Il principe della città

A few years after this was in the theaters, it was shown on TV over two nights. I remember reading that a significant amount of footage that had been cut for the theatrical version would be restored for the TV showing. That piqued my curiosity, so I watched -- and was completely blown away.

But what amazed me the most was that I couldn't spot one scene that could be taken out of the movie without seriously compromising it. Since I knew it had been cut and restored, I was pointedly looking for stand-alone scenes that only fleshed out the characters but weren't integral to the extremely complex storyline. There weren't any. Every single scene contained some important bit of information that cast light on and helped make sense of something elsewhere in the movie.

Ever since then, I've been patiently waiting for this director's cut to show up on VHS, LD, or DVD -- and refusing to watch the theatrical cut! It's been 15 years and I'm still waiting. But I would certainly think that eventually this will come out on DVD, and we can al hope and pray that it will do so in the full version.

Yes, Treat Williams was not as good an actor as Al Pacino in Serpico (the film that made Pacino's career). But Sidney Lumet was a better director than the vast majority of cop film directors, and the dialogue was better written for this movie than 99% of the cop films I have ever seen. The supporting actors are the strength of this movie. There must have been at least a dozen stellar performances from most of the cast involved in a secondary role. Lindsay Crouse was very good on the distaff side, but this is primarily a man's film.

To be more precise, it is not just a cop's film, but is a cautionary tale for most of us who had graduated college and tried to be honest, forthright, truthful, have integrity, and perform in a professional manner, regardless of our chosen field.

The world has a way of eroding all of those things, bit by bit over a long period of time. Chasing money becomes more important than some of those lofty principles, as they do not put food on the table. Sometimes they do, or if you are Jesus, you can create your own loaves and fishes, but the rest of us are not Jesus.

There is great empathy for Danny Ciello from most viewers; I knew I felt sorry for him. However, a prosecuting attorney makes a point about if any arm of the law is corrupt, then the whole system suffers. Corruption, however, does not start with the police, or teachers, or hospital workers or accountants or any other hard-working person. Corruption starts at the top of the food chain and works it way down. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lumet does a great job with the direction and this is a film that is not to be missed if you want a real piece of New York City reality in the late 1970s.

Much has been made of this film's brilliance and how it was glaringly ignored at that year's Oscars. It richly deserved the awards it never received. Its realistic, gritty feel comes from the fact that the movie was lifted straight from the book, with only name changes. The viewer is drawn into the unraveling world of a narcotics' policeman as he recoils in disgust from what he does to maintain his squad's phenomenally high arrest rate, i.e., stealing, bribing, corrupting themselves to nail the corrupt. Cielo first targets people far from him but then the circle tightens until he fingers his own men. For a cop to rat on fellow cops is a deeply ingrained anomaly, an affront to the ties that bind the police in a brotherhood deeper than blood. The direction is great, the dialog heavily laced with coarse language that deepens the realism, and the acting is fantastic. Treat Williams never again received a role nor gave a performance that approached the stellar proportions of this one. Jerry Orbach is so immersed in his part that Dick Wolf cast him as a homicide detective for Law & Order based on seeing his acting in this movie. All of the characters are three-dimensional, human and evoke emotions. Some are admirable, others pitiful, some are despicable. Though long, Prince of the City is never boring, and it leaves its moral dilemmas largely unanswered, letting the viewer sort out who did the right thing. This film was made by Sidney Lumet as an apology to the NYPD for his hatchet job in Serpico. It succeeds in more ways than mere atonement; this movie is superior to its predecessor in many ways and was inexcusably blown off at that year's Academy Awards. Still powerful and has aged well, even if Treat Williams and Lumet haven't.

Prince of the City is probably Sidney Lumet's best film to date. It is better then Serpico because it shows how dirty police corruption can get. Everyone is guilty in this film to some degree, there are no hero's. The viewer is taken inside the world of drug addicts and drug dealers, cops, lawyers and judges and is shown how easy it is for them to sell out and how sad it is when they do sell out. While "Prince of the City is a very long film and sometimes gets a little slowed down, it is a great story that is worth watching.

You know the gag, "Behind the tinsel and glitter of Hollywood, there's a lot more tinsel and glitter." Well behind the filth and corruption of the so called "War On Drugs", there's a lot more filth and corruption. When I was a young and naive budding trumpet player, I idolized a trumpet player by the name of Red Rodney. He played with Charley Parker. That's like starting for the Yankees. Like Parker he became addicted to heroin. To me he was royalty. The drug life for him was one of incarceration and constant police surveillance. One day he said a common occurance during an arrest was for the police to take and keep any money he had, and take AND SELL THE DRUGS THEY CONFISCATED! After seeing this movie do you have any doubts? I saw Sidney Lumet give a talk about his career. After the talk was over, I went up and asked him how could the Ciello character even dream about talking to the Feds, knowing that his entire operation was mired in illegal hanky panky. Lumet says he asked Bob Leucci, the real life Danny Ciello, and he told Lumet to this day he still can't truly explain it. Where did Treat Williams, a competant actor up till this movie summon the greatness he reaches. The disintegration from a cocky cop who thinks he owns New York City, to a weasel who causes suicide and ruin for his closest buddies and their families is heartbreaking. The virtuoso cast and Williams probably said after seeing the film, "How the hell can we top this?" You want to know something? THEY NEVER HAVE! An American classic, not to be missed!