Top 10 dope flicks

[voodoobudah]

"The Basketball Diaries","Drugstore Cowboy",Requiem For a Dream","Less than Zero"',"Wonderland","Trainspotting","Jesus's Son","Permanent Midnight","Gia",and"Ray"

[Nuke]

one word... Barf

[bi11i]

this would be a great poll. someone just sent me yesterday a film entitled, 'black tar heroin' (http://www.farfilm.com/films/dark/dark.htm) although I've yet to watch it.

How about 'the man with the Golden arm' starring Frank Sinatra? Ever seen that one?

[c0g]

Don't forget "Reefer Madness" and "Naked Lunch".

[bi11i]

naked lunch. how could i forget.... hell, if we're going to go beyond heroin, let's hit Fear & Loathing

[c0g]

How about TV? Remember that episode of "Diff'rn Strokes" with Nancy Reagan.

[shaunclo]

Theres also "Panic in needle park" with Al Pacino. It wasnt the greatest movie, but it was a dope movie.......pun intended

[voodoobudah]

Haven't seen"Panic in Needle Park".It is on Fox Movie Channel tonite at midnite!

[opensourceguy]

"Blow" with Jonny Depp sp? I have never heard of any of the other movies.. but Blow was a badass film.

[bi11i]

oh yeah, nice. that one was definitely great!

[Paregoric Kid]

Trainspotting <-absolute fucking best
Naked Lunch
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Drugstore Cowboys
Where the Buffalo Roam
Blow
The Cocaine Fiends
I wanna get that one with Sinatra playing a junky it's 3 dollars at some discount store, might pick that up later.

The Big Lebowski <-not really a drug movie but he's got a joint and a white russian in his hand in every scene practically

there are more I just can't think of them right now
I wonder if they'll ever make a film of Junky, Burroughs was trying to get it made since the late 70s, I think Patti Smith wanted a part in it. Junky would be the perfect heroin movie. I know when Sid Vicious was alive (guy in my avatar) in an interview he was asked this: Caller: My girlfriend and I think Sid is sexy. (The camera goes on Sid who rises from his seat and starts to bellydance). We think he’s real cute and he should be in a movie, like “Naked Lunch”...
Sid: (Falling down to his seat and answering in a bored, disgusted voice). And what should I be, a salami?
apparently Burroughs also sent the pistols a telegram congratulating them for saying bad things about the queen lol

[voodoobudah]

My only exposure to Burroughs was the cameo he played in "Drugstore Cowboy".He played a defrocked junkie priest ,and he was absofuckinlootly brilliant!!!

[Peripat]

"Man With The Golden Arm" is a damn good movie. If anyone finds it on DVD, let me know, I'd love to see it again, and my VHS copy went "missing" a couple years back (yeah, you know the drill!).

"Dogs In Space" was a wicked film, too. It was made in Melbourne, Australia in the mid-1980's and it starred Michael Hutchence of INXS fame. The movie centred around the life and loves of some Melbourne punk rock personalities of the late 1970's, and Michael's character did heroin (I got to hear how much the truth had been changed to make fiction, from one of the guys who'd been there through it all - the guy who told me not to do heroin, ironically.) Sadly, I don't think "Dogs In Space" was ever released outside Australia, and the distribution company that owned the rights reportedly went broke years back. I haven't seen that movie in something like 12 years now. It kicked ass.

[pinkology]

SPUN: John Leguzamo and Mickey Rourke. Similar production style to Requiem For A Dream. John's gotta have it; Mickey's gotta cook it. Wild.

[casperfromkidz]

what about "kids" or the new one "thirteen" for some reasion seeing inocents ruiend makes me feel better! personally if i could get as messed up as anyone in these movies it would be johnny deep in fear a loathing, does he get F***ed up or what?

[Peripat]

There's also a British movie called Pure (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308772/), which a former fellow junkie friend of mine assures me is definitely worth seeing if you can get a hold of it.

[Paregoric Kid]

yeah spun is a really good meth movie
oh hey I can get you a copy of man with the golden arm, some discount store is selling it for $3 US, I think it's region free too, it's one of those cheap discount dvds. I'll stop by and check and see if they still have it, they should they had like a million copies.

I didn't like reqiuem for a dream that much because so much of the story was hollywoodized (too much stuff that isn't true was in it) and that everyone was just another doomed junky. it was too "perfect," a story nancy reagan would tell. like "just say no or this will happen to you." a modern day reefer madness. not that every junky DOESN'T have bad shit happen to them, but do you know what I mean? the movie was made well but too much unbelievability.

[blahblahblah]

GIA
Starring Angelina Jolie, Mercedes Ruehl. An HBO production, the true account of heroin-addicted lesbian supermodel Gia, who died of HIV. Some folks I know didn't care for this so much, but Iliked it a lot (plus I wasn't worn out on Angelina Jolie's psycho routine at the time I saw it

RUSH
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jason Patrick. This is the 1991 film adaptation of Kim Wozencraft's novel of the same name. It's about ***** in Texas who get a little TOO much into the game and ispretty realistic. Wozencraft really lived this stuff, too, and the book is even better.

THE BOOST
Starring James Woods, Sean Young. In this 1988 adaptation of Ben Stein's book, "Ludes," the drug of choice is switched from Quaalude to cocaine. Though not a junky flick it is a riveting account of runaway addiction. And who could play an out-of-control coke hog better than James Woods?

SWEET NOTHING
Starring Michael Imperioli, Mira Sorvino. A great 1995 flick about addiction, though to crack, rather than junk. Set in New York City, it is really powerful stuff. Michael Imperioli, who is in HBO's "The Sopranos," also played a junkie in "Basketball Diaries."

TRAINSPOTTING
Starring Ewen McGregor. This 1996 adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel of the same name is nothing short of brilliant. Funny, true and wonderfully realized I thought. The OD scene (to the tune of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day") is the best depiction I've seen. See the movie, read the book, avoid the lifestyle!

PERMANENT MIDNIGHT
Starring Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Hurley. I was not a huge fan of Jerry Stahl's 1994 book of the same title, and I didn't quite get the point of this movie, released in 1998. But it does havelots of hardcore junkie business, set in El Lay. I don't know, Ben Stiller just gets on my nerves.

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE
Starring James Woods, Melanie Griffith, Vincent Kartheiser. Somehow, this 1999 adaptation of Eddie Little's novel of the same title went right to video. The book is better, but there's lots of cool junkie business here so if you like that kind of thing, check it out. Woods is terrific, Kartheiser is a sweet young nubbins and Griffith drops her annoying little girl act.

PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK
Starring Al Pacino. This 1971 adaptation of James Mills 1966 book grew out of a Life magazine piece about NYC junkies, was Pacino's first film and is one of the best dopefiend movies ever made. It should be available on video these days, and Encore broadcasts it every so often. Get it, watch it!

SID AND NANCY
Starring Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb. A brilliant fucking film about Sid Vicious, junkie and girlfriend killer, by the director who did the equally brilliant "Repo Man" and then turned out nothing but shit thereafter. The scenes in the Chelsea Hotel are excruciating, and the murder at the end is quite believable.

MY NAME IS JOE
Starring Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall. This brit film is about a drunk in Glasgow trying to get his shit together, but the major subplot involves hapless junkies. Really a great flick and subtitled so you don't have to struggle with the Scots brogue

GRIDLOK'D
Starring Tim Roth, Tupac Shakur. In this 1997 flick, Tupac's last, he and Roth play Detroit musicians trying desperately to get into a rehab after they think their singer has ODed. Funny and well done and Tupac, despite all that "Thug Life" horseshit that got him killed, was a terrific actor.

DRUGSTORE COWBOY
Starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James LeGros. This is a wonderful 1989 adaptation of James Fogle's story, published in 1990 under the same title. Dope fiends in the Northwest get over by hitting pharmacies. Very well done, and has a great cameo by the master himself, William S. Burroughs. Directed by Gus Van Sant, who did "My Own Private Idaho," "Mala Noche" and other good films.

JESUS SON
Starring Billy Crudup, Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper, Dennis Leary. This haunting adaptation of Denis Johnson's 1992 collection of short stories opened briefly in the movie theaters in July 2000, and so probably won'tbe out on video for a while. It depicts a group of dope fiends in the Midwest in the mid-1970s

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
Starring Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Shelly Winters. This 1955 film of Nelson Algren's brilliant 1949 novel was the first post-war movie to break the Hays Code ban on films depicting addiction. That said, it's a poor shadow of the novel (buy it, read it, it's always in print) and the junkie stuff is fairly ludicrous (and Winters is as fucking irritating as always). Still, it's a classic and worth checking out. Otto Preminger directs.

NAKED LUNCH
Starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Roy Scheider. If anyone could turn Wm. Burroughs' phantasmagorical ur-junk novel into a movie, Canadian director David Cronenberg is the man. Though not depicting junk use, per se, it is ALL about addiction, or the Algebra of Need, as Burroughs termed the phenomenon. All in all, a remarkable translation of Burroughs' world into a visual medium.

THE BASKETBALL DIARIES
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruno Kirby. I was not a huge fan of this 1995 film, but then I don't think that much of the Leo the Great as an actor. But, then, I was not as impressed as I might have been by Jim Carroll's 1978 book on which this is based. I do realize though, that Carroll is for a later generation what Burroughs was for mine (coming of age in the '60s): The addict-artist who made us know that we just had to shoot some dope! For all it's faults, this flick is worth looking at.

TRASH
Starring Joe D'Alessandro. Directed by Paul Morrissey is one of the Andy Warhol's Factory product: a gorgeous young D'Alessandro plays an addicted gigolo and we see him having sex with older women, shooting dope, fighting with the Social Security people and shooting dope again. The makers of this movie guarantee that the times we see Joe sticking a needle in his arm he was REALLY shooting heroin!! Not a beautiful movie but very, very, sixties....

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
Starring directed by Alan Parker. Not specifically on dope...great success when it came out. It's the stoty of a young american that goes to Turkey, tries to smuggle some hash, is caught and taken to an hellish prison. It's worth to see even just for the first few minutes, when the guy, heart pounding, tries to board the plane and the border cop put his hand on his chest, right where the pounding heart is..for those of you who has tried once to bring some "souvenir" home and didn't know if to look the cop in the eye or not.....there's also an old junkie in the prison and he is the one who goes to a bad end...

GEORGIA
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh. Not a beautiful movie but a) Jennifer Jason Leigh: she really looks like a real dope fiend b) the soundtrack is absolutely smashing: she sings with alittle voice some great songs by Lou Reed/Velvet Underground, Van Morrison and the beautiful "Almost blue" by Elvis Costello. The story is about the struggling relationship between two sisters, the straight and serious minded Georgia( played by Mare Winningham, is she famous BTW?), folk-singer of big success and poor, desperate and out-of-tune punk-rock singer Sadie, heavily into booze and dope. A scene hit me full force: when she tries to board a plane barefooted and during withdrawal and of course they wouldn't let her in...

HIGH ART
Starring Ally Sheedy, Radha Mitchell. Besides being about lesbian photographers in the downtowny New York scene, this 1998 flick is also a pretty accurate portrayal of a particular sort of uptowny, snorting-only circle of heroin users. I thought it was a bit of cliche that the main character had to OD at the end, but that shit does happen. All in all, a pretty good movie.

BROKEN VESSELS
Starring Todd Field, Jason London. Released in 1998, this film may have gone straight to video or been made for cable, I don't know. But it is one of the best dope fiend flicks I've ever seen. Jason London is a young paramedic, with a shady past, who moves to L.A. and hooks up Todd Field, a corner-cutting junkie ambulance driver. London's descent into addiction and corner cutting of his own is spot on, and the depiction of the tweaker woman living next door is sad and hilarious at the same time. Maybe it was just my mood when I saw it, but besides being very realistic, I also found this film quite moving.

H
Starring Martin Neufeld, Pascale Montpetit. Two heroin addicts nail themselves into their apartment and stuggle to withdrawal cold turkey.
Interesting interaction as they learn about themselves, each other, and why they're where they're at.
I do remember being much sicker than the characters when I attempted to go cold turkey but all in all an interesting movie



* I havent updated my opiated movie list for awhile so some 'newer' ones are missing, 'Wasted' for example.

[Zoop]

I just saw Requiem for a Dream and it was FUCKED UP!

Man, I don't think I'll be able to get to sleep now. Thank God I am not shooting dope anymore or doing speed. Ugh!

Made me feel the same way about drugs as Leaving las Vegas did about alcohol.

[exitwound]

My only exposure to Burroughs was the cameo he played in "Drugstore Cowboy".He played a defrocked junkie priest ,and he was absofuckinlootly brilliant!!!

That was WSB?! Holy shit, no way!!! :speechles

[exitwound]

I just saw Requiem for a Dream and it was FUCKED UP!

Man, I don't think I'll be able to get to sleep now. Thank God I am not shooting dope anymore or doing speed. Ugh!

Made me feel the same way about drugs as Leaving las Vegas did about alcohol.

I've heard a lot of people say the same thing. I have all too clear a view on the dark side from my time with psychedelics and need little education on it after my time traveling the world seeking it out....but I can imagine from what I've heard that it must have been pretty harsh.

Sending you comforting vibes tonight for whatever it's worth. You are not alone, you are in fact cared about by more people than you might think. So if you can, sleep tonight with whatever comfort those of us out here can offer....

Personally I've never been and probably never been a "junkie" per se. I enjoy a good time but not at any cost. I am an opiophile first and foremost to treat my chronic pain which may be life-long......

[Coddfish]

French Connection

[antigonemuse]

I hate to do it.... Traffik

[euphoricdaze]

Christiane F is an awesome movie. It's German,and based on a real girl who's around 14 or so.I highly recommend this movie to anyone. It may be a little hard to find, but you can always order it offline. David Bowie also has a cameo in it.

[antony]

"From Hell" with Johnny Depp. Proves that if you smoke a whole lot of opium you can figure out who Jack the Ripper was...

[HistoryofMadness]

Gift (Jane's Addiction)... Barfly (about Charles Bukowski)... 16 Years of Alcohol (Sick Boy from Trainspotting)... Easy Rider (no intro needed, and if you haven't seen this you MUST)... Sid and Nancy (of course)... Valley of the Dolls... and the grand finale ... Scarface...

I know these aren't all dope movies but most of us can appreciate...

-H

[insomnolent]

The Corner. Hands down one of the best dope flicks I've seen. It's a 6 part mini-series that took place on HBO that documents the lives of a single family living in the middle of a high-drug zone in Baltimore, MD. At the end they interview the individuals it was based on to give it an even more authentic feel. If you haven't seen this, you really should. It kept my glued to my seat. :)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009ATJZ/qid=1139108997/sr=1-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-5582225-4740750?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130

[Saceman1]

Two of my faves that I'm now inspired to see again are

Rush. OK, 15 years later I've moved to the State's and Texas, where is that mythical little town full of drugs?
Drug Store Cowboy. Saw it when it came out and I was still a baby-junky. I SO wanted to be the Matt Dillon character and was soooo in love with Kelly Lynch.

I'm also going to check-out the books! Thanks folks.

[Saceman1]

Anyone seen Last Days? I like Gus Van Saint a whole lot, had friends in Seattle in the late 1980s and early 1990s and, since running out of dope, I've really fallen for co-star and co-producer Asia Argento. Yet I've heard bugger all about this film! Anyone?

[Coddfish]

You are a spacemen 3 fan? Sound of confusion is good. Can't find any of their stuff where I live. Boo Hoo.

[Saceman1]

Yeh, if I had grown up, it woulda been to Spacemen3. Oh, and my username - I'd been drinking this arvo and dropped the 'p' be mistake. Ha! And now that I have no dope, I have money. Like, to buy some old fave records. Only trouble, I've got no dope because I've moved across the world where I know no-one and can't find a good record or bookstore anywhere, let alone a score! :(

[jollydeathtroller]

As soon as I read the title of this thread I started laughing....what a great movie.



Gonzo: [After cocaine blows away in the wind] Did you see what GOD just did to us man! Duke: God didn't do that, you did! You're a fucking narcotics agent, I knew it. That was our cocaine you fucking pig, scum [swats at him with fly swatter] (Taken from Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas)

[Saceman1]

And the best cartoon would have to be WSB's A Junky's Christmas! I caught this one by surprise one Chrismas eve and I couldn't stop smiling. Only trouble was, I was at my mum's house and she was watching me with a microscope to see how I reacted (thought I'd kicked years ago). A very funny and very happy Christmas cartoon - from his short story.

[candyshop]

there was onw about charlie parker that was pretty cool "bird"maybe?-also, lady sings the blues, that billie holiday one -i may be wrong on titles

[lucifus]

anyone have a link for the william burroughs documentary?