Prince and Serpico

I'll go along with that---The LAST paragraph,

yeah he had the guilt but still sold out his friends, That's why somewhere on this board somewhere states the hoods had more honor. He wanted to give himself up for his piece of mind, fine, he shouldn't have taken his parteners/friends with him. He probably couldhave done that, did a little time in minium/protected security then come out and play bigshot writer. He didn't even pay a fine,(and he made alot of money illegally) and probably got his pension. He was a snake

I'd rather go hunting with Dick Cheney, than driving with Ted Kennedy

I don't agree with you at all Citizenright1. Danny continued to lie/perjure himself from day one onward. I think he was smart enough to know that the lid wasn't going to stay on all that corruption indefinitely and knew that being 'first' to report it all with the: "I just wanna make it all 'right', my conscience is killing me" BS line would help him come out ahead in the end.
And that paranoia of being 'found out' was more of what was eating at him then 'wracked with guilt'. I agree he wanted to put the genie back in the bottle and start over again as a 'good guy' but most think that way when caught. He hadn't been caught just yet maybe but he felt it was coming IMHO. His actions demonstrate this. Had he admitted all up front, then I'd say maybe he was truly repentant but no, Danny was scamming the investigators all along.
Frank Serpico, initially, was willing to turn a blind eye to the same corruption. It was when his co workers started making it tough for him that he decided to blow the lid of it all. Two different motivations.
Danny, besides wanting to protect his partner(s), also wanted to dictate the terms of his 'punishment' and was willing to continually lie/perjure himself to those ends i.e., protect his pay/benefits/retirement/reputation (cake and eat it too).
Had Frank Serpico worked on the same team as Danny during that time, Frank would've ended up going down too (as long as Danny 'talked' first) as he would have been 'guilty' of witnessing criminal acts committed by his fellow officers and no doubt would have been charged with not only 'failing to report' but even assisting in covering up the these acts as some portions of his submitted reports had to have contained factual errors or something other than the 100% truth - even if it was just by him leaving out certain details ('omission' vs 'commission'). IIRC the charge is something like: 'Offering of a false document/instrument for filing ...' etc).
Had Danny named Frank and Frank then claimed in his own defense that the very next morning he himself had planned to give a detailed report of all that he had witnessed, he still would have been screwed: "Oh well, a day late and a dollar short Frank, hands behind your back, you know the routine ... ". Thats just the way these things go down - like getting nailed for an expired car inspection: even if you tell the officer that first thing in the morning you have an appointment to have your car inspected, it just sounds so .... BS/pathetic/typical and often the prosecuting authority gets more p*ssed at the person who claims 'but I was gonna ....' then the guy who just simply/quietly says: 'OK, ya got me'. And that 'being the first' to squeal goes a loooooong way too and I think Danny understood this.
For Frank Serpico, the difference of 24 hours could have made the difference between him being the 'hero cop' that he is or just one more corrupt cop who was caught up in an IAD sweep. I don't mean to criticize Serpico - not my intent, just talking about luck/timing, 'the system' and 'the ways of the world".

Ciello was not a hero neither a "snake". But the biggest difference between him and Frank Serpico is that, unlike the latter, Ciello was not an idealist and therefore made for a more interesting character. In terms of psychology Prince actually is more subtle and engaging than Serpico, so yes, I think I agree that Prince is an improvement over the earlier film. Which, of course, is very good as well. Pity it didn´t and doesn´t get more attention or acknowledgement. One of the best films of eighties as far as I´m concerned. And also a pity that Williams kinda disappeared - he´s absolutely great in here. In the beginning, yes, he did kinda "channel Pacino or De Niro at their busiest" as one reviewer put it, but there are so many scenes in which he´s absolutely marvelous.