Movie Mahal

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Lumet’s NY films, which are so many, expressly the one’s rooted in the elements of crime map something venal about a city that few filmmakers have been able to articulate with such detail and intimacy. Prince of the City is often regarded as Lumet’s masterpiece; a sprawling crime epic about Daniel Ciello (Treat Williams), a narcotics detective who gets in bed with a special commission investigating corrupt cops. At first, Ciello’s deal with commission is very specific and targeted but over time he becomes embroiled in something much broader, an investigation that goes after a special unit that includes many of his partners. Lumet had been here before notably with Serpico in 1973 but this time the focus is trying to hone in on the complex intersections between corruption, loyalty and self-respect.

As it comes to pass, Ciello is ultimately a pawn in the machinations of state prosecution but his betrayal is something that haunts him, an inevitable by-product of his personal guilt. Yet attempting to remain immune, pure or whatever you want to call it in the face of what can only be described as normalised corruption is inescapable, no matter which side of the river you are from; cops, lawyers and criminals are all caught up in a murky bond of hypocrisy. What elevates Prince of the City is Lumet’s deft exploration of the inner lives of his characters, offering a human dimension that would resonate in later works like Michael Mann’s Heat and HBO’s The Wire.