A guide map to what miserable life is. Now I can see where inspiration for "Candy" is coming from.

71.125

A solid work that is very much in line with a lot of the trailblazing that was going on in American film at the time. If I've learned anything from early-70s works like this, it's that New York City used to really dirty. Every shot on the street always has some pile of garbage just off to the side of a building. While it started to get a little bombastic with its tragic expression of the lives of a heroin-addicted couple, it managed to finish itself off with an inspired and appropriate ending.

The greatest film of all time. Pure realism and the definitive death of hope. A crushing insight in the life of addicts. Perfect in every way.

To me, the defining movies of the 70's New Hollywood were these realist movies, like this one. Needle Park is far from being one of the best but it's in the idiom and it's very good. Schatzberg himself outdid this two years later, with Scarecrow.

I like the way you can almost smell the streets. What really works here is the coupling of Pacino's hyperactivity and Winn's solemn attitude. Rest is... but you have already seen that.

Not bad, not bad. It's an interesting 70s naturalist picture, done pretty well across the board, but it's not terribly compelling or insightful, and for the most part, doesn't really manage to rise above any conventions of its genre. It's mostly interesting as a historical footnote: Al Pacino's first feature-film performance, and he's pretty good here. If you like naturalism, Al Pacino, and movies about seedy urban areas/drug culture, check it out.

I love the absence of music. It completely removes any sort of romanticized notion any other movie may have had. The script is what really keeps this one going, and the plot is brutal and very realistic. Al Pacino and Kitty Winn are great, sympathetic and pathetic at the same time. The last scene does a great job of driving in the subject matter.

Excellent.

Outside of the graphic needle scenes, I have no real complaints about this movie. I appreciate the lack of a score, but it wouldn't belong here in any case. On the other hand there's nothing spectacular about this film either.

reality.