The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Grade: 76
Stardom would have to wait until "The Godfather" and "Serpico", but "The Panic in Needle Park" was the first starring role for Al Pacino. And what a role: he plays a heroin addict, a thief and drug dealer, who pimps for his wife and even helps shoot her up with heroin.
While the plot is secondary to presenting the addict's lifestyle, there is a story. Intense, moody Bobby (Pacino) wins shy, gentle Helen (Kitty Winn) from indifferent painter Marco (Raul Julia). While he is attentive, she soon realizes that he is an addict living a marginalized existence. She becomes addicted as well, prostituting herself to support her habit. Bobby dreams of becoming a 'big man', a top drug dealer, but the New York City police are closing in. Among them is Hotchner (Alan Vint), a narc fond of yellow leather coats whose motto is 'Every addict rats'.
Pacino plays his character with the cool and bluster that he would become famous for, but Winn is also effective as his devoted but desperate girlfriend. Winn's career would fade quickly after her role in "The Exorcist".
Director Jerry Schatzberg has no interest in glamorizing heroin abuse. Junkies are presented as pathetic petty criminals, with sunken and glazed eyes. They overdose, they 'rat' on each other to the police, and getting heroin has become all-consuming for them. There are many closeups of spoons cooking smack, needles piercing veins, and addicts with their mouths open and eyes vacant. Sometimes the film has the feel of a documentary: even the tedium of their laconic, bleak lives comes across.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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