Film Forum

(1971) Scintillating debut for Al Pacino, as a small-time crook leading decent Kitty Winn (Best Actress, Cannes) on the downhill heroin path. Schatzberg’s second film established him as a major stylist. Screenplay by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. DCP restoration. Approx. 110 min.

Reviews

“Presents a fascinating picture of the tony Upper West Side, which was no less immune [than the rest of New York] to the troubles of the city.” 
– Jason Bailey, Flavorwire

“Schatzberg creates a tremulous visual palette of briskly panning telephoto shots and macrophotographic intimacy that unfolds a city within a city and reveals a second world of experience that shows through New York’s abraded surfaces.”
– Richard Brody

“Pacino is a force of nature.”
– The Village Voice

“One of the most gifted and original filmmakers to emerge during the 70s.”
–  Dave Kehr, The New York Times

“A special and extraordinary movie! A carefully observed portrait.”
– Roger Ebert

“Schatzberg moves with considerable force over the urban territory of Midnight Cowboy, using hand-held cameras and a sustained editing rhythm to convey the couple’s gradual descent into hell as mercilessly as he shows the needles entering his characters’ veins.”
– Time Out (London)

“A relatively unsung chronicle of ‘70s alienation… Remembered mainly as the neophyte Pacino’s launching pad into Godfather stardom, the modestly scaled, harrowing 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.”
– Fernando F. Croce, Slant Magazine