MovieChat Forums > Prince of the City (1981) Discussion > Man, what a taut, gripping & gritty poli...

Man, what a taut, gripping & gritty police story

posted 6 years ago by LTUM (1074)
7 replies | jump to latest

why have i never heard of this before? wow

sydney lumet is really good.

i've never seen treat williams give such an authentic, intense performance. honestly i didn't think he had it in him. lmao.... this is true but i always thought of him as a p@ssy-@ss whiny 'light bread' poser. But after watching this, wow, he's a real baller.

jerry orbach was awesome in this. very intimidating. i've never seen him do anything like this.

others too, too many to mention. also from a filmmaking standpoint i'll point out that aside from the subject matter and the performances, another thing that made this NOT boring was the pacing. very well done. i love a movie that moves along. the 'new' films of today could take a lot of guidance from how this one was done.

anyway, hats off to treat wms. and everyone else.

kudos

[–] MikeCable (1915) 5 years ago

I saw it for the first time last week and thought it was really good also, a deep insight into the technical workings of the "internal affairs" side of things. It was interesting how things changed around him as it went on, and how serious it got toward the end.

### SPOILER BELOW ###

I kept thinking he was going to get killed by the mob at the end and the internal affairs people would simply move onto the next case, like he was just there to be used and get evidence for them on as many bad cops as he could, and was expected to be killed by those who could be exposed. But I am glad he had a good outcome despite what he had done and hidden from them.

[–] rudeboymurray (3291) 5 years ago

It's an intelligent, absorbing thriller. The script is excellent. However, for me, Treat Williams' whiny performance let the side down. He seemed like he wouldn't survive five minutes as a copy on New York's mean streets.

I agree on Jerry Orbach, he was very good.

Lumet was a wildly uneven filmmaker, but he did a pretty good job here.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

i have to see this, thanks

[–] MichaelJPollock (814) 4 years ago

Have you yet?
What did you think?

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

i have not seen it yet.

[–] BeaSouth (3563) 4 years ago

I just watched. You have to grit your teeth a little in the early parts. IMHO, there was not much context to explain Det. Ciello’s (Treat Williams) motivations. And the movie needed that because the character sacrificed everything and every relationship of importance in his life as well as his own name and personal safety. It is never explained how a person willing to do this based on some moral code could likewise get himself into a vast corruption conspiracy in the first place. I also felt Williams over-acted in some of the early scenes where he was trying to be indignant with the prosecutors he was working with. But look, I was entertained and I did watch it the whole way through. In the end, it was a positive portrayal on the ability of the lumbering American justice system to get things right. I did like Jerry Orbach playing a tough, loyal, and uncompromising cop

[–] redban (6779) 4 years ago

I think the movie offered some insight as to Ciello’s intentions in joining the feds. The episode he had with the drug informants kinda shook him up (the scene where he beats up that junkie and idly lets the junkie beat up that girl). Also remember that he had a brother who dealt with drugs, and that same brother (and father) openly spoke about police corruption. That’s why Ciello went down the road of anti-corruption