Review of The Panic in Needle Park (1971) by Eric H — 22 Sep 2014

T is very difficult to write reviews about these gritty and experimental 70s movies, because there is no way for me to know what it was like to see one of them then, instead of now, in our heavily jaded 21st century existence.

Because of this, The Panic in Needle Park often feels heavy handed, even at times verging on camp and exploitation. It is as if Schatzberg wanted to fit (force) every single cliche, every single taboo, and every single piece of period/subculture lingo he could into what is, at heart, an honest and simple love story, albeit of the degenerate 1970s NYC dope addicted junkie kind.

Pacino and Winn both give excellent performances, Winn even slightly outshines Pacino, mostly because her ways are much more subtle. If you can look past the campy bits, and the "LOOK, they're using drugs" close-ups (some of this film is legitimately hard to swallow - visually and emotionally), Panic feels very real, and as a viewer, you get that "window onto their world" voyeuristic feeling.

It's a film that exists in that limbo between reality and something that is obviously a movie, as well as being a film that could very easily drive you mad with all of its ups and downs. I assume this was intentional, to mime the ups and downs of the life of a junkie, but it made the last third of the film quite tedious, and probably led to my 4 star rating.

The Panic in Needle Park is by no means perfect, but it is worth viewing for the various reasons I have listed, and additionally, for simply being a document of a very interesting time in the history of NYC, which for me, made this even more enjoyable.