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Show Ha! WdhM The Newspaper Wednesday, November 25, 1911 Ptge B5 by Rick Brough Justice and loyalty conflict in New York police drama, 'Prince of the City' A Classic Recommended material Time-killer For masochists . only Prince of the City "Prince of the City" is a police drama almost the size of Tolstoy. It runs for nearly three hours and swarms with characters, but those are not the best reasons to call it a great, epic film. "Prince" is a classic because it treats its large subjects cops, corruption, the paradoxes of justice with conplexity and sensitivity. sensi-tivity. It doesn't expose without with-out at least trying to understand under-stand what it's exposing. And the movie is dominated by a decathlon performance from Treat Williams that brings his multifaceted character to life. Williams plays Det. Darnel Ciello, who wears a badge with the narcotics division of the city's Special Investigating In-vestigating Unit (SIU). The SIU boys are a cocky fraternitythe frater-nitythe elite of the city's police who set their own hours and work the assignments assign-ments they choose. But rumblings of conscience con-science appear that threaten to destroy the whole unit. Ciello becomes an informer for the D.A.'s office on crooked policeman, but he insists that he will not fink on any of his partners. This happens early in the movie and we don't yet fully understand under-stand two things: (1) Why is Ciello driven to inform on bad cops, and (2) Why is he loyal nevertheless tu buddies? "Prince" answers both of those questions as the story goes on. The tragedy of the film is that Ciello thinks he can serve justice and his own special brotherhood at the same time. Corruption is like spilled ink it gets on everybody's hands and Ciello finds you can't draw special little lines so that one cop gets prosecuted and another doesn't. For the cops in narcotics, breaking the law starts in little lit-tle ways. You take dope and feed it to your junkie informants infor-mants to keep them talking. You're not really selling dope, you're just using it to do your job, right? When you arrest a dope dealer, you confiscate his money and divide it up with your partners. It's just your way of levying a fine on the scumbag who would otherwise other-wise get a light sentence from a fuzzy-headed judge and be back on the streets in hours. But after ten years of this, your hands are pretty dirty. Ciello works as a decoy trapping crooked cops while he's wired for sound and he idealistically believes that what he's doing won't ever hurt his buddies. But to maintain his credibility as a government witness in court, Ciello has to come clean about his own lawbreaking which he can't do, because it would implicate his partners. The conflict becomes impossible to resolve. Deep down, the cops in "Prince" know they are breaking the law to enforce the law they cherish and they are ashamed of it. It is that shame that drives Ciello to inform. And at the same time, he feels guilty about betraying his colleagues. (The conflict makes him suicidal. He sometimes walks into situations without a gun to protect himself.) And Ciello is not the only one who feels that way. Two of his police friends commit suicide when the prosecutors come after them. These cops are destroyed, not by criminal greed, but by the paradoxes of their own consciences. con-sciences. The film, directed by Sidney Sid-ney Lumet, is based on a true story, and it easily reminds you of another Lumet film, "Serpico," which was also a real-life tale of a single cop exposing police corruption in New York. There the similarities end. The earlier film had no sympathy for anyone but Serpico (Al Pacino), a self-righteously self-righteously irascible hippie hated by his fellow cops and manipulated by smug D.A.'s. "Prince" is more com plex. It shows a lot of decent people some of them gangsters! involved in a network of plea bargainings, wiretaps, scams and tangled allegiances. (In its tone, it is less like "Serpico" and more like a fine, underrated little movie of the '70s, "The Friends of Eddie Coyle.") Treat Williams gives the performance of this or any recent year as Ciello. He's in practically every scene, and it's the opportunity of a lifetime to show his versatility. ver-satility. Williams has bravura moments, full of screaming and ranting; he can play against an ensemble ensem-ble of actors; or he masterfully master-fully perform the actor's subtlest taks reacting! as in the scene where he suffers through a courtroom grilling from an acerbic defense attorney. at-torney. And at the same time, all this is more than a three-ring exhibit of an actor's ac-tor's talents. It is well integrated in-tegrated into Ciello's story by scripters Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet. Most of the movie is made up of little scenes, and Lumet has done a marvelous job of conveying the point in each segment, and then moving on. He moves easily from the junkie-laden streets to the carpeted offices of federal prosecutors, and even throws in a quirky detail now and then to juice up the scene. (In a meeting with one prosecutor in his thread-bare office, Ciello sits in a chair which immediately im-mediately collapses into kindling under him.) The movie doesn't convince con-vince on occasion (one segment with a junkie was so hysterically overplayed it was laughable), but by all accounts it is an absorbing examination of justice the compromises it requires, the deal-making it fosters and the way it conflicts with friendships. "Prince of the City" is a strong contender to be this year's finest film. City Christmas tree will shine Monday night The Park City community Christmas tree will be lit Monday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. on the Kimball Art Center patio. Santa Claus will be there, and the Park City Carollers will lead the community in Christmas favorites. The celebration is sponsored by the Kimball Art Center, the Park City Men's Coalition and the Park City Recreation Rec-reation Department. The Park City Performers will present a scene from "Peter Pan," and students from Park City High School will present a scene from "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown." Students from Raggedy Ann and Andy and the Park City Pre-school will also sing around the 25-foot tree. The tree, donated by Deer Valley, will be decorated with ornaments made by Park City elementary, mid-school mid-school and pre-school students stu-dents and local cub scouts. The Park City Men's Coalition Coalit-ion will erect the tree, string the lights and hang th ornaments. The Coalition also al-so donated funds to provide materials for the ornaments. Hot cider and Christmas treats will be provided by the Park City Recreation Department. Park City Furniture and Design The Emporium, Hwy. 148 Eatt, 6494913 invites you to ... J QRAND OPENING DECORATING f7C M WALLCOVERING l.f.l.l 1,1. SfllCi.1,1,1,1. 25Qf WALLCOYEIIHBJGS and FABRICS fromKinney. Sale starts Monday, Nov. 23 thru Nov. 30th. Wfiimepire by Rick Lanman Mil Xf'i I .: ' nil :j.c,,;, .! j,c....i . I . Hrtrpnnil 1'.iHr- vino no aieliot) ii'wi" Turkey tippliiig As of this writing, rain is falling heavily across the West Coast vineyards and the 1981 harvest is finished. The last picking generally signals a change in vintage's among the neat rows of wine bottles arranged in your local wine shop. Now is perhaps the best time of all to purchase wines, for the older vintages are disappearing disappear-ing at original prices. This situation is most common among the red wines, where a vintage date has always been a particularly' marketable item. In one case, for example, the 1977 Cabernet Sauvignons are disappearing as the 1978 vintage is released. While 1977 was certainly not an outstanding year, some remarkable wines were produced in specific locations. In the Napa Valley, 1977 was excellent for Red Zinfandel, with the same holding true in the Sonoma area, although around Mendocino the Zinfandel seemed to lack character. Much of the 1977 Pinot Noir grown in and around Sonoma also fared quite well, but elsewhere the results were not as promising. At this stage a 1977 Zinfandel from Sonoma is hard to find, but the Sebastiani remains available and is a great buy. Many red wines are frequently drunk much too young, so a 1977 will taste substantially better at this point than a newly released '79, even if the overall chart rankings are not as good. The Vintage Wine Merchants, a group of some 20 wineries, has issued a vintage chart that suggests '79 Zinfandels from the Mendocino area are superior to the 1977 vintages of the same varietals. While this may be true, a better purchase for tomorrow night's dinner would be the 1977 Zinfandel, since it now has aged four years. The following wines are strong contenders in their areas for purchase now (before they disappear) for a permanent berth in your wine cellar. The Mendocino area (Parducci, for example) produced excellent Cabernet Sauvignon in 1977 and quite good Petite Sirah as well. As mentioned earlier, Zinfandel exhibits a strong showing in both Napa and Sonoma, with fifths still selling for under $5. The 1977 Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah are also strong contenders in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino, with the Petite Sirah making a particularly strong showing in Mendocino. These wines have been on the market for some time and while still available, will slip quickly away this winter. Several vineyards with strong favorites in these two varieties are Chateau St. Jean, Raymond Vineyards, Stonegate Winery, Sutter Home Winery, McDowell Vineyards and Chateau Montelena. . Among white wines, 1977 vintages have already been sold and the 1978s are much sought after. In most of the North Coast counties, 1978 was a premium year for white wines. The Sonoma area, for example, turned out award-winning Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Johannisberg Riesling. The Sonoma Valley Chardonnay wines are probably the best of the decade, although there exists some debate on this matter. Many Napa wineries also produced prized Sauvignon Blanc in 1978, with 1979 being their year for the very best in Chardonnay. For those prefering sweet wines, the Mendocino area scored with Chenin Blanc in 1978, once again producing perhaps the best of the decade. All the above wines have sat either in the vineyard warehouses or at your wine store for an additional year beyond release. The winery then, or liquor store, has paid for that inventory and you garner all the benefits if you buy now. After all with an empty wine closet and Thanksgiving close at hand, those bottles of aging wine simply demand your attention. We hereby provide some suggestions sugges-tions for a suitable companion to your Thanksgiving turkey, a delicious bird that deserves nothing less than its own fine wine. A perusal of the Park City liquor store in Prospector Square reveals a modest selection of fowl wines and some very good ones as well. Generally speaking, some of the gamier meats, like duck or even goose, combine well with red wines, while turkey favors white. These certainly are not hard and fast rules, of course, so indulge your pleasure as you choose. While an imported Puilly-Fume or Chablis might be nice, a California Chardonnay would place less of a dent in your wallet. We suggest the 1979 San Martin Chardonnay at $5.65 a fifth. This is a crisp wine with a delicate taste of oak. San Martin produces consistent wines from year to year and the 1979 was quite enjoyable. We felt it was perhaps too young, but the wine nevertheless still displayed a great deal of character. Also available at present is a delightful Round Hill 1979 Chardonnay at $5.$5 a bottle. Our group felt it lacked the character of the San Martin, but still proved a flavorful wine with a good nose. We drank the Round Hill with chicken, not turkey, but the match was perfect. The price is very reasonable for a Chardonnay and most wine drinkers will like it. Personally, I find the idea of a Gewurztraminer with turkey more interesting interes-ting than the Chardonnay. We found two, including a very special bottle by Mirassou. Recall that the Gewurztraminer has a spicy bouquet and delicate taste without the acidity of the Chardonnay. Turkey, generally speaking, is a bland meat and as such the Gewurztraminer picks it up just a bit. The Mirassou is a 1979 Harvest selection, Monterey County Gewurztraminer that was produced as a limited bottling in 1980. Easily identified by its special blue label, this wine was a little sweeter than we expected, but all four people in our group loved it and though it perfected as a dinner wine. It retails for $.5.65 a bottle. Our finai suggestion is a 1979 Sterline Vineyards Gewurztraminer from the Napa Valley that sells for $5.40. A fairly complex wine, it lacked a real nose, but certainly exhibited flavor. While perhaps not as interesting as the wine above, it was well aged and nice color. As a closing note, try a quarter cup of any of these wines in your turkey stuffing to add aroma as well as flavor. A hot turkey and a chilled wine are the best recipe for a perfect Thanksgiving. Capson Morris 11 M2 McComb 1800 Park Avenue. PO Box 1921. Park City. Utah 84060 (801) 649-8601 I tj; . H if fcSiiiiiililliiiiRtt&P 1 I liliilli JEFFERSON HOUSE If you want a one level three-bedroom, two-bath 1610 sq. ft. condominium conveniently located within walking distance of Main Street's shops and restaurants, don't miss seeing this handsomely furnished fur-nished property. Special features include a beautiful white stone fireplace with a see-through hearth, custom wood wainscoting, accented by attractive wall coverings, spacious living room, sauna and more. All this for $179,900. SmmC 'vt -tor, miiii i MMMrtiMmM!tWHM&tMlK4 .iwm wnrlK rmMm t WE WANT TO SELL! Priced at almost $50,000 below bank appraisal, this new duplex is perfect for the smart buyer who wants quality at an affordable price. Over 2200 sq. ft. per side. This is the best buy west of the Mississippi. Act quickly! $1 75,000. Contact Bob Richer at CAPSON, MORRIS McCOMB. 649-8601. Located upstairs at the Holiday Inn |