Bukowski: Born into This

2003 Documentary

Advertising writer John Dullaghan makes his feature-length directorial debut with the documentary Bukowski: Born Into This. The infamous poet, novelist, and screenwriter Charles Bukowski has made a legacy of writing about hard living in a unique prose style. His work paralleled his lifestyle, leading to the autobiographical novels Women, Hollywood, and Post Office. This documentary investigates his life through archival clips, interviews, and footage of the man himself. He appears at a public reading in San Francisco's City Lights Bookstore. Conversations with Bukowski's friends, including rock star Bono and actor Sean Penn, reveals some personal stories and experiences. Bukowski: Born Into This was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the documentary competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

Director: John Dullaghan

Reviews

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

    Owen Gleiberman - Entertainment Weekly

    19 January 2013

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

    Michael O'Sullivan - The Washington Post

    19 January 2013

  • 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.

    Stephen Hunter - The Washington Post

    19 January 2013

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

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    19 January 2013

  • 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.

    Ty Burr - The Boston Globe

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • Documentary

    Sundance Film Festival (2003)