Danny Ciello (Treat Williams) is a narcotics officer in the Special Investigations Unit of the New York City Police Department. He buys information from his junkie informer with drugs. Gus Levy (Jerry Orbach) is his trusted partner. The unit uses numerous illegal tactics to get the convictions which crosses into self enrichment. They work almost unsupervised and are called Princes of the City. Danny often crosses the blurry boundary himself. The anti-corruption commission recruits him and he accepts after seeing the result of his informer's shattered life. He starts wearing a wire to collect evidence against his own unit.
There is a lot to like about this from director Sidney Lumet. It's got the sense of the events and the people. It is too extended. The story kinda grinds me down which is similar to how it grinds Danny down. As for Treat Williams' performance, I mostly like it but sometimes he tries too hard. Overall, this is a good police corruption movie but it's too long.
There is a lot to like about this from director Sidney Lumet. It's got the sense of the events and the people. It is too extended. The story kinda grinds me down which is similar to how it grinds Danny down. As for Treat Williams' performance, I mostly like it but sometimes he tries too hard. Overall, this is a good police corruption movie but it's too long.