So much average

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

People are voting emotionally.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

(Flash Review)This hyper-real feeling portrayal of life as a heroin junky is a tough and sorrow-filled viewing. This appears to be Pacino's 2nd film (my key reason for watching it) and he plays a young man hooked on heroin who is also a small-time burglar to help pay for his habit. This film is also a depressing romance as a young, apparently homeless girl, meets Pacino and believe it or not finds stability in him! He gets her hooked and they share emotional ups and downs which is pretty much the focus of the film. It also shines a light into people addicted to this drug, which could easily be a PSA for stay away from drugs yet keeps a documentary angle rather than trying to get you to feel bad for them. This films also showed the most authentic-feeling scene of a man doing heroin. So authentic feeling, I thought he was actually doing the drug or studied addicts very carefully. Pretty heavy scene with gradation of phases rather than your Hollywood, quick needle poke and euphoric zone out. Grainy and grimy, this film is heavy and well-acted and is hard to forget.

The Panic in Needle Park is an American art film that would have found its natural home in a 42nd Street grind house—although the new print of this 1971 Jerry Schatzberg dope opera looks a lot better now than it did then.The love story. Plain and simple, that was it. It was an interesting world that we hadn't seen on the screen in exactly that way....And as I've said, A hidden love story deep inside the lives of two heroin junkies somewhere on Manhattan's West Side, which came out of hiding all of a sudden and what a love story it was...Opening to severely mixed reviews, The Panic in Needle Park was trashed for its incongruously fashionable creators (former fashion photographer Schatzberg, screenwriters Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne), and is remembered mainly for its performances. Making his film debut as the hustler-junkie Bobby, 30-year-old Al Pacino went straight to The Godfather and on to Pacino-dom; Kitty Winn, cast as his wide- eyed consort Helen, won the Best Actress award at Cannes and soon after retired in obscurity.Winn pretty much plays it as it lays—her obvious acting works with her character's weak sense of self. Pacino, however, is a force of nature. Chewing gum and chain- smoking Kools, this mop-topped motormouth is as wired as Robert DeNiro's Johnny Boy and as cute as Woody Allen's Alvy Singer. "I'm not hooked, I'm just chippin' " Bobby tells smitten Helen, a little lost girl slumming with a vengeance. Of course, once he discovers she's been supporting her habit by turning tricks, he throws the classic Pacino tantrum.The movie is filled with choice "Fun City" locations (an authentic cold water loft; the hustler-ridden Whalen's at the corner of 8th Street and Sixth Avenue), although the triangle where Broadway crosses 72nd Street stood in for the eponymous junkie hangout, a block away.Relative neorealism and an open ending were not unusual in 1971, but The Panic in Needle Park, is unusually sordid: Helen is introduced taking a crowded subway home from an illegal abortion; the movie is punctuated by close-ups of junkies shooting and booting. Schatzberg's compassion for his characters seems boundless, but it's hard to know whether the scene in which the dope-addled lovers adopt a puppy would make W.C. Fields laugh or cry.Thank You, @asifahsankhan

I don't know, but the bespectacled, and uncredited guy that Al interrupts with his "wife" sure looks like him to me when he was that young. Any information would be greatly appreciated.I searched everywhere, and he's not officially connected to this film in any way I could find. Maybe he's just another extra. It was a bit part, but it sure does fit in with James Spader's career.I loved this movie. It is so gritty, and such a slice of life from the 70's, which I lived through.It doesn't pull any punches. It will impact you, if you dare to watch it. Please don't watch this if you're sheltered and unfeeling to those less privileged than you are.The most amazing thing about this movie is that though neither of the protagonists had any future at all, they both looked forward to one. It was never going to happen.Sad, sad movie, but very true to cruel life for people without support systems in their lives.

So I finish my Pacino's DVD with his 1st guest-star movie. It's funny to see how great actors begin their career by playing small losers (see our national French Gégé Dipardiou) and how her fine co-star won prize at Cannes festival and has actually disappear in limbos.The first half hour is great as we see a young Pacino, lively, funny, in love but as soon as the couple starts going into dope, the movie turns too much shabby for me. The movie spares nothing about drug addiction, especially the crude injections, the terrible health and social effect and the more terrible need and run for cash to buy it. I never understand why people turn into drugs and the movie doesn't offer an explanation as well: considering all those bad sides that they can notice on their friends, why aren't they disgusted about it ? Maybe they face a biggest pain but it's not very clear...The director has a good eye as the street of NYC hasn't been so energized and the interior shots close to claustrophobic. It's not a surprise that he came from photography and had the same feeling that Lynch with his paintings: moving the frame to tell a story!