I know it was only 2 years out of the 70s but I would have bet a hundred bucks it was in the 70s from the whole look and feel and the script itself. Being from '81 this could probably be called "The Last 70s Cop Film" as a point of reference.
shareYeah, I definitely see what you mean.
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Wait a minute... who am I here?
The whole time I'm watching it I was trying to guess if this or Serpico came first. Well, they were a full decade apart. I'd be curious if there is a movie more "70s-esque" than Prince of the City that is NOT from the seventies?
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Well, just as the previous poster stated, since the movie was set in the 70's, that's probably why it has the look at feel of the 70's.
share"This could be called "The Last 70s Cop Film" as a point of reference".
Along with another 1981 character driven crime movie True Confessions, that does sound just about right. Both massively underrated films, too.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
It really is a 70s movie. The only 'futuristic' element is - instead of the slick jazz with a rapid percussion beat - there's that eerie 80s synth whirring in the background. So we see 70s, hear 80s?
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Being that it was shot in just 1980 and SET in the 70's, it would be odd indeed if it felt like an 80's movie.
I've always felt like Prince of the City, Cutter's Way (1981) and Heaven's Gate (1980) are the late final gasps of a certain kind of artistic, ambitious 70's cinema (basically the New Hollywood era).
Think about it: this is a 2 hr 45 min film starring mostly unknown or marginally known (at the time) actors, with plenty of non-actors in the mix. It's morally ambiguous to the end, there's hardly any real action or onscreen deaths (only suicides), it's unrelentingly dark and gritty, and it's got a narrative and cast of characters so complex they could've practically handed out guidebooks at the theater.
If Lumet had tried to make this film any more than a couple years later than he did, I doubt it'd ever see the light of day -- or at least would be severely compromised, forced to have a big star play Ciello, and the morality made much simpler.
I haven't seen a lot of cop films from the 70s, but this film really made me want to watch more. Furthermore, the moral complexity of the story makes me really sad for the state of Hollywood today.
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