THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK
DVD. Second Sight.

A classic example of 1970’s cinematic realism, The Panic in Needle Park is a particularly bleak tale of drug addiction and despair that still packs quite a punch forty years after first release.

The film follows the decline of Helen (Kitty Winn), who we first see hospitalised after a failed backstreet abortion, as she becomes involved with personable junkie Bobby (Al Pacino) – moving from simply being his girlfriend to scoring drugs for him, getting hooked on heroin herself and finally turning to prostitution to make money. The ‘panic’ sets in when New York starts to suffer a heroin scarcity, causing increasing desperation among the junkies who now find prices rocketing, and Bobby in particular who has moved up from simple user to low level street dealer but now can’t get enough junk to sell. Throughout all this, both Helen and Bobby make increasingly unrealistic promises to clean up, while being pursued by the narcotic cops who want to use them to help bring down the main supplier.

Director Jerry Schatzberg brings a documentary realism to his story, all shot in the actual New York locations depicted in the story, including the cramped apartments full of junkies, hustlers and hookers. Shooting lots of street scenes with long lenses and
Eschewing any music soundtrack, the resulting film does look entirely authentic, a fact helped by some cringingly graphic heroin injection shots and the perfect performances by pretty much all the cast – Winn in particular manages to make the transition from a sweet, naïve girl desperate for affection to a hardened junkie hooker seem very convincing, while Pacino is a powder keg of emotions. Backed by a great supporting cast, the pair make this doomed love story seem all too real. And the realism carries on right to the final scene, where no easy answers or contrived conclusions are reached.

Banned in Britain in 1971 (don’t laugh – even in the late 1990s, the BBFC were still cutting ‘instructional’ drug imagery from films, presumably because without a movie to show them what to do, potential heroin addicts would simply sit staring at their bag of smack in befuddled bemusement), The Panic in Needle Park is a classic example of 1970s cinema – the sort of film that no-one would make today. It’s not exactly cheery viewing (you probably won’t want to watch this with a date), but it is something of a masterpiece.

Second Sight’s DVD comes with over 30 minutes of featurettes from Severin Films, with Schatzenberg, cinematographer Adam Holdender and writer Joan Didion filling in the background of the movie; a nice addition to this essential movie..

DAVID FLINT

BUY IT NOW (UK)

BUY IT NOW (USA)