Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

Set in Portland, Oregon, in 1971, Drugstore Cowboy is a realistic, unsparing look at the world of small-time junkies. All the leader of the crew, Bob, cares about is the next score, much to the chagrin of Diane, who actually wants to get fucked and is rather frustrated. The crew spends all of their time eking out a barren existence in a series of sleazy motel rooms, popping pills, breaking into drugstores and spouting out philosophical lines like: "Fate sucks. I swear." By the end, Bob attempts to turn things around and do some "straight time" but he can't escape his sordid past. Drugstore Cowboy was based on an autobiographical novel written by James Fogle, who was serving time for robbery and parole violation in the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla. I don't know what happened to this guy but he's probably either six feet under or back in prison. Most importantly, the film is totally nonjudgmental - a slap in the face of the Reagan/Bush era and their bogus war on drugs. We are informed right off the bat that a junkie strives to escape the "pressures of life, like having to tie your shoes." When I first watched this masterpiece, I thought that Kelly Lynch was headed for superstardom and then she acted alongside Patrick Swayze in Road House and it was all downhill from there. Legendary Naked Lunch author William S. Burroughs appears in a cameo as "Old Tom, the Junkie Priest," looking like the Grim Reaper himself and delivering some classic lines such as: "In the future, right wingers will use drug hysteria to set up an international police apparatus." Brilliant! Sample Dialogue: "There's nothing more life-affirming than getting the shit kicked out of you."