Prince of the City (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Sidney Lumet
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Actor: Don Billett, Jerry Orbach, Kenny Marino, Richard Foronjy, Treat WilliamsDirector: Sidney Lumet
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Jay Presson Allen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 167 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 31849
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- New York cop Daniel Ciello is involved in some questionable police practices. He is approached by internal affairs and in exchange for him potentially being let off the hook, he is instructed to begin to expose the inner workings of police corruption. Danny agrees as long as he does not have to turn in his partners but he soon learns that he cannot trust anyone and he must decide whose side he is
DVD Reviews of Prince of the City (Two-Disc Special Edition)
DVD Review: A Record of Life in 1970s New York City
Summary: 3 Stars
"Prince of the City," (1981), is a dramatic thriller that is actually set in the 1970s in New York City. It's based on a non-fiction book by former New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Robert Daley, and tells the tale of the Knapp Commission, headed up by Judge Whitman Knapp, that was investigating police corruption at the time, and of Detective Bob Leucci (called Dan Ciello in the movie), whose conscience eventually forced him to cooperate with it. The Daley book was adapted for the screen by Sidney Lumet, always a great director of New York City-based stories, working with his frequent collaborator, Jay Presson Allen; Lumet also directed, some say as an apology to the NYPD for how negatively he had treated them in his previous film on the same subject,Serpico (Widescreen Edition), that starred Al Pacino as the beleaguered cop trying to come clean.
To begin with, "Prince," is both long - the director's cut requires two DVD's, and slow, with very little overt action, or violence. Treat Williams turns in one of his strongest performances as the title character, Danny Ciello, a NYC police detective in the Special Investigations Unit, in which, at the time, its plain clothes members were given such freedom of action as to earn the nickname "Princes of the City." He and the men in his unit work in narcotics, and are enriching themselves quite nicely: they are suspected, among other misdeeds, of having stolen, and peddled at a profit, the huge haul of drugs resulting from the famous French Connection case. (See The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy, book by Robin Moore, or the movie The French Connectionof the same name.) Ciello's conscience has been bothering him, and he comes forward to aid commission staffers make their cases, and to testify for them. But somehow, he had imagined he could control the investigation once he started it: that he could keep it away from himself, his partners, and his friends, and, of course, he was not able to do that - two of his friends on the force end up eating their guns.
The talented actress Lindsay Crouse, (House of Games) daughter of theater royalty, plays Ciello's wife, Carla. Bob Balaban (Men in Black & Close Encounters (2pc) [VHS]) plays Santimassino, a conviction-hungry federal prosecutor. A very young Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City: The Complete Series (Collector's Giftset)) plays Jeannie, a young drug addict. Jerry Ohrbach (Law & Order: The Seventh Year), plays fellow cop Gus Levy, and runs away with the movie: Dick Wolf cast him in that show on the strength of his performance here. I must say, though, that the film is, to my mind, weakened by many casting errors. Brian De Palma was originally set to direct, and would have starred Robert De Niro in the title role. That's casting that would have worked better. Williams acts very well with his face and eyes, but has a high, soft, almost feminine voice, and throws out some odd vibes for a cop. Lindsay Crouse is certainly talented, but she was not the girl to play an ethnic NY cop's wife. An important black part, "the King," was played most forgettably by an actor unknown to me: and this at a time when Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel Washington had already begun working, and were likely available, and Don Cheadle and Wesley Snipes may also have already begun working. There are parts for a couple of Hispanic actors, as Ciello's drug-addicted informers: they too are played by forgettable actors, when Luis Guzman was already working, and it's not easy to forget Luis Guzman. Most peculiarly of all, there are many parts for Italians/wise guys, and those too are played by easily forgettable actors, whereas anybody who's seen The Sopranos: The Complete Series knows that the New York area is loaded with Italian character actors who can carry their weight.
What Lumet did get right, however, was the zeitgeist of the city in the 1970s. It was dirty, covered with graffiti, and overrun with drug addicts, and drug-related crime. What he didn't get right was the fact that this was all about to change very shortly. 1981 actually saw the birth of the AIDS epidemic in New York. Before very long, all these needle-sharing addicts were to fall victim to the disease, in a phenomenon some cops called "the self-cleaning oven." Unfortunately, many of their significant others, and their children were also to become fatally diseased. But, one way or another, the AIDS plague wiped out the drug plague, and with it, most of the drug-related crime that had so plagued the city. At any rate, the movie stands as a record of life in 1970s New York. If you are interested in the subject matter, it might be worth a look.
Description of Prince of the City (Two-Disc Special Edition)
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