Charles Bukowski was Los Angeles. That is to say, his writings -- of which there were seemingly countless examples -- were born of a life lived in Los Angeles. The city fed the writer's soul, but his works nevertheless had a universal appeal. Of course, alcohol was the beverage of choice at this creative meal.

Often considered the hardest boiled of all hard-boiled American scribes, Bukowski was considered the real deal. He was tougher than the beats, more real than the noir writers. And he chewed up and spat out Hollywood pretty boy tough guys like Mickey Rourke.

All of it is to be had in "Bukowski: Born Into This," a two-hour, no-frills documentary about Bukowski directed by John Dullaghan, who began filming some of the footage for this brand new film back in 1972.

The result is that Dullaghan spent many years alongside his subject, who died of leukemia in 1994 at the age of 73, and is able to sketch a detailed portrait of an extremely complex man.

Beaten regularly by his father as a child and stricken with a face pockmarked by scars, Bukowski was never the tough guy or the popular guy as a youngster. When he was declared 4F in 1941, he spent the time hopping Trailways busses and seeing America. He lost his virginity at 24 and moved from dive to dive, crap job to crap job.

His sole passion was writing, which he began doing at 13. Everything in his difficult life became fodder for his no-nonsense prose and unadorned poetry. He turned his experiences working for the post office into his first novel, called, not surprisingly, "Post Office."

It was this ability to mine his life and what he saw around him and turn it into powerful and hard-hitting poems, stories and novels that made Bukowski such an important writer. Some readers' passion for gritty, truthful work allowed him to become a full-time writer (that and the help of a self-made publisher who formed Black Sparrow Press just so that he could publish Bukowski).

A hodgepodge of footage from interviews with Bukowski and his public readings over the course of two decades is enhanced with footage from German television, still photographs and interviews with friends, co-workers, wives, girlfriends and admirers like Bono, Sean Penn and others, tell the story. The style appropriately mimics Bukowski's own style: bare-knuckled.

Whether you think him a genius or a sauced-up degenerate, Bukowski was a fascinating figure and Dullaghan's picture is a marvelous portrait of him.

"Bukowski: Born Into This" screens Aug. 19-25, 2005 at The Times Cinema.