Amazon.com Essentials:
Based on a true story, Prince of the City stars Treat Williams as
Danny
Ciello, a conflicted New York cop who reluctantly decides to go undercover
for
the feds to ferret out police corruption. At first, he recklessly gets off
on
the danger, but as the feds tighten the screws, the guilt-wracked Ciello is
forced to compromise his partners and friends, and his own checkered past
inexorably catches up with him.
Sidney Lumet, who also directed Networkand Dog Day Afternoon,
is
esteemed as an actor's director. This film is prime evidence. The peerless
ensemble, including Jerry Orbach, Bob Balaban, and a duty roster of great
New
York character actors, is flawless. If there was any justice in Hollywood,
Prince of the City would have
been Treat Williams's star-making breakthrough, his Serpico (which
Lumet
also directed). But this film couldn't get arrested at the box office and
was criminally snubbed by the Academy. Due to its length and
gritty, profane dialogue, it is severely compromised when broadcast on
network
TV. For fans of NYPD Blue, Law & Order and Homicide,
here
is a movie ripe for discovery on home video.
--Donald Liebenson
