Drugstore Cowboy is a movie that seems to go unnoticed when it shouldn’t be. With a mood that is reminiscent to that of Easy Rider, the film chronicles Bob Hughes(played by Matt Dillon) and his group of fellow drug addicts as they go from city to city pulling heists at drugstores and getting high in the motels in which they reside. As legendary film critic Roger Ebert points out in his review of the movie in 1989, he states “This is not a movie about bad people, but about sick people.” No statement can be truer than how it applies to the character of Bob.
Taking place in 1971, Bob and his comrades partake in robberies to feed their addictions. Bob’s high school sweetheart and now wife is as much, if not more deeply involved into drugs than Bob. Bob’s consort and his dimwitted girlfriend blindly follow Bob on his endeavors for the ultimate high. Every time he shoots up, a part of him dies. He’s become distant from every joyful necessity a human life embraces: family, companionship and a zest for improvement. When visiting his mother, she simply critiques him of his lifestyle out of heartbreak, seeing him ruin his life one needle at a time. He finds immense satisfaction loafing around in a less than desirable motel room high as a kite. Lastly, he has forgotten what love he had with his wife. When she tries to initiate intercourse in the early part of the feature, Bob has no interest whatsoever, as he daydreams of the next heist they will pull off. It seems has though Bob is already dead. 
As the film progresses, however, Bob has a revelation. His sidekick’s girlfriend overdoses, and Bob is barley able to put the corpse in the car while police are around the motel where he is residing. It is discovered later that while he was dragging the body into the woods to hide her, he told God if he would get him out of this mess, he would give up a life of drugs. This doesn’t sit well with his wife, as she labels him as crazy, and leaves him to continue her drug infested journey on the open road. Bob, residing in an apartment living a clean lifestyle, is shot by burglars and is taken to the paramedics by the hospital. This leads to the greatest quote of the film
“The irony was fucking brilliant. The chickenshit cops were giving me an escort to the fattest pharmacy in town… I was still alive. I bet he’ll keep me alive.”
The irony truly is brilliant, for it shows once you’re an addict you’re always an addict. However, this isn’t to say second chances don’t exist. When I was coming up in school, teachers would constantly say “there are no make ups in life.” While it may be impossible to physically go back and prevent something from happening, it is never impossible to correct your mistakes. How often do we hear stories of people coming out of jail and reestablishing their place in society or of individuals who left their loved ones far behind only to come back and reconcile with them. Personally, I’ve seen first hand what addiction can do to a person. Restraning orders have been signed, marriages have crumbled, families become depleted and lives have been lost, which to this point is the only resolution I’ve witnessed in terms of ending an addiction. But this isn’t to say an addict can come along and realize what and whom they’ve harmed in their life. At times it may be too late, while other times the addict catches a break and turn their life around. We see it all the time with Hollywood stars going into rehab and coming back better than ever.
For Bob Hughes showed us in Drugstore Cowboy that if we are willing to put the time and effort to better ourselves, nothing will break our will to do so.
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