Night Falls on Manhattan Poster

Night Falls on Manhattan (1996)

Crime  
Rayting:   6.6/10 6.7K votes
Country: USA
Language: English
Release date: 13 November 1997

A newly elected District Attorney finds himself in the middle of a police corruption investigation that may involve his father and his partner.

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User Reviews

x111b3825 14 August 2003

I really have no idea what motivates Sidney Lumet's choice of movies to do, even though I've read his book "Making Movies," which sheds a lot of light on his decision making process.

If I had to take a guess, I might say that perhaps he wants a variety, and doesn't calculate the risk involved with certain works that have obviously turned out to be major flops. Or maybe he does know the risk and he just doesn't care. Now remember, though I'm sure even the "master" critics have jumped on and trashed some of his better work, if you place something like "Prince of the City" or "Equus" next to "The Wiz," "Running on Empty" and "Serpico" next to "Critical Care," wow! I mean you are just asking for trouble.

Regardless, this guy is a filmmaker.

As with anything, there are people who will dog this and say it was slow and Lapaglia was over the top or whatever the multitude of criticisms may be, "the lighting created an unwanted mood" (by whose standards), "the script had flaws" (oh did it? What were they?) and the list goes on. However without getting into every nook and cranny available, I will just say if you enjoy a good drama, you may enjoy this.

For the decent side of Lumet's work, this is a pretty fair example and on every front, I think it works out okay. Do I have any criticisms? None worth more than "I liked it or didn't." I did in fact like it by the way. It might be considered standard fare or even dated a bit by some and as a result, not as powerful as it might be otherwise, but it is a good example of Sidney Lumet's better filmmaking and not a bad story to boot.

Dig Colm Feore's role here. I like this guy and though he's probably found in the shadows more than in the spotlight, he is one vastly talented actor. I caught him last year in the lead for "My Fair Lady" at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada and though he really probably is an acquired taste, he is a talent to be reckoned with for sure. It would be nice to see him garner larger roles since talent like this sure seems wasted on bit parts.

gavin6942 23 July 2015

Fmovies: A newly elected district attorney (Andy Garcia) finds himself in the middle of a police corruption investigation that may involve his father (Ian Holm) and his partner.

This was a pretty good film. At first, I thought it was going to be about tracking down and then convicting the cop killer. But we find out that the killing, tracking and convicting are all accomplished relatively quickly, and only serve as a premise to open up the idea that certain police officers were working with the drug dealers.

This is very well scripted, very well acted. And knowing a little bit about police corruption, the story does not even seem far fetched. Though it does have its darkly comical moments, such as having the killer strip naked for reporters.

glory2godpd 1 November 2004

This film is definitely based on the Larry Davis incident that took place in the late 80's where corrupt cops tried to shake down a drug dealer who wanted out of their "system"(dealers who payed off cops to rob other dealers). When he got out due to the death of his infant daughter, they invaded his home, he fought back by killing and wounding some officers and escaped leading to a dangerous manhunt in NYC. When they finally caught him (an old family relative snicthced on him), false accusations were brought up by the police and the media to portray him as a ruthless thug who ran away after killing the cops when all he wanted to do was leave the organization involving crooked cops and drug dealers. He is still serving time in Rikers Island fighting for a new trial.

Check out the documentary called THE LARRY DAVIS STORY which won an award for Best Documentary in the Urbanworld Film Festival in 2003.

However, it serves well on film and Sidney Lumet is great act capturing the look and feel of NYC in the early 90's. It has a "Prince of the City" feel to it.

lastliberal 14 April 2008

Night Falls on Manhattan fmovies. Fascinating story of politics and justice in New York, or anywhere else for that matter. Most don't realize that on 3% of murder cases ever see a jury; most are plea bargained. But, there are those, like the one depicted here, that are essential, not for justice, but for the political ambitions of the DA and Mayor.

Sidney Lumet (Find Me Guilty, Dog Day Afternoon) likes working with ethical questions, and he did a good job here in presenting a world that is not black and white, but gray.

I generally do not like Andy Garcia (Ocean's Eleven, The Godfather Part III) or Ron Leibman (Zorro, the Gay Blade), but that may be because of their politics off the screen. It affects my judgment. I have to say that they both gave interesting performances that made this film worth watch. But, there were a lot of good stars in this film: Sir Ian Holm (Chariots of First) as Garcia's father, James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) as a corrupt cop and Holm's partner, Richard Dreyfuss (Mr. Holland's Opus, The Goodbye Girl, Jaws) as a liberal lawyer, Colm Feore (Bon Cop, Bad Cop, The Red Violin, Chicago) as an ADA that wants the top job, and Lena Olin (Enemies: A Love Story, Chocolat, "Alias") as the love interest.

Very good acting throughout and a compelling story.

george.schmidt 11 April 2003

NIGHT FALLS ON MANHATTAN (1997) *** Andy Garcia, Richard Dreyfuss, Ian Holm, Lena Olin, James Gandolfini, Ron Leibman, Shiek Mahmud-Bey. Excellent, gritty and absorbing crime drama dealing with Garcia as an assistant DA who becomes an overnight sensation after tackling a disturbing case of a drug dealer killing three cops on a raid gone awry that leads to a sticky web of corruption, lies, deceit and ultimately personal integrity. Garcia and Holm as his cop father, give superb performances as does Leibman as his teeth gnashing mentor (a delightful to watch turn) and Gandolfini as Holm's partner with some skeletons in his closet. Based on Robert Daley's book `Tainted Evidence' and adapted by the film's director Sidney Lumet with colorful panache of a true helmsman. – Letterman stooge Leonard Tepper is an extra in the jury (!)

butchfilms 19 December 2008

I liked this film, this is not a great movie but it's a good one, and the most important thing was that it didn't bore me for a moment.

The performances are good, the plot is interesting and clever. What I didn't like about it was that the shots of the film looked like a movie made for TV.

The plot is about how Sean Casey ,an assistant district attorney working for just six months, improves very fast in his way up at his job but he is going to discover many dirty things about policemen and politics and is at this point where he will have to make difficult decisions that will put in text his principles.

If you like intelligent police or court movies, this one is for you.

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