gr8 underrated...

...direction, performances (all around, but especially Scheider, Richard Lynch, & Tony LoBianco), atmosphere (conveying the grittiness of NYC winters), and of course the best car chase on film, ever. The scenes where LoBianco is slow-playing Scheider, pretending to 'forget' to follow up leads & spitting back to him what Scheider has already told him, are masterfully done - very subtle foreshadowing. It all loox so authentic, coming from some1 who lived there when a kid - definitely saw a lot of these 'knockaround guys' around the City or Queens, and wondered about the backstories whenever seeing the crime coverage on the news or in the papers. Watching this movie is timetripping to the max, u feel like u r right there. I heard it was based on a true story, where an informant on the roll for the Organized Crime Bureau was jacking low-level criminals (though not any1 connected, for obvious reasons).
I just saw this a day after 'To live and die in L.A.', similarly very good and very realistic feeling.