Prince of the City

R

Released Aug 21, 1981

2 hr. 47 min.

Crime

Drama

List

92%

26 Reviews

Tomatometer

82%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

New York police officer Daniel Ciello (Treat Williams) is not a perfect cop. When Rick Cappalino (Norman Parker) from the U.S. Justice Department approaches him with a personal request to investigate police corruption, Ciello agrees -- provided he is not forced to turn in his fellow crooked cops. But as he delves deeper into the underbelly of drug crime, he realizes that it may be impossible to keep his promises. He will have to bring his friends down, or he'll end up going down himself.

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Alec B

It may be a little too long with too many self important monologues but Treat Williams gives such an outstanding emotionally fraught performances that you'll forgive the flaws.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/09/24

Full Review

Shioka O

I know it's a good film, but it is lengthy.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

09/19/22

Full Review

delysid d

this is one of my new favorites of all time

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

12/17/21

Full Review

Audience Member

Sidney Lumet is well versed in corrupt police thrillers, he'd already directed Serpico (1973), arguably the Godfather of the sub-genre before he made Prince Of The City eight years later. He also went on to direct the Nick Nolte fronted Q&A in 1990 which I reviewed last year in a previous post. Although very highly thought of, yet difficult to get your hands on, Prince Of The City doesn't hit the heights of the films mentioned above, falling way short of Serpico especially. Although length is often preferable for a character arc of this kind, Prince Of The City begins with Detective Ciello agreeing to assist a special commission investigating police corruption. Approaching three hours, the film takes a long time to almost go from point A to point A, and you wish somewhat that you were able to see Ciello's initial indiscretions as part of the set up, instead of three hours of similar scenarios playing out. Although there are scenes of Ciello with his team together, we don't ever see the bond and trust between the team before Ciello turns rat, and that takes away a huge emotional connection for the viewer. Treat Williams' performance as Ciello is almost comically over the top at times, and although he is solid, there is more than one too many similar outbursts over his predicament. Prince Of The City is worth tracking down even if it's just to say that you managed to track it down, and Sidney Lumet's films are never dull, but Serpico is a much superior film if you fancy a bit of corruption by Lumet.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

william k

Criticized in comparison to the director's previous movie Serpico with same topic and for its length, Prince of the City in fact presents a much more nuanced, complex and dark study of police corruption with a large cast of characters and the length actually helps present them with depth; great performances throughout.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

john m

I really wanted to love this. It's got everything I'm gay about. Seedy 80s New York settings, a cool crime story, corruption, gritty cinematography. Unfortunately, none of this really worked for me. The thing is just way too long, first of all. Every scene seems to be about 30 seconds long, never ever letting us get into the emotional depth of what we're supposed to feel from the protagonist or the officers surrounding him. And the overexplaining of plot details just had me distant from the main core of the story, which really was the morality of the protagonist and balancing on the edge of finding who to trust. I love Lumet's work so was surprised to see how sloppy this thing is, even with a pretty great performance from Treat Williams who I need to see more of.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Sidney Lumet

Director

Treat Williams

Daniel Ciello

Jerry Orbach

Gus Levy

Richard Foronjy

Joe Marinaro

Don Billett

Bill Mayo

Kenny Marino

Dom Bando

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Jay Scott

Globe and Mail

The film is the most ambitious, realistic, thorough and scrupilous feature yet released by a major studio on the subject of cops and corruption.

Dec 6, 2022

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Director Sidney Lumet is in firm control of the sprawling canvas, showing in spades his ability to harness intense energy and almost uniformly top-rate performances from a cannily-cast stable of solid character actors.

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

Tom Milne

Time Out

An astonishing in-depth portrait of the interlocking worlds of police and hoodlum results, with no punches pulled and no easy solutions.

Feb 9, 2006

Full Review

Kenneth Turan

New West/California

It is a film without answers, but the questions it raises couldn't be more critical.

Nov 3, 2021

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Even with a running time approaching three hours, Prince of the City never experiences any lulls.

Rated: 3.5/4

Aug 28, 2021

Full Review

Murray Kempton

The New York Review of Books

A model instance of the movie that insists on being a film and proceeds inevitably to assault our common sense with the counterfeit of a moral lesson.

Apr 4, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

New York police officer Daniel Ciello (Treat Williams) is not a perfect cop. When Rick Cappalino (Norman Parker) from the U.S. Justice Department approaches him with a personal request to investigate police corruption, Ciello agrees -- provided he is not forced to turn in his fellow crooked cops. But as he delves deeper into the underbelly of drug crime, he realizes that it may be impossible to keep his promises. He will have to bring his friends down, or he'll end up going down himself.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Executive Producer: Jay Presson Allen
Screenwriter: Jay Presson Allen, Sidney Lumet
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures, Orion Pictures
Production Co: Orion Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 21, 1981, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 21, 2016

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