''Cocaine Cowboys'' is a 1979 American

crime drama film In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

directed by

Ulli Lommel Ulli Lommel (21 December 1944 – 2 December 2017) was a German actor and director, noted for his many collaborations with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his association with the New German Cinema movement. Lommel spent time at The Factory and ...

and written by Lommel, Spencer Compton, Tom Sullivan and

Victor Bockris Victor Bockris (born 1949) is an English-born, U.S.-based author, primarily biographies of artists, writers, and musicians. He has written about Lou Reed (and The Velvet Underground), Andy Warhol, Keith Richards, William S. Burroughs, Terry Sou ...

. It stars

Jack Palance Jack Palance ( ; born Volodymyr Palahniuk ( uk, Володимир Палагню́к); February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American actor known for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all fo ...

, Sullivan, and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

who made a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

. It was actor

Tzi Ma Tzi Ma (;) is a Hong Kong-American actor. He is well known for his roles in television shows, such as '' The Man in the High Castle'' and '' 24'', and films, such as ''Dante's Peak'', ''Rush Hour'', ''Rush Hour 3'', '' Arrival'', '' The Farewel ...

's film debut. The film is about

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...

dealing members of a rock band who get into trouble with the American Mafia.Cocaine Cowboys (1979)
.

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

. Accessed 7 February 2018.

Plot summary

''Cocaine Cowboys'' is about

dealing members of a rock band who get into trouble with the American Mafia. Andy Warhol appeared as himself.

Reception

The film was given a very negative review at the time of its release by Tom Buckley in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

.'' Buckley wrote that apart from a good performance by

, the other actors were "obvious amateurs", the story "flimsy", the dialogue poor and despite previous acting and directing successes

's direction was "rudimentary". When mentioned in a ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

'' news article in 2007 the film was referred to as a "clunker". Filmmakers

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...

and

Roger Avary Roger Roberts Avary (born August 23, 1965) is a Canadian-American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. He collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on ''Pulp Fiction'', for which they won Best Original Screenplay at the 67th Acade ...

both praised the film on the first episode of The Video Archives Podcast.

Film set

Andy Warhol and Ulli Lommel on set of Cocaine Cowboys

''Cocaine Cowboys'' was filmed in 1979 at Warhol's summer home in Montauk, East Hampton, Long Island, New York.Anthony Haden-Guest,
Inside Jue Lan, The Hamptons’ Hot New Art Hangout
.

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

, 28 May 2016. Accessed 7 February 2018.

Selected cast

*Tom Sullivan *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cocaine Cowboys 1979 films 1979 crime drama films Films set in New York (state) Films shot in New York (state) Andy Warhol American crime drama films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films Films directed by Ulli Lommel