In an inexplicable street-corner shootout between a cop and a probationer, a stray bullet hits a six-year-old child and (in a poetic turn of phrase) it keeps travelling -- up and up through the New York City power structure. A foursome of wordy screenwriters -- Ken Lipper, Paul Schrader, Nicholas Pileggi, Bo Goldman -- convince us they know a lot about urban politics, but not a lot about film construction. Out of all the talk, a riveting scene every so often takes shape: the grandiloquent eulogy delivered by an Ed Koch-esque, press-the-flesh mayor (Al Pacino) from behind a four-foot coffin in an all-black church; or the oblique farewell between an old-time political boss and an Old World mob boss (Danny Aiello, Tony Franciosa, respectively). The latter scene is spoiled a bit, whether the humor was intended or not, when the ensuing suicide is played out to the accompaniment of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone." Director Harold Becker, who re-stages the police funeral from his Onion Field right down to the piper's rendition of "Amazing Grace," gives the visuals a rubbed-raw ugliness that's supposed to equate to Harsh Reality. With John Cusack, Bridget Fonda, Martin Landau. (1996) — Duncan Shepherd
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