Some spoilers within; do not read if trying not to find out plot developments.
This is a film that was inexcusably blown off at the Oscars. It richly deserved the awards it never received. Lifted straight from the book with only minor name changes, Prince of the City was a compelling look into the world of a narcotics detective as he brings about his unit's downfall. Danny Cielo (Treat Williams) is the cop who belatedly develops a conscience and rebels against what he and his men have become in their war on drugs; they've corrupted themselves to nail the corrupt and maintain their fantastically high arrest and conviction rate.
At first, Cielo has no intention of turning in his unit. He actually tries only to go after the criminals. However, in making a deal with the feds he's made a deal with the devil. The prosecutors realize they have a gold mine in Cielo and dig into him for all the information they can obtain. Little by little, the circle tightens like a noose around Cielo until he ends up fingering his mentor, then his own men. For a cop to rat on fellow cops is a deeply imprinted anamoly, an affront to the brotherhood that binds the police more tightly than blood ties. Cielo disintegrates under the pressure and agonies of his betrayals, shaking and crying, popping Valium to alleviate his tortured guilt. Around him, his men rat each other out and one even commits suicide. Only one is strong enough to withstand the feds: Gus Levy (Jerry Orbach), who marches into the office of a weasely prosecutor to tip his desk onto him and offers to toss him through the window of his high-rise building. At the end, Levy despises Cielo for his decision, and though Danny has done the right thing in the eyes of the law, he suffers as a pariah in the view of some of his fellow police officers.
This is a great piece of cinema. The direction is tight, the acting fantastic, and the dialogue heavily laced with coarse language that deepens the realism. Treat Williams never again received a role or acted so well as he did in this film. Jerry Orbach was so immersed in his part that Dick Wolf wanted him as a detective on Law & Order after seeing him portray Gus Levy. Sidney Lumet sculpted this movie into an intense drama that, while long, is never boring. Done by Lumet as an apology for his hatchet job on the NYPD in Serpico, this film succeeds in more ways than mere atonement; it is brilliant in its own right and ends more ambiguously, letting the viewer sort out who did the right thing. This is an excellent movie, highly recommended for those who enjoy tough moral dilemmas and superb cinema craftsmanship.
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May 22, 2007 "Please retry" | Special Edition | 2 |
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