The Panic in Needle Park (1971)

Directed by Jerry Schatzberg. Starring Kitty Winn, Al Pacino, Richard Bright, Alan Vint, Kiel Martin, Raúl Juliá, Michael McClanathan, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Warren Finnerty. [PG]

Young student Winn falls in with the junkie crowd of NYC’s Sherman Square (known by heroin addicts as Needle Park), becomes enamored with streetwise low-life Pacino, and eventually degrades into co-dependency with him while hustling, stealing, turning tricks, all in the service of scoring the next fix. Flawed but authentic “drug movie,” one of the more potent of the era without drifting into exploitation territory, although the scenes of needles puncturing flesh become repetitive quickly. Difficult to watch, but searing performances and vivid urban atmosphere make it worth the effort. Husband-and-wife team Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne adapted James Mills’ book. Film debuts for Winn and Raúl Juliá, and Pacino’s first major role (his next would be playing Michael Corleone).

69/100