The Panic in Needle Park

Name: The Panic in Needle Park
Genre: Drama
Released: July 13, 1971
Duration: 110 min
Rating: 74
Cast: Al Pacino, Alan Vint, Angie Ortega, Kiel Martin, Kitty Winn

1971

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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7.8

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7.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Twentieth Century Fox | Release Date: July 13, 1971 | PG

Starring: Al Pacino, Alan Vint, Angie Ortega, Kiel Martin, Kitty Winn, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Michael McClanathan, Raul Julia, Richard Bright, Warren Finnerty

Summary: Follows the lives of heroin addicts who frequent "Needle Park" in New York City.

Director: Jerry Schatzberg

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: PG

Runtime: 110 min

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Critic Reviews

100

The Telegraph Philip Horne

The pitch to the studio was "Romeo and Juliet on junk": fair enough, but it crackles with life, and this is a tremendous rediscovery. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The Panic in Needle Park is a total triumph. Gritty, gutsy, compelling, and vivid to the point of revulsion, it is an overpowering tragedy about urban drug addiction. Read full review

Roger Ebert

It is not filled with quick cutting or gimmicky editing, but Jerry Schatzberg's direction is so confident that we cover the ground effortlessly. We meet the characters, we get to know the world. Read full review

Fernando F. Croce

Remembered mainly as the neophyte Pacino’s launching pad into Godfather stardom, the modestly scaled, harrowing Panic in Needle Park has over the decades proven to be nearly as influential as Coppola’s blockbuster, setting a cinematic template later used by Drugstore Cowboy, Requiem for a Dream, and a good deal of Sundance Channel fodder. Read full review

Roger Greenspun

It is a nightmare world view, but it is a world view, and The Panic in Needle Park never pretends that it is subject to moral condemnations, or to easy cure or the insights of urban sociology. Read full review

J. Hoberman

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. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

Supposedly a no-holds-barred look at the seamy heroin subculture, The Panic in Needle Park is really little more than a boring romance between two dullards intercut with close-ups of filthy needles being jabbed into scarred veins. Read full review

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User Reviews

codyz

Aug 13, 2023

Movie is bleak, with a true to life feel. Filmed in almost docu-drama "you are there" gritty realism. An honest look at addicts and their abusive / dependant relationships. Powered by performances by Al Pacino and Kitty Winn.

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