Released
1971
A grim corrective to 1960s countercultural idealism, Schatzberg's gritty, street-level drama about New York junkies examines a love affair amid a haggard community of users who all share a debilitating physical need to bliss out. Pacino stands out in his first starring role as the savvy kingpin of the druggy demimonde, and Winn scores too as the bleak, lost girl he takes in. Penned by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, this hard-hitting film is anything but a romanticized ad for heroin chic, but it also harbors plenty of well-observed emotional details.