Wanda. This leads up to a scene where Wanda beats Henry over the head and leaves the apartment. Henry then begins an alcohol binge drinking session in which he throws Wanda’s clothes out the window and spends a day in a drunken stupor in his apartment. Alcohol creates a sense of well-being in some, and euphoria in others which adds to the allure of drinking alcohol to feel better (Doweiko, 2012). As such, Henry seems to be blind to the emotional states he is in and out of throughout the movie. His false sense of well-being due to his constant intoxication of alcohol may be the reason for his lack of awareness to his emotional and problematic

People in this stage are still actively abusing alcohol and have no intention of trying to abstain in the foreseeable future (Doweiko, 2012). However, he knows he is an alcoholic, knows it is a problem, but shows no concern for his alcohol abuse. Furthermore, Henry said in the movie “anyone can be a someone, it takes real talent to be an alcoholic.” This statement shows his intention to continue his alcohol abuse. It is the search for meaning which is the journey of life (Doweiko, 2012). I think Henry’s journey of alcoholism and his search for the meaning of life, is expressed through his passion for