Carlito Brigante Carlito Brigante Carlito Brigante is an eponymous character and the antihero of "Carlito's Way" and "After Hours", novels by Edwin Torres. Torres has stated that Brigante was a combination of several men he knew in his street days, as well as a compilation of several of his own personal characteristics. Born in 1930 in Spanish Harlem, his parents were Puerto Ricans with his father being of Corsican ancestry. His father abandoned his family and returned to Puerto Rico while his mother, a fervent Pentecostal convert, died during Carlito's early teenage years. Carlito starts out as a small-time thief, eventually working
The Panic in Needle Park The Panic in Needle Park The Panic in Needle Park is a 1971 American romantic drama film directed by Jerry Schatzberg and starring Al Pacino, in his second film appearance. The screenplay was written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, adapted from the 1966 novel by James Mills. The film portrays life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in "Needle Park" (then-nickname for Sherman Square on Manhattan's Upper West Side near 72nd Street and Broadway). The film is a love story between Bobby (Pacino), a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen (Kitty Winn), a restless