The Panic in Needle Park (KCET Saturday...

The Panic in Needle Park (KCET Saturday at 9 p.m.) “Romeo and Juliet on junk” was the pitch writers Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne used for this N.Y.-set drama of addiction and doomed love. Al Pacino plays a heroin Pied Piper luring (Cannes Fest acting winner) Kitty Winn on to destruction. The film has mood, compassion, intelligence--but it’s sometimes a little too fancily bleak. Directed, very well, by Jerry Schatzberg; the supporting cast includes Alan Vint, Raul Julia and Paul Sorvino.