Just watched it again for about the 27th time and it still moves me. It is a more complex version of Serpico. Serpico was never corrupt, from the begining he would not take money that was found when cops arrested drug dealers. Ciello did not do that in the beginning but gradually over time became corrupt. But if you are a cop in NYC fighting this ridiculous War on Drugs, which can never be won, and you and your team arrest a drug dealer and there is $50k in a duffel bag in the room, and this happens over and over again, and the drug dealer doesn’t go to jail, or pays a fine that is a small percentage of what he makes in a year, how do you not become tempted to take some of that money in the duffel bag?
I don’t condone it, but I can understand it. There is a great line in the film, from Detective Alvarez. “What is it that you want? You want to stop drug dealer? The only way I know to stop him is to steal his cash. Otherwise, somewhere along the line, he’ll buy his way out. He’ll buy a cop, a prosecuting attorney, a judge.” When do the guys at the top ever go to jail? It’s always the guys on the lower level, on the street, and they can be replaced in a day. OK, they finally got Escobar, after had had made billions.
And then Ciello’s line - “You want to blame the whole fucked up system on us.”
The key scence in the film for me is when a bunch for prosecutors are in a room deciding if they are going to prosecute Ciello. And one says, “If we do this, no cop will ever come forward again…when was the last time a lawyer ever spoke out about corruption, when did a Doctor ever speak out about Medicare fraud, or abuse of prescribing drugs? To me, Ciello is a hero and we are deciding whether or not to put him in jail.”
Was Ciello a hero? I’m still not sure, which is what makes it a great movie. Real name Robert Leuci, and I have meant for years to read the book.