Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

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.

This film is one of the rare few that shows heroin addiction in a realistic manner. None of the horrors are left out but there is also a refreshing lack of the usual over-the-top harping on the subject. Al Pacino is absolutely at his best (in his first major role)... little surprise that he was cast in The Godfather shortly thereafter. The drug scenes and situations are true-to-life. The way the relationship between Bobby (Pacino) and Helen (Kitty Winn) is portrayed is especially moving. They truly love each other but are trapped having to do whatever it takes to get their fix. Heroin addiction becomes a trap in which you must continue repeating the same routine daily no matter what happens. This is illustrated well when Bobby turns back to look at Helen and says, Well? and the viewer is left with the impression that nothing is going to change.

Jerry Schatzberg's "The Panic in Needle Park" is an incredibly well-made film, a major overlooked example of New Hollywood cinema. Al Pacino and Kitty Winn star as lovers Bobby and Helen who live in the city and who are addicted to heroin. The film is shot like a documentary, uses no music, and features some very disturbing, realistic scenes of heroin injection. There have been countless American movies that feature drug use, but "Needle Park" stood out to me. It isn't dated because much of the film's run-time focuses on Pacino and Winn (both in extraordinary performances) and how their relationship disintegrates because of their addictions. The final scene of the film is so bleak and haunting.

I just finished watching this movie for the first time as an adult. See I saw it when I must have been about 13 or so because hey, it's an Al Pacino flick. And being a Godfather fan at the time I figured why not go back even further, to his first big break as an actor. Well not a movie for kids, at all.Panic in Needle Park starts out with this young girl who is new to The Big City. Maybe looking for love, or maybe just looking for meaning in life. I'd say a little of both. Then Al Pacino walks in as Bobby, and her life steadily changes throughout the course of this movie. And watching the decline is heartbreaking and disturbing at the same time. See it's different watching Pacino's character because he is already down n out. Working the streets of New York, hustling to support his $50 a day Heroin Addiction. But Helen forcibly wants in on this life of self destruction, as a way for her to be part of something. To be accepted. She chooses to be with Bobby and that's the drama of this whole movie. By the end he even acknowledges SHE does too much of that stuff. It's just a bad way to end up in life.So very good cautionary tale that I would recommend to people maybe looking for some insight into a world sometimes hidden from view. And I'd say even 40 plus years later, This Movie is very relevant in modern times. Also you get to see some of the early Al Pacino explosive anger that he later became known for. But overall, A Drama of the darkest kind.