Drugstore Cowboy Movie

Drugstore Cowboy
Rating:
Run Time: 100 min
MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1989
Directors: Gus Van Sant
Genre/Type: Drama
Road Movie
Crime Drama
Addiction Drama
Producers:
Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
The operative word in Drugstore Cowboy is "drug". Matt Dillon plays the leader of a group of dopeheads who wander around the country robbing pharmacies to feed their habits. Dillon's chums include doltish James Le Gros and teen-age junkie Heather Graham; also along for the ride is Dillon's wife Kelly Lynch. Their nemesis is cop James Remar, whom Dillon takes perverse delight in humiliating. When one of the young addicts dies of an overdose, it promps Dillon to try to go straight, a task complicated by wife Lynch's determination to stay high and by the corrupting presence of an ex-priest, played by Naked Lunch author William Burroughs. Drugstore Cowboy was director Gus Van Sant's breakthrough picture.

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a word that originated in the 1920s, describing a guy that constantly tries to pick up on girls... not necessessarily successfully.
･ 1 Get the drugstore cowboy look. There is no manual that instructs you how to look like a drugstore cowboy... ･ 2 Read the book. Before it was a movie, "Drugstore Cowboy" was a book written by a then-incarcerated... ･ 3 Watch th...
The screenplay for the film Drugstore Cowboy (released in 1989) was written by director Gus Van Sant, and it was based on a novel by James Fogle. At the time the film was being developed Fogle had not yet gotten his book published (it was p...
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Cast

Actors Character Born
Matt Dillon Bob Feb 18, 1964 in New Rochelle, NY
Kelly Lynch Dianne Jan 31, 1959 in Minneapolis, MN
James LeGros Rick Apr 27, 1962 in California
Heather Graham Nadine Jan 29, 1970 in Milwaukee, WI
James Remar Gentry Dec 31, 1953 in Boston, MA
William S. Burroughs Tom the Priest Feb 5, 1914 in St. Louis, MO
Max Perlich David Mar 28, 1968 in Cleveland, OH
Stephen Rutledge Motel Manager
Michael Parker Crying Boy
John Kelly Cop
Grace Zabriskie Bob's Mother
Robert Lee Pitchlynn Hotel Clerk
George Catalano Trousinski
Ray Monge Accomplice
Eric Hull Druggist
Beah Richards Drug Counselor Jul 12, 1920 in Vicksburg, MS
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Back to the topReview

Review by Matthew Doberman
Like the best outlaw movies (Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider), director Gus Van Sant's breakthrough sophomore film seeks neither to legitimate the junkie's life nor to moralize against it. The film avoids glib portrayals of its "cowboys" as fun-loving free-spirits; indeed, they're anything but free. Though it paints a corrosive picture of drug abuse, also shows the itinerant abusers as real people and not caricatured sociopaths. Van Sant's and Daniel Yost's adaptation of the unpublished memoir of James Fogle -- who served a 22-year sentence for similar crimes -- no doubt adds to the unique realism of the film. Matt Dillon's career was revitalized by his laconic, charismatic, and sad performance as the gang's leader, and the young Heather Graham also garnered notice for her memorable performance as the junkie clan's newest inductee. Beat author William S. Burroughs even turns up for a particularly disturbing cameo. Van Sant presents the group as a monumentally dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless: They care about each other, and we grow to care about them. Drugstore Cowboy is a rare film that takes on a potentially loaded topic and addresses it with originality, sentiment, and real power.
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