I posted my recollections about the park, the film, and about Al Pacino, to another thread here, about 4 years ago.
I looked it up, and I'm offering a "copy,cut-+-paste" of my original post, for the many late-comers to these boards.
I posted the following in 2004:
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I saw this film when it was released-- I was very anxious to do so, as I lived in that neighborhood and often sat around the Square which the film calls "Needle Park".
The square did not host an 'abundance' of junkies as the film implies. In fact, there was a mostly mixed lot of folks in the area, and it changed by the hour. The Continental (gay) Baths (which we called "Connie's") was just across Broadway from the park, and the bath house was in it's heydey at that time. (the film "The Ritz", which was made a few years later-- was a comedy based on the Continental Baths).
During the day, a lot of older and retired men sat on those benches, but at night there was an always changing mix of younger men & women-- gay, bi, and straight-- some junkies, some just buzzed, and some not high at all.
A block south of 72nd Street and 'the park' was a 24 hour sandwich shop which was known to us all as a place to cop drugs. It was always packed with junkies, as well as occasional druggies, all looking for a high.
I was 21 years old when the film was released, and like many young men in my neighborhood, I hung out in the streets.
I liked the film-- but it was no more a true look at 'Needle Park', than "The Ritz" was a true look at the phenomenon of 'Connie's'.
--and it wasn't even close to portraying full-time junkies-- (a group I was well aquainted with...). The film was more Hollywood than Sherman Square, and as such, it did boost Al Pacino to real stardom.
BY THE WAY: One night two friends and I were riding in a cab up Park Avenue South which, in those days, was a mostly deserted street at night.
When our cab stopped at a traffic light, a car containing Al Pacino stopped for the same light in the lane right next to us. We looked at him, he looked at us, we screamed "It's Al Pacino!" and his car floored the gas-pedal and sped off in the night.
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--D.--
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