The Panic in Needle Park is a love story of the worst kind. Helen is an innocent woman who meets a charismatic fast talking drug dealer slash user named Bobby (Al Pacino in one of his first roles) and is quickly charmed by his street smart ways.
The pivotal scene happens when Bobby asks Helen to score heroin for him. Helen responds coyly “You’re not just asking me to score for you, you’re asking something else. You’re asking how much I’ll do for you”; And in the typical asshole guy (that very girl loves) move Bobby says “Yeah, So” and Helen can’t help but say “Alright”. Every girl has been there and every girl at one point in her life has said “Alright”. The couple become prisoners of Heroin, doing anything and everything to get their next fix all while under the watchful eye of a crooked cop named Hutch. Helen soon becomes a lady of the night, just another sad addict that has to decide between being loyal to her lover and simply surviving.
I love this movie for many reasons (1. Al Pacino 2. Kitty Winn 3. New York City) but I also love it for the raw and sometimes unfocused way it was shot. Remember, this was 1971, a time before our brains were numbed by thousands of docu-dramas and reality shows. It’s also not overly dramatic like some addiction documentaries* are now. It’s a depressingly realistic portrayal of drug addiction in New York City America.
* fine. I’ll admit that I watched Intervention before Time Warner caught onto my free cable.
