Movie · 1981 · Drama, Thriller, Crime · 2h 47m · R · English
Curator score: 7.8/10 (22.1K ratings)
A cop is turning. Nobody's safe.
Overview
New York City detective Daniel Ciello agrees to help the United States Department of Justice eliminate corruption in the police department, as long as he will not have to turn in any close friends. In doing so, Ciello uncovers a conspiracy within the force to smuggle drugs to street informants.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.8/10
IMDb: 7.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.82/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Metacritic: 80
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Sidney Lumet
Production
Orion Pictures, Taurus Film
Cast
Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Richard Foronjy, Don Billett, Kenny Marino, Carmine Caridi, Tony Page, Norman Parker, Paul Roebling, Bob Balaban, James Tolkan, Steve Inwood, Lindsay Crouse, Matthew Laurance, Tony Turco, Ronald Maccone, Robert Christian, Tony Munafo, Tony DiBenedetto, Ron Karabatsos
Curator Review
Verdict
A sprawling, hard-edged police-corruption epic with real moral weight and unusually patient procedural detail. It’s demanding and sometimes overstuffed, but the payoff is a bruising portrait of loyalty, self-deception, and a system eating itself from the inside.
Best for
viewers who like serious 1970s/early-80s crime dramas
fans of slow-burn procedural realism
people interested in corruption, informants, and institutional rot
viewers who appreciate long, character-heavy ensemble films
Skip if
you want a tight, fast-paced thriller
you dislike long runtimes and digressive storytelling
you prefer clean heroes and villains
you’re looking for a light or entertaining cop movie
Overview
Sidney Lumet turns a true-crime corruption case into a grim, sprawling study of compromise. Rather than playing like a conventional whistleblower thriller, the film keeps circling the same ugly question: what happens when a man tries to serve the law without betraying the people he knows? The answer is messy, exhausting, and deeply human.
Worth noting
Treat Williams gives the movie its volatile center, moving between swagger, panic, and wounded self-justification as the pressure mounts. Lumet’s New York feels lived-in and morally exhausted, and the film’s procedural sprawl becomes part of its point: corruption is not a single event but a network of habits, favors, and silences.
Bottom line
It can feel overextended, and its density may test patience, but the film’s seriousness and accumulation of detail are exactly what make it memorable. This is one of those crime dramas that leaves you less thrilled than cornered, which is a compliment here.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Colin the dude (5★) · 218 likes
A grueling and revealing experience. A forgotten classic. One of Lumet's finest, certainly his most operatic. Remains one of the most underrated films of the 80s. Put it in your watchlist if you're unaware of it's existence. A brilliant chronicle of corruption and control. Nothing is what it seems. Makes The Departed look like Sesame Street.
SilentDawn (4.5★) · 184 likes
83
Prince of the City finds master director Sidney Lumet once again immersed under the microscope of loyalty - the connections between overt emotional stakes and the baseline structures that fuel systemic corruption. What matters isn't necessarily what's right for our detective protagonist, played with finesse and snarky elegance by Treat Williams, but how the world around him is in a constant state of manipulation. The key is in Lumet's novelistic pacing - the film sporting an epic grandeur that… more
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (4★) · 141 likes
Sidney Lumet and moralistic crime procedurals go hand in hand, and the man is probably one of those directors who I would venture to claim has never made a bad movie, though that could require a marathon (*wink*), but every time I see the director's name I can't help but get excited. In that sense, he's like the early Tarantino or Nolan.
This film, in many ways, feels like a spiritual sequel to "Serpico," albeit less fanciful. In this case,… more
Filipe Furtado (4.5★) · 140 likes
A tale of multiple unreconciled forces. Society's morality and the cop one, public and private good, to work for the law and be worked by it. Incredible engrossing, as a dramatist, Lumet was never better. It uses its near 3-hour run time and the parade of first-rate character actors (all of them pretty much mingle with decor, no one on this movie is there to stand out, even Williams as good as he genuinely is) incredible well to advance its… more A tale of multiple unreconciled forces. Society's morality and the cop one, public and private good, to work for the law and be worked by it. Incredible engrossing, as a dramatist, Lumet was never better. It uses its near 3-hour run time and the parade of first-rate character actors (all of them pretty much mingle with decor, no one on this movie is there to stand out, even Williams as good as he genuinely is) incredible well to advance its… more
David W (5★) · 115 likes
I’m well aware of the knocks against Prince of the City. Some say the film runs overlong and mires itself in unnecessary detail. Others criticize its poor structuring and concomitant confusion over motivation and what exactly is going on. Still others charge Treat Williams (playing Danny Ciello, the film’s lead) with overdramatization at best and shitty acting at worst. And still others take the film to task for its self-seriousness. These criticisms are not without merit. On the contrary, the… more I’m well aware of the knocks against Prince of the City. Some say the film runs overlong and mires itself in unnecessary detail. Others criticize its poor structuring and concomitant confusion over motivation and what exactly is going on. Still others charge Treat Williams (playing Danny Ciello, the film’s lead) with overdramatization at best and shitty acting at worst. And still others take the film to task for its self-seriousness. These criticisms are not without merit. On the contrary, the… more