Cocaine Cowboys (1979) User Reviews

1970s Rock'n'roll drug oddity.

[Infofreak · 5 September 2001]

'Cocaine Cowboys' is a curious movie directed by Ulli Lommel, who is also responsible for another obscure 70s rock-related film with an Andy Warhol cameo 'Blank Generation'. 'Blank Generation' has been unfairly forgotten and is really worth watching. 'Cocaine Cowboys' probably deserves its obscurity. Unless you're a massive Jack Palance or Warhol fan there's not much on offer here. The uncharismatic Tom Sullivan (who he?) plays the lead role, a rock singer, and also co-writes the forgettable songs. The band he fronts sounds dated even for the time, kinda Joe Cocker and the Grease Band meets Bad Company, but with sub-par material. No wonder he went on to nothing in particular.

The plot concerns a rock band who are also cocaine smugglers. They want to get out of the drug business, but must go through with one last deal. No surprise that it all goes wrong and that their Mob buddies want blood. Jack Palance plays their cigar-chomping manager. Andy Warhol plays himself and does very little. His involvement seems mainly for the benefit of promoting his 'Interview' magazine. Fair enough. But why Palance would agree to be involved in this b-grade bore is anybody's guess.

For 70s obsessives only.

Ulli Lommel: Genius of the Screenplay

[bridececily · 1/10 · 5 January 2006]

Genius. Moron. Is there a difference? This movie is a hideous waste of celluloid - or any other medium, for that matter. The story was not well thought out at all, as Lommel has admitted. Lommel claimed that this was a legitimate film and not a cover for a cocaine smuggling operation. After watching it, I think anyone would wonder if that could possibly have been the case. I think that any B-movie director who has ever walked up to someone and said, "I have an idea for a film, the story and script are contained in my hand-held cassette recorder and we should start filming next weekend at Andy Warhol's house," should be shot...and not with a camera.

This Blow Blows

[NoDakTatum · 2/10 · 21 November 2023]

The premise of this 80 minutes in purgatory is as follows: a rock band smuggles 20 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Montauk, Long Island. They throw the cocaine in the sea right in front of their palatial home, then land at the airport. They double back to the house and try to find the cocaine, but are not successful. Drug smugglers begin calling the band's manager, wondering where the cocaine is. The band members argue amongst themselves, wondering where the cocaine is. This reviewer questions his video choice, wondering where the plot is.

This was shot at Andy Warhol's home, so they had to give him a part in the movie. He does his Andy things, taking Polaroids, and not playing himself very convincingly. Jack Palance plays the band's manager, and is way too old for the part. He chomps on a cigar and talks about "our music." The rock band, full of people I have never heard of, is pretty awful. The handful of songs, including the title ballad, are all terrible. Most of the film consists of the following scenes: angry drug smugglers call up Palance and yell at him, rock band members half-heartedly search for the cocaine on the beach, at night they rehearse, angry drug smugglers call up Palance and yell at him, etc. The best scene involves the nerdy gofer of the band who found the cocaine and hid it- there were only three people in the house when the cocaine was dropped, you do not have to be Hercules Poirot to figure this one out. The gofer entices the maid into bed with him, promising lots of dough for all that blow. She then dumps two containers of baby powder on him as he writhes in ecstasy. The scene lasts less than fifteen seconds, but it is almost worth the video rental price- almost. This is a very bad film. Palance looks shocked he got roped into this, and Warhol fans will be sorely disappointed. The instrumental soundtrack sounds like those heartfelt moments they used to have on TV's "CHiPs," when the little boy was finally reunited with his recovering alcoholic dad, and the songs here are nothing that made the Grammys' short list. "Cocaine Cowboys" is as enjoyable as a nosebleed.

Vanity is wonderful

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 14 May 2023]

Filmed at Andy Warhol's summer home in Montauk - he also shows up as himself - Cocaine Cowboys is the story of Dustin (Tom Sullivan), who starts the movie being interviewed by Warhol, who acts like he doesn't know the tale we're about to hear even if he's the one that saves the day.

In his November 1, 1978 diary, Warhol said, "Tom Sullivan came by to show Cocaine Cowboys to us on a Betamax. He was smoking marijuana, and it was funny to smell it at the office. Paul Morrissey watched a little of it and said it was too slow, and Brigid was in and out and thought so, too, but I liked it. And I decided I'm not so bad in it. They only let me do one take and I think if I'd been able to do more I would have gotten better. But I was better than in my first film, The Driver's Seat."

Sullivan had come into the orbit of the Warhol Factory during the days of Studio 54. The story of his life in this movie is, well, pretty much the story of his life. He was described as having a "pirate-king image" and having "pockets overflowing with wads of cash and a black-leather-gloved hand disfigured in a fiery plane crash." He was sleeping with both Warhol's personal assistant Catherine Guiness and former First Lady of Canada, Margaret Trudeau.

He also brought "two German geeks" with him: producer Christopher Gierke and actor turned director Ulli Lommel, who would use the Warhol connection in his resume for the rest of his life, endlessly remaking and remixing The Boogeyman and making serial killer movies. Ah, maybe I'm being disingenous. He did work with Fassbinder and again with Warhol for the film Blank Generation.

Writer Victor Bockris said, "Sullivan and Lommel cooked up a story about a drug smuggler who tries to get out of the business by turning himself into a rock star. A band was rounded up and, in imitation of the Rolling Stones, Montauk was used as a base for their rehearsals. The veteran actor Jack Palance was made a cash-in-advance offer he could not refuse to star as the band's manager and shooting commenced in June."

During the filming, the police busted the movie for weapons possession and took $25,000. The night before, Albert Goldman claimed that "the Colombians had shown up and threatened to kill him (Sullivan) and he gave them a million in cash."

The movie is an attempt to tell the real story of Sullivan's life. His band is ready to make the big time, but their manager (Palance) makes them move cocaine to make extra money. One day, while traveling by plane, they notice a cop car at the airport just as they're about to land with enough powder - more on powder in a minute - to go to jail beyond the end of time. They toss it near an estate and head out on horses to get it back.

They don't try all that hard. They just hang out, play music, convince a maid to have a baby powder-aided makeout session and then Andy solves the case like an animated cartoon dog.

So yeah: a marijuana dealer's vanity project that has the man who gave Indiana Jones his hat (Richard Young), Lacey from The Boogeyman (and Olivia, too), Palance proving he didn't know the meaning of the word no and Warhol getting paid four grand to use his house and show up and take Polaroids of people while playing himself.

Sullivan died two years later at the age of 26. Needless to say, it was sudden and mysterious.

Sources

Warhol Stars. Cocaine Cowboys. Accessed May 11, 2023.

"We're just Cocaine Cowboys"

[doublesharp_x · 10/10 · 15 April 2006]

This movie is awesome. I got it for a dollar at Fiesta. Its worth every cent and more. Andy Warhol's performance was subtle, yet captivating. Jack Palance was his usual bad-ass guru self and the soundtrack brought me back to those hazy nights in East Timor. If you know where I can get the soundtrack, please post where. This is one of the great overlooked films from the late 70's. It prefigures the post punk movement in its hedonistic display of fashion and drug consumption. Indeed, we are all just cocaine cowboys. The title of the movie is a summary of the times yet also an astute indictment. Andy Warhol is truly transcendent. His acne scars barely even show. If you say anything bad about this movie you don't actually know what you're talking about and you're an ignorant unsophisticated dilettante.

Andy Warhol Pop Classic

[normrinks · 10/10 · 29 March 2010]

This is 70s pop at its best, guys! What a gem! I love it! And Jack Palance as the evil rock band's manager is insane, he's so cool, man! And Andy Warhol playing himself, what a riot, I've never seen him do himself like that, he's cooler than cool! I believe the whole flick was filmed at Andy's compound in Montauk, Long Island, what a place, what a location! And the scenes in Manhattan that hold the story together, how funny. Great writing, cool camera, cool acting and very, very cool directing by Ulli Lommel, who's know to crank out one horror flick after the other, but this one, this is pure popism, no horror at all, and it shows that Lommel has real talent. The film also stars Tom Sullivan, a real life drug dealer who died age 23 in the gutter of Brooklyn after several failed attempts to reignite his "business" (that's what I read in "High Times" back in the early 80s). This film was shot right after Lommel's first Warhol production, "Blank Generation" another cool flick.

Rambling plot less mess

[Wizard-8 · 20 May 2014]

I put off seeing this movie for years, given how Ulli Lommell's more recent movies have been uniformly awful. I finally saw the movie today, and realized I could have waited a lot longer. The screenplay is simply inadequate - after the movie sets things up in the first few minutes, there's hardly any more plot to unfold, and the movie is padded with endless scenes of little to no consequence. Another problem is that there is not one fully fleshed out character - the band members all act alike. The movie has some bizarre casting with Jack Palance as the band manager, and Andy Warhol playing himself, but that only adds a little interest. There are some decent songs on the soundtrack, but that only adds a little more interest. The end results are so misguided that one has to wonder if the filmmakers were on the white stuff themselves.

The "EASY RIDER" of the late 70s

[rmeers2010 · 9/10 · 2 April 2010]

This late 70s pop flick has Warhol written all over it. Directed by his protégé Ulli Lommel, who later went on to become the infant terrible of Hollywood, after he spent almost ten years making twenty-one films with his former mentor and friend Rainer Werner Fassbinder, COCAINE COWBOYS rocks. The music is super cool, the story, featuring Hollywood legend jack Palance as controversial manager of a cocaine smuggling rock band, zips along like a comic strip of the 70s. Elliot Goldenthal, who later scored an Academny Award for his music for FRIDA, created an inspired score. The camera work by Jochen Breitenstein is flawless and reminds me of the films Peter Fonda made, such as EASY RIDER, which seems like a forerunner to COCAINE COWBOYS. Totally underrated so far, this film deserves a brand new transfer from the original 35mm negative to an HD master, so that the whole world may enjoy this gem. Warhol was right: Ulli Lommel has become a highly fought over director, with countless enemies and many more hard core fans. Yes, Warhol was right, when he picked Lommel in the late 70s as his soup du jour, his new pet artist.

Andy Warhol does it again!

[marybogens · 10/10 · 12 April 2010]

I wish I would've lived in the 60s or 70s. Those two decades must've been off the hook! I'm giving this one a ten, a perfect ten! It has everything I like about independent films, It is off beat, cool, different, inventive, hilarious, wacky, funny, sexy, wild, surprising and totally entertaining! Jack Palance, yes, leadies and gentlemen, THAT Jack Palance, Hollywood legend (remember his Oscar ripe "Shayne"?) is insanely cool as "Raf", the rock band's wild and crazy manager. And Andy Warhol as the "detective" who spies around with his polaroid camera, is totally insane too, what a combination, Palance and Warhol, but it's these kinds of decision director Lommel made that make this film such an experience! It's only 85 minutes long, but those 86 minutes got it going, ladies and gentlemen. On top of it all a musical score performed by Tom Sullivan and his band, with a bunch of hot songs like "We're just Cocaine Cowboys". I love this film!