THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK (Special Edition)
Second
Sight
Banned
at the time of its original theatrical release in the UK because
of its frank depiction of heroin addiction on the streets of contemporary
New York, former fashion photographer Jerry Schatzberg's
1971
feature remains something of an unsung landmark of American cinema
of the early ’70s not least because it features the first major screen
role of one Al Pacino which directly led to the latter being
offered
his career-defining role in The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola.
Located
at the junction of Broadway and 72nd St, the Needle Park of the
title (otherwise known as Verdi Square or Sherman Square) was at the time
an infamous junkie hang out on the west side of Manhattan and the film
unflinchingly captures the seedy, hand to mouth world of Bobby
(Al Pacino), his girlfriend (Kitty Winn) and their coterie of small
time hustlers all desperate to score their next fix. Based on the
novel of the same name by James Mills, entirely shot on real locations,
captured in muted hues by cinematographer Adam Holender (previously
responsidle for the cinematography on an equally epochal
New York
feature – John Sclesinger's Midnight Cowboy) and with the absence
of a musical score only accentuating the film's gritty documentary
flavour, The Panic In Needle Park opens the window on a
long
gone down at heel New York of cheap hotels, dingy apartment buildings,
fast food joints and pawn shops also familiar from such seminal
New York films as The French Connection, Shaft and Mean
Streets.
Unrelentingly
bleak the tale of Bobby and Helen's descent into hell may well
be but the remarkable performances from both Pacino whose edgy
intensity lights up the screen and the equally superb Kitty Winn whose
performance won her the best actress award at the ’71 Cannes Film
Festival (where the film was also nominated for the Palme D'Or) make for
truly compelling cinema.
This
special edition DVD release comes with two documentaries – Panic In The
Streets Of New York and Writing In Needle Park which feature revealing
interviews with director Jerry Schatzberg (apparently Robert DeNiro
was also considered for the role of Bobby), cinematographer Adam
Holender and screenwiter Joan Didion respectively.
Grahame
Bent
