Danny Ciello (Treat Williams) loves being a cop. He thrives on the adrenalin high of danger, the camaraderie with his partners, and the pride in making arrests. He is the youngest member of the Special Investigative Unit (S.I.U.) of the Narcotics Division of the New York Police Department. They are called "princes of the city" because of their freewheeling operations and their loyalty to each other.
Yet the very volatile and dangerous nature of their work forces these cops to break the law — they supply dope to their informants, use illegal phone taps, and commit perjury in court. While most members of the S.I.U. are able to live with an end-justifies-the-means philosophy, one of their rank can't: Danny Ciello.
In 1971, he meets Rick Cappalino (Norman Parker), a persuasive counsel for the Knapp Commission who is involved with an in-depth investigation to expose internal corruption in the police department. Ciello, troubled by his past misdeeds — such as pocketing thousands of dollars from drug busts — and eager to make amends for his wrong-doing, decides to work for Cappalino as an undercover agent. He explains he is willing to bring down corrupt politicians, lawyers, district attorneys, and other policemen, but he vows he will never betray his friends in the S.I.U.
For 16 months, this resourceful and fearless cop meets with mobsters, detectives, a hot-shot lawyer, a bail bondsman, and others. He tapes their conversations on a recording device wired to his body. Once the device short-circuits and burns his chest; another time some law-and-order men working on the wrong side of the law decide that Ciello is setting them up and nearly kill him. Ironically, a gangster counsels them to weigh the deed carefully and they relent.
Most individuals would crack under such terrible pressure. Ciello learns to live with it as a constant companion. When the tapes are transcribed, he serves as the chief prosecution witness at the resulting trials. Ciello, his wife, and family are given constant protection.
Before he knows what is happening, the undercover cop finds himself being manipulated by lawyers out to make a name for themselves. A zealous federal narcotics officer from Washington employs entrapment to force one of Ciello's S.I.U. comrades to testify against his co-workers. The fellow commits suicide. Then a crusading D.A. uses every trick in the book to get Ciello to confess crimes beyond the three he's already admitted to Cappalino. In the end, Ciello breaks down and rats on his partners. The S.I.U. is disbanded and 52 of the 70 men who served on it are indicted. Ciello stays with the N.Y. Police Department but is treated like a pariah by the other cops.
Prince of the City was one of 1980's most value-laden and riveting films. Nearly three hours long, it offers viewers a compelling portrait of crime and punishment and all the stops in between. The literate screenplay by Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet is based on Robert Daly's 1979 book of the same title.
Director Sidney Lumet, whose repertoire of 28 films includes Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Pawnbroker, Equus, and Serpico, draws a top caliber performance out of Treat Williams as Danny Ciello. The drama here is not punctuated by the fashionable action sequences of other cop films. It doesn't need them. The ensemble acting of the large cast is superb. Note must also be made of the standout performances by Jerry Orbach as Gus Levy, one of Ciello's closest friends; Norman Parker as Cappalino; James Tolkan as a fierce district attorney; and Lindsay Crouse as Ciello's long-suffering wife.