Panik im Needle Park (1971)

Panik im Needle Park: Directed by Jerry Schatzberg. With Al Pacino, Kitty Winn, Alan Vint, Richard Bright. Follows the lives of heroin addicts who frequent “Needle Park” in New York City.

“The Panic in Needle Park (1971)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWow. This is as close as American Hollywood gets to cinema verite. The way itu0026#39;s filmed, the subject matter itself, and the acting by the whole cast, especially the two leading actors, is astonishing and gripping. Like many reality-based stories, this one lacks only a driving narrative thread. As disturbing and terrific as it is, it also gets slow, and could have been edited down with the same effect.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut less of it. By that I mean, if you can just settle into this world of 1970 heroin abuse in New York City, with close ups of shooting up and some very convincing rushes and rides, with squalor and hopelessness and indifference, with prostituting and stealing and a wide cast of people down and out, youu0026#39;ll want it to keep going. There is nothing quite like this movie, even as it lacks propulsion.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAl Pacino is so good, so convincing, as Bobby, you can almost picture the movie is a documentary and this slightly charming junkie is a real guy who was willing to be filmed. His girlfriend Helen played by Kitty Winn is also perfect, at first as a kind of tagalong who isnu0026#39;t comfortable with this world but who seems to have nowhere else to go so she sticks with Bobby. But she falls into the lifestyle, and her clean innocence is gradually worn down, almost before our eyes, and the two of them go through all the stages of addiction and desperation. They have no money, they sometimes have nowhere to live, but they stumble along, stealing or pulling tricks (sexual ones) to get their fix.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf anyone harbors any sense that heroin must be terrific, watch this movie. Even the famous euphoric rush is so internal it canu0026#39;t be appreciated, and people on their several hour high just seem to be sleepy all the time. And then the rest of their lives are absolute hell. I guess you donu0026#39;t care about everything else, so it may as well be hell, but from the outside, itu0026#39;s something to avoid. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd in that sense, the movie is perfect. It is so truthfully frank itu0026#39;s a masterpiece of some kind of cinema that we could use more of, but which is so raw and unappealing you can see why there isnu0026#39;t more. Itu0026#39;s not a fun movie. And when it does get a little slow and repetitive you might even give up on it, or zone out like one of its characters. But watch at least part of it to appreciate whatu0026#39;s been done. Hereu0026#39;s the great Pacino in his first major role (and his second film), and Winn (also her second film) in an award winning performance.”