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Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Beautiful, moving film.

As Good As It Gets

Blistering performances.

Coming in at thee hours,Prince of The City must rate as one of the longest films I've seen; and it's certainly one of the best New York cop thrillers out; maybe one of the best cop thrillers, period. Sidney Lumet picks up and develops from the earlier themes he started with Al Pacino in Serpico - although the moral certainties displayed in that film are noticeably absent here.Based on Robert Daley's novel of the same name, and the experiences of cop turned crime novelist - lecturer the late Bob Leuci, Prince of The City makes compelling viewing. Detective Danny Ciello of NYPD's Special Investigation Unit - specialising in narcotics and organised crime; working city wide with no external supervision, one character notes, starts to experience a series of qualms about the more ''unorthodox' aspects of his work. After a couple of false starts, he agrees to cooperate with a federal commission, under the illusion he can pick and choose his targets and keep his partners in the clear.He soon finds that much more will be expected of him and that his new colleagues are neither reliable or trustworthy.Treat Williams puts in a first class performance as the increasingly tormented Ciello, the late Jerry Orbach is a powerhouse as the partner (one of several) he will betray. Danny's decisions have tragic implications for his family, colleagues and associates. Yet his hands are not clean - sooner or later he will have to face the consequences of some earlier actions....despite his less than truthful accounts.Prince of The City protrays the problems of policing a big city, perhaps any big city, with a gritty realism that most police procedurals only dream about - perhaps rivalled only by The French Connection. It's a having an exhaust journey into man's descent into a foggy morass of grey morality, where nothing is what it appears...and the uncertain redemption that follows.

At one point one of the characters of "Prince of the City" quotes this: "The law means everything to me and if any arm of the law is corrupt nothing can work, nothing. It is simple as that." But both the movie and the real life seems to proof that the law is a body and the arms of the law has too many hands, too many fingers and they always want more than they can and should carry, they don't follow what the brain says: don't be corrupt, respect the honor code and things like that. In the story all the parts (police officers, detectives, district attorneys) works on different levels, one team doing the right thing and the other being corrupt, stealing and other assorted things. But in the story there will be one guy who has the proof to others and to himself that he can change things and make the law work again even though he was part of the wrong side.Sindey Lumet's second installment on the dark side of the law is "Prince of the City" whose story resembles "Serpico" and "Night Falls on Manhattan", both of these films telling stories about the lack of ethics of police detectives on law's duty. It tells about good people who want to bring these people to court and judge them for their crimes. The movie was taken of a real case. Treat Williams plays Daniel Ciello a corrupt police detective approached by a prosecutor (Norman Parker) to catch another detectives like him involved with the Mafia and other unethical behavior and bring them to trial. This detective is reluctant, nervous about what he's going to do, only accepting the task with one condition: he won't rat any of his friends, they must be out of the investigation. But that seems to be impossible. Daniel will be spiraling out of control while investigating another police officers, detectives, drug dealers, mobsters, recording their conversations but the D.A.'s office wants more and more names and some of Daniel's friends might get burned. Will Daniel survive to all this pressure?By hearing the plot you'll think that the film is filled with clichés and it has some, but for the most part "Prince of the City" stays in a original presentation of facts on a thrilling story that goes for almost three hours without boring the viewer. Here's a story about a guy who wants to get some redemption over his corrupt and criminal past trying to do the right thing, but he always see that doing the right thing is not so easy, and probably he'll disappoint his friends and family by investigating another cops. Treat Williams has a incredible performance playing this tough guy who has a Shakespearian dilemma and must fight against everything and everyone.The drama is very convincing, knows how to deliver some tense moments and it also has a strong but slightly sense of humor (the detectives meetings talks is a great example). Lumet did a terrific job here, among his best films of all time and I dare say that it is was better than "Serpico" even Lumet must think that because he always felt that "Serpico" was one dimensional, it didn't embraced the police work and the law work as a whole, it wasn't so much realistic. "Prince of the City" skilfully managed to get all that, presenting a deep and powerful statement over both sides of the law. Among the best moments of the film I select Daniel's testimony on court about the things he made and seen while on duty, and the prosecutors reunion trying to decide Daniel's future, having one side against him, quoting that he's a criminal and other supporting him, saluting this man's good work for them. These two moments are perfectly alternated between each other (thanks to a great editing), creating a extraordinary effect on the viewer.The supporting cast includes good performances of Jerry Orbach, Bob Balaban, Richard Foronjy, Lance Henriksen, Lane Smith, Lindsay Crouse, James Tolkan, Norman Parker (he should've obtained a Oscar nomination for his role), one cameo by Alan King and one small scene featuring a very young Cynthia Nixon. This a truly case of a great but underrated movie. 9/10

Prince of the City is an excellent film by Sidney Lumet, a director I feel doesn't get enough praise for his work.I noticed a lot of similarities between Lumets earlier film Serpico, and I was worried this was going to be a bit of a rehash. However once the film got going the story developed in a completely different way. Not only that, it was shot differently too. Even NYC feels like a different city than it did in Serpico.I was going to go on and explain the plot a little bit, but I really can't do it justice. What I will say is that this film feels very real, and gritty. Treat Williams (our lead) does an excellent job of playing a character who is at odds with the decisions he has to make. At times he overacts a little, but the majority of his performance is perfect. The supporting cast are also excellent, Jerry Orbachs performance sticks out as one that was particularly good.The cinematography is solid, and the sets are convincing, everything seems to add to the realism of the film. For me this film alone puts Sidney Lumet up there with Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. It's a shame this film didn't get the recognition it deserved.

Pletchner from REPO MAN sticking his head through a window pane during the Columbians' bust; the chair collapse in the IA office; Orbach roughing up the state's attorney; the junkie chase in the rain; accidentally handing a receipt from the DA's office to the crooked bondsman - these are dynamite scenes equal to some of Lumet's best work. The supporting cast and occasional gritty dialog are Lumet hallmarks. The camera's always in the right place, the city looks dirty, the cops look like hoods, the hoods look like cops, all's well in the looks department.But this movie is 2 hours too long at 3 hours, and Treat Williams, though decked out in a series of wonderful coats, gives an atypically uneven performance. The Lumet-Jay Allen script also is terribly imbalanced, burying Williams under awful expositional speeches. Depthful insight is sacrificed to an epic, shallow and ultimately trite style. Lumet got the best out of Chayefsky and Waldo Salt and Mamet, and Pacino and Steiger and Dan O'Herlihy and a lot of people, and he is among the best directors in terms of camera movement and B&W lighting; but he also made THE WIZ, THE ANDERSON TAPES, and GUILTY AS SIN. He once said that the best work comes from preparing for the miracle to happen. Sometimes it doesn't happen. It happened several times on this set, but if you're going to write this many monologues your name better be Shakespeare; and if you're going to direct this many monologues, your name better be something other than Sidney Lumet. (for other Lumet monologue embarrassments, see Sean Connery's drunken confession in THE OFFENCE.)