PIC of the Week – Prince of the City
Article Series by Ray Schillaci
Warner Archive Collection unveils the Blu of Sidney Lumet’s harrowing cop drama Prince of the City. Honor, greed, corruption, betrayal, it’s all here in this true story about narcotics detective Daniel Ciello who worked with the Special Investigation Unit of the NYPD. After 11 years the man grew a conscience and exposed police corruption while attempting to keep his team and mafia family out of the fray. The writer/director that gave us 12 Angry Men, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon surpasses himself in this very underrated epic.
Treat Williams gives an exemplary performance as Daniel Ciello, fighting with his inner demons while trying to justify his and his team’s methods for combatting the drug wars in the streets of New York. The SIU are known as the Princes of the City because they are known to be usually unsupervised and given great freedom to bust up the criminal element.
Ciello begins to question (to himself) their methods after dealing with a couple of addicts in a very ugly manner. He is the youngest member of the team and very idealistic unlike his partners who are more world weary and only see it one way – us vs. them, and them can include internal affairs and the Feds. SIU feels IA and Feds are not in the trenches and have no idea what it’s like to successfully make a drug bust even if it involves perjury, taking a cut of drug money or supplying informants with drugs.
Ciello is approached by IA and Feds to help in police corruption. It’s a slow process. IA knows Danny is battling his conscience and wants to do the right thing, but not at the cost of hurting his partners. IA promises him the world and insists they will stand by him as long as he admits to any wrong doing in his 11 years of service. Danny eventually does, but only gives them three instances. We know right away that is not true, and IA and the Feds know as well and warn him if anything else surfaces he could be prosecuted.
Danny is too full of himself to think they could find anything else and proceeds helping them uncover many dirty cops while avoiding his partners’ involvement. Of course, as the investigation continues we know that it’s all going to catch up with Danny and the people he holds dearest to him. The movie as a whole is nearly laid out like a documentary swallowing us up into this investigation that becomes so embroiled in police corruption and the drug trade.
Visually, Prince of the City has never looked better, retaining its cool colors and light graininess achieving a very realistic and stark look into this world of corruption. The film as a whole has a very seedy look. Attention to detail is far greater than its predecessor. Here is a single Blu with a truly dynamic presentation unlike the two disc original DVD.
The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track captures the nearly three hour dialogue-driven movie perfectly. The presentation is crystal clear capturing all other nuances including a heavy rain scene with Danny and addicts, some fight sequences and drug busts. This audio mix beautifully captures the ’80s era.
Downside, we are only given what the DVD offered. About a half hour of extras. It would have been nice to get an audio commentary by Sidney Lumet or Treat Williams. What is made available for us is…
– Prince of the City: The Real Story – behind-the-scenes piece while breaking down the actual events it was based on. Key cast and crew members interviewed including director Sidney Lumet, screenwriter Jay Presson Allen, author Robert Daley, production designer Tony Walton, actors Treat Williams, Bob Balaban, and Lance Henriksen, and more.
– Theatrical Trailer
Set aside the disappointment of the extras for this great film, Prince of the City is one to own. In my opinion, it’s right up there with Goodfellas and The Godfather as far as portraying the period, the criminal environment, friends and family. Performances are wonderfully nuanced, writing is excellent along with Sidney Lumet’s hardened style of directing. This is bigger than Serpico or Dog Day Afternoon. We’re just missing Pacino. But, Treat Williams does a fine job as Daniel (Danny) Ciello.
Lowest Price – $17.99 – Amazon & Walmart
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