Three hours of Treat Williams overacting might not sound like the best way to spend an evening, but good material paired with Sidney Lumet's characteristically dynamic direction manage to balance Williams' weaknesses as an actor. The result is a very good movie from the early 80s that feels like it should have been made in the 70s, and presages the slew of gritty cop dramas that would proliferate the marketplace throughout the rest of the decade and beyond.The film is a mash up of two of Lumet's favorite genres: the urban crime drama and the courtroom thriller. Williams plays a cop who agrees to work with the U.S. government on exposing corruption within the New York justice system, and then watches everything fall down around him as the very people he's agreed to help turn on him. It's a terse, energetic movie, and though I don't know that it needed to be three hours long, I didn't really feel its length while watching it.There are a whole bunch of character actors in it that are much better than Williams: Jerry Orbach, as one of Williams' best cop buddies, and Lindsay Crouse, as his realistic wife who has little patience for his conscience, are two standouts in a movie that has something like 100+ speaking roles.Sidney Lumet and Jay Presson Allen (the woman who wrote the Oscar-nominated script to "Cabaret") were nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, but "Prince of the City" got no other love from the Academy, despite being better than the film that won that year's Oscar, "Chariots of Fire." Grade: A-

Made in 1981, this movie might have been compelling at the time. Watching this in 2010 is a struggle. And I'm not some gamer who's concentration has been compromised by Much Music videos. This movie is tedious. There are endless lawyers, endless perps with similar sounding Italian names, endless talk of 'indictment', 'perjury', 'feds'...If you were born after 1975 and you make it through this movie you probably have what it takes to make it through law school. There are some action scenes but not a whole lot of suspense. Just a whole lot of dialogue - all done up in the slang of cops, robbers, and legalese... There are a couple of compelling scenes but within the entire timeframe of this movie there really isn't enough to say it was worth the experience. Go into this expecting a three hour episode of Law and Order without the reward of an entirely positive or negative ending.

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.

Based on true-life events, this film tells the story of a New York City cop named Danny Ciello (Treat Williams), whom the Feds ask to be an informant against local police corruption. Ciello is in his twenties, street-savvy, and extremely loyal to his cop buddies. He doesn't trust the Feds, but he's willing to help them. I'm not sure why.One would think that an informant has a clear-cut, unambiguous job: snitch on the bad cops and, in return, earn the status of hero. But reality doesn't always lend itself to neat, black-and-white options or outcomes. In this case, shades of gray complicate Ciello's life, because he knows that some of his best cop friends have indeed compromised their ethics in pursuit of serious criminals. He is caught in the middle, between local loyalty, and assistance to the American ideal of criminal justice.The story takes place in the 1970s in New York City. Ciello is part of the city's Special Investigating Unit, which has a generally free hand in dealing with dope pushers and other shady types. Even Ciello has sold drugs to street junkies, in exchange for information on bigger fish. Does this make Ciello culpable now that he's an informant?When a person gets trapped in the American legal web, there's no easy way out. That's Ciello's dilemma, and the essence of the story's theme. Ultimately, we feel sorry for the guy, with his naive, idealistic, black-and-white mental conception of right and wrong. Clearly, the Feds are using Ciello to their advantage, and most of them are portrayed in this film as smug and condescending.Technically, "Prince Of The City" is a fine film, one to take seriously. Color cinematography, sets, casting, and acting are all quite good. Visuals look very 1970s. Treat Williams is convincing as Danny Ciello.But the film is rather talky. And the runtime extends to almost three hours. The plot is so strung out, and there are so many characters, it's hard to keep track of who's who as well as some of the characters' motivations.The film could easily be described as a typical cop drama. But its basis in historical fact makes it more compelling. More than anything else, "Prince Of The City" is a character story of a man under pressure. We see how he deals with that pressure in the choices he makes. We see the impact that his behavior has on his family life and on those around him, who not only depend on his loyalty but also expect him to uphold principles of justice, regardless of where the chips may fall.