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Rating: The film that marked the success of Van Sant. Released in theaters way back in 1989, Drugstore Cowboy tackles the theme of drugs and addiction before films like Trainspotting, Requiem for a Dream, and Blow. Van Sant takes us into a universe filled with "orderly" madness. Bob (Matt Dillon), assisted by his group of friends, doesn't deal drugs, isn't involved in "unsavory" circles but goes directly to the supplier. The story, set in 1971, takes us to a time when drugs could still be purchased in pharmacies. But the addict Bob doesn't buy them; he steals them through actual robberies.
The film in question is somewhat "innovative." Innovative because the American director shows us the lives of four young people who, in addition to their "destructive habit," combine this vice with criminal activities. So addicted to drugs they let their house be destroyed or even relegate a mother to a role worthy of animals. Innovative because Van Sant decides at times to lighten the situation: police officers who know but do not act, the protagonists' quite ridiculous superstitions, and above all, an underlying irony not too concealed.
Drugstore Cowboy immediately presents itself as a complex work, but as it unfolds, it proves to be a film with a solid plot and some twists placed in a way never to be trivial. The four protagonists use any drug they can get hold of and continuously flee from their fears, bad luck, and a cop trying to catch them. In this film, Van Sant places us before the protagonists' thoughts: he doesn't just show us how things happened but immerses us in Bob's mind. He wants to draw us into the depths of his "madness."
"I was a convinced addict for a long time." Van Sant immediately gives us the situation: Bob was a "convinced" junkie but then somehow changed his way of living. Before this redemption, however, his emotionless life led him to even reject sex. Bob chooses drugs; he doesn't choose life (doesn't that remind you of Trainspotting?). The director places everything before our eyes with an unsettling naturalness: in Drugstore Cowboy, we have no pathos; everything is gray and emotionless. Even the relationship with the enemy, personified by the police, is as icy as it can be: beatings, insults, and more are accepted by Bob and his friends as something inevitable. Yet, this doesn't stop the routine of drugs, robberies, a life lived on the edge.
A dramatic event is needed to change his mind, to rekindle a glimmer of dignity and common sense. Hence, the return to a normal life, to work, to reconnecting with those not seen for a while. Writer William Burroughs portrays a junkie who has reached his limit. It's no coincidence that Van Sant chose this actor for the role of an addict: the writer spent his entire life on drugs with consequent health problems and debts.
Gus Van Sant has created a film with harsh themes, a strong sense of irony but shot in a way that makes no judgments about the reality of drugs in America. He has brought to the big screen the epic of junkies, those who prefer drugs to life...
"What job do you do now?"
"I make holes..."
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