06 - “Panic in Needle Park” (1971)

1. Briefly describe what your expectations for the film were?

   My primary expectation in seeking out and watching The Panic in Needle Park lay rooted in the chance to see some early powerhouse performances by actors Al Pacino and Kitty Win (The Panic in Needle Park marked Pacino’s first leading role in a motion picture).

2. What did you already know about the film and from what source?

   The Panic in Needle Park was a film where I did not know much about it prior to watching it. I knew it tackled a story about individuals who were addicted to heroin in the early 1970s, as based on a novel by James Mills. The novel was adapted into a screenplay by couple Joan Didion and John Gregory Dune, Didion being known and familiar to me based on her creative nonfiction collections, Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), and The Year of Magical Thinking (2005).