Factual story of a New York narcotics cop, a member of the overprivileged and undersupervised and consequently very corrupt Special Investigations Unit, who turns informant on his fellows. This story must be true to life, we are evidently meant to feel, because it is so nearly incomprehensible. The thinking seems to be that the factuality of the subject, together with the gravity of it, will guarantee its grippingness, even over the long haul of two and three-quarters hours; and the resultant dramatic method is something like the persistent old slice-of-life idea, only really more like a hash, or a mincemeat, or a fricassee, of life. Some degree of selection must surely have been brought to bear on the material, some winnowing out, some reshaping and re-ordering of things for dramatic effect. But not so as you'd notice. Based on the book by Robert Daley; with Treat Williams and Jerry Orbach; directed by Sidney Lumet. (1981) — Duncan Shepherd
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