Drugstore Cowboy [1989] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gus Van Sant made his name with Drugstore Cowboy, an offbeat story about a small group of drug addicts who hold up pharmacies to feed their habits. Matt Dillon takes the title role as Bob, the grungy ringleader and jittery mastermind of a junkie crew. With his frustrated wife Dianne (Kelly Lynch), his loyal partner Rick (James Le Gros) and Rick's juvenile girlfriend Nadine (Heather Graham in an early role), Bob plots ingenious heists and spends the rest of his days sitting around the house getting high. Set in the Pacific Northwest of 1971, Van Sant effortlessly re-creates the period that you'd think the film was a time capsule--except for the attitude. Van Sant refuses to moralise and lines his sympathies behind his characters. They're not heroes, but Van Sant can't cast them as villains either. His low-key direction concentrates on the flavour of day-to-day life for a crew of junkies living from fix to fix. Even his drug imagery is inventively placid, a dreamy set of floating visions that suggests their own disembodied states. James Remar costars as the dogged police detective Gentry and William S Burroughs makes a memorable appearance as the aging junkie Tom the Priest. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

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Customer reviews

review by: A soul doctor, so to say date: 2008-07-13 rating:
Drug addiction is in the social behavior of the addict
One gets addicted to drugs, for sure, but that is only a small part of the business. This film tries to show how the addiction is an attitude, a social behavior, an act of belonging to a group, a community, a social class nearly, but not that far away from it. Here the dependence is threefold. First the girlfriend who is determined to stay addicted because her addiction is moderate enough to be controlled. Then the boyfriend and his own girlfriend and this time there is some status question here and to go on is to belong to a certain level of humanity, a certain level of masculinity. And then there is the wider community of the junkies, dealers and other characters in that farcical, yes farcical, melodrama. Then there are various events that make that addiction stick. The solidarity with the girlfriend with whom he was arrested, busted and jailed. He owes her to go on. Then the boyfriend who is the guarantee that he is normal, a normal male, a real male, a male in one word full stop and period. The cops are chasing them, and bad events happen. The boyfriend's girlfriend dies of an overdose one night in total solitude, while a burglary attempt in the pharmacy of a hospital fails pitifully and pathetically, and they have to get rid of the body and bury her in some woods. That makes you stick to your addiction, to your group. And yet, out of boredom and tiredness, and since one of the group has stepped out and down, he decides to do the same and get out of the hassle it has all become. And then you find out very easily how the wider social group is catching upon him. Two of his old acquaintances, now he is isolated, try to get his stash of drugs, since they are convinced he has one, they refuse to believe he has quitted, and then since they are getting nothing and nowhere they decide to shoot him dead, which they fail doing because they know nothing about using fire-arms. And there we are in the ambulance taking him away. Will he tell who attacked him or not? Will he go back to that world and that habit? We cannot know and say right away, right now. But one thing is sure. If he goes back it would not be for the physiological habit, but for the social and maybe emotional habit. Drug addiction is first of all in the mind and in the social behavior of the addict, not in his physiological parameters.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

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review by: FabioStar date: 2007-08-23 rating:
excellent movie
I was not expecting it, but this is probably one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is well played, hard scenes are not too hard (therefore avoiding shocking some sensitive people), however the message is given with full strength. It is much more than a road movie. My wife and I have liked it more than later Gus van Sant movies. Additionally, it makes you think. I will buy now the novel from which it has been adapted.

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review by: monkeyfish4 date: 2002-11-08 rating:
Just Say No.
Matt Dillon and girlfriend Kelly Lynch head a working team of drug addicts who are just trying to keep one step ahead of reality. The beauty of this film, apart from the excellent performances, is it's original approach and deeply personal feel. These are people we all know, not just nameless junkies lying in a doorway somewhere and even as things seem to be running along smoothly, the sense of impending doom is palpable. Original direction and an insightful script with no easy answers make this an all round great film. Look out for William S. Burroughs in a class cameo.


review by: We're all Frankies' date: 2002-03-30 rating:
Classic cult film.
...Gus Van Sant's film is fantastic- imagine a fusion of 'Jesus's Son', 'Junky' & 'The Man with the Golden Arm' and you're close...This is wonderfully shot, the hallucinations and effects on-screen are wonderful (much better than the silly 'Trainspotting'). The hypo-injection scenes appear to have found their way into 'Pulp Fiction'!!! Matt Dillon is great- as are the supporting cast: James Remar, Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, Max Perlich etc...There are lots of funny moments (the hat hex, the dog flashback) and moments when you see the attraction of drugs. And 'The Priest they called him', William S. Burroughs pops up as a junky ex-priest!...1989 was a watermark year in American cinema- giving us 'Goodfellas', 'Heathers' and this...This is probably Van Sant's best film, though I have an affection for 'My Own Private Idaho' and 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues'...At this price this is a must own film- as great as 'Performance', 'Two Lane Blacktop' & 'Vanishing Point'. A great cult film.

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Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Crime, Thrillers & Mystery . All Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Drama . Historical
Video . DVD & VHS . Special Features . Region 1
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . DVD
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 1980 - 1989
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Region(feature_browse-bin) . Region 1
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Standard Edition
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . English

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