***SPOILERS*** Overly long and ponderous crime drama involving an elite squad of New York City detectives who take the law into their own hands in fighting the drug epidemic that pledged the Big Apple back in the 1970's. The way these elite cops fight crime is by ripping off the drug dealers that they bust and then, being illegal aliens, ship them off on the first boat or plane back to their native country.
With the Chase Commission breathing down corrupt cops necks one of the members of this elite group of law enforcers Danny Ciello, Treat Williams, seeing the writing on the wall decides to come clean. Danny will talk and use a wire but only on dirty politicians and lawyers, as well as D.A's, but not cops especially those cops, or partners, that he works with.
This very "high and noble" effort on Danny's part, which was really to save his own hide, has him record hundreds of conversations between him as well as lawyers hoodlums and junkies that in the end would result in some 30 convictions. Danny also gets all of the members of his elite squad indited with the exception of the weak willed and suicidal Officer Bill Mayo ( Don Billett), who ended up blowing his brains out, for crimes that Danny himself committed!
It's hard to work up any sympathy for the cops in the movie "Prince of the City" in not only how greedy corrupt as well as, when they's riding high, arrogant they are but how totally lacking and unwilling their in taking their punishment when caught! This to the point of giving up their best friends or partners to the Chase Commission inquisitors in order to save themselves.
Danny who's supposed to be the hero in the movie is so gutless and wimpy when he's caught with his hand in the cookie jar, by perjuring himself 40 times after he supposedly came clean, that it seems like the biggest crime in the movie is him getting off Scot-free in the end! Were told by the D.A's office that the only reason that Danny was sprung was that by inditing and convicting him after ratting on his own fellow cops, as well as other members of the law enforcement community, no one like him, a corrupt cop who gets nabbed, will come forward in the future to do the very same thing! Way to go Danny Boy!
The movie goes into the sleazy business of cops being drug suppliers to junkies to get information on their suppliers which in fact is who the police are! We see a number of hair-rising scenes of junkies going into convulsions and almost dropping dead because they can't get their fix that are as disturbing as anything you'll see in a slasher horror movie. Danny who's arrogance and false bravado in showing how tough, as well as stupid, he is has him expose himself to his fellow cops as well as the hoodlums that he's secretly recording. This, with his cover now completely blown, has Danny become such a crying sorry a** of a man that even his old lady Clara,Lindsay Crouse, has in the end far more male testosterone's then he does.
The at first macho, where things were going his way, Danny Ciello turns into a Valium popping crybaby by the time the movie is just about over when he gets his big moment testifying in open court. Danny by then afraid of his own shadow needs to get himself up to testify by downing at least three Valium tablets, chased down with a couple shots of scotch, just to get on the stand!
The most telling scene in the movie has to do with Danny having a talk with his Mafia Uncle Nick's, Ronald Maccone, good friend Mafia soldier Rocky Gazzo, Tony Munafo, who incidentally Danny was setting up by secretly recording their conversation. Rocky somehow sensing what a back-stabbing wimp Danny is tells him right to his face what he, which the movie proves, never would dream of doing. Do you think I'm afraid of going to jail! I spent half may life behind bars and most of the time I spent there was for keeping my mouth shut and not ratting out my friends Rocky tells Danny. That's something that Danny as well as the sh*t-kicking elite members of his drug-busting unit would never have the guts, even to spend one day behind bars, to do.
With the Chase Commission breathing down corrupt cops necks one of the members of this elite group of law enforcers Danny Ciello, Treat Williams, seeing the writing on the wall decides to come clean. Danny will talk and use a wire but only on dirty politicians and lawyers, as well as D.A's, but not cops especially those cops, or partners, that he works with.
This very "high and noble" effort on Danny's part, which was really to save his own hide, has him record hundreds of conversations between him as well as lawyers hoodlums and junkies that in the end would result in some 30 convictions. Danny also gets all of the members of his elite squad indited with the exception of the weak willed and suicidal Officer Bill Mayo ( Don Billett), who ended up blowing his brains out, for crimes that Danny himself committed!
It's hard to work up any sympathy for the cops in the movie "Prince of the City" in not only how greedy corrupt as well as, when they's riding high, arrogant they are but how totally lacking and unwilling their in taking their punishment when caught! This to the point of giving up their best friends or partners to the Chase Commission inquisitors in order to save themselves.
Danny who's supposed to be the hero in the movie is so gutless and wimpy when he's caught with his hand in the cookie jar, by perjuring himself 40 times after he supposedly came clean, that it seems like the biggest crime in the movie is him getting off Scot-free in the end! Were told by the D.A's office that the only reason that Danny was sprung was that by inditing and convicting him after ratting on his own fellow cops, as well as other members of the law enforcement community, no one like him, a corrupt cop who gets nabbed, will come forward in the future to do the very same thing! Way to go Danny Boy!
The movie goes into the sleazy business of cops being drug suppliers to junkies to get information on their suppliers which in fact is who the police are! We see a number of hair-rising scenes of junkies going into convulsions and almost dropping dead because they can't get their fix that are as disturbing as anything you'll see in a slasher horror movie. Danny who's arrogance and false bravado in showing how tough, as well as stupid, he is has him expose himself to his fellow cops as well as the hoodlums that he's secretly recording. This, with his cover now completely blown, has Danny become such a crying sorry a** of a man that even his old lady Clara,Lindsay Crouse, has in the end far more male testosterone's then he does.
The at first macho, where things were going his way, Danny Ciello turns into a Valium popping crybaby by the time the movie is just about over when he gets his big moment testifying in open court. Danny by then afraid of his own shadow needs to get himself up to testify by downing at least three Valium tablets, chased down with a couple shots of scotch, just to get on the stand!
The most telling scene in the movie has to do with Danny having a talk with his Mafia Uncle Nick's, Ronald Maccone, good friend Mafia soldier Rocky Gazzo, Tony Munafo, who incidentally Danny was setting up by secretly recording their conversation. Rocky somehow sensing what a back-stabbing wimp Danny is tells him right to his face what he, which the movie proves, never would dream of doing. Do you think I'm afraid of going to jail! I spent half may life behind bars and most of the time I spent there was for keeping my mouth shut and not ratting out my friends Rocky tells Danny. That's something that Danny as well as the sh*t-kicking elite members of his drug-busting unit would never have the guts, even to spend one day behind bars, to do.