A Panic in Needle Park

I can't recall a more heartbreaking performance than that of Kitty Winn in 1971's A PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK.  It's almost unbearably sad to watch her character, Helen, slip into drug addiction and then prostitution to support it.  She's a girl from the country who's migrated to New York City, escaping a rather messed up family.  She will eventually join another such group, the junkies who hang in Sherman Square aka Needle Park.

One of them is Bobby (Al Pacino) who meets and falls for Helen early in the movie.  He's an ingratiating, fast talking hustler who swears he's not an addict.  Helen takes to him, then falls hard. You can see it in her motions, her eyes.  Winn does a remarkable job of portraying the type of love that is so intense and sincere you just know it cannot be returned in kind, especially with a guy whose true first love is heroin.  Bobby will refuse intimacy some nights in order to shoot up.  Helen will still love him.

Bobby has a more upwardly mobile brother named Hank (Richard Bright) who sometimes gives him money and masterminds robberies.  On one of them Bobby gets himself busted, but he's been in the joint before.  He even told Helen that not long after they met.  Helen herself will get arrested for solicitation, drugs and otherwise.  She'll stick with him, raising money turning tricks to support their sordid living quarters and even more depraved lifestyle.  Bobby hates it but knows it is necessary.  Down, down they go.  Bobby always talking about his next big opportunity.  The most dramatic trajectory belongs to Helen, a fresh faced soul who eventually starts using herself.  It's painful to witness, especially as even through the haze she still manages to express her love for Bobby, right to the end.

A PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK, produced by Dominick Dunne and written by his brother John Gregory and sister-in-law Joan Didion, is a genuine document of its time and place.  A brutal picture of grimy late '60s/early '70s urban life.  Director Jerry Schatzberg brilliantly utilizes NYC locations that serve as sufficiently drab backdrops for the actors, many of whom are so natural they appear as if recruited from the shadows.  There are lengthy, realistic sequences of drug use and even more harrowing scenes of the effects of withdrawal.   Bobby and Helen are both seen in the abyss, often appearing zombie-like in catatonia or desperation.  Pacino is so effective it is reported that Francis Coppola cast him for THE GODFATHER based on his work.  There are a few "crazy Al" moments - entirely appropriate under the circumstances - but many more low key slow burns; he's really magnificent.

As beautifully rendered as everything is, the movie belongs to Miss Winn.  I was floored, completely knocked out by her performance.  She did precious little film work, appearing mostly in theater.  I wish I could see more of her.  It's rare to watch a character transform so dramatically, yet maintaining a single minded devotion to someone who repeatedly (actively and passively) pushes her away.   Rare in that it is performed with such quiet conviction, so believably.  I cried for and fell in love with Helen.  This movie, made all the more urgent with its lack of a musical score, is one of the most involving and gut wrenching I've seen.