Night Falls On Manhattan - Plot

Plot

Detectives Liam Casey (Ian Holm) and Joey Allegretto (James Gandolfini) are conducting a surveillance operation to apprehend Jordan Washington (Shiek Mahmud-Bey), a notorious drug dealer. On a tip from an informant, they venture into a building where Washington is presumed to be hiding. Washington preemptively fires a submachine gun through his front door, seriously wounding Casey. Police backup units arrive and swarm the building, but Washington executes a cunning escape in an NYPD squad car after murdering two police officers.

In a surprising move, district attorney Morganstern (Ron Leibman) appoints Sean Casey (Andy GarcĂ­a), a newly graduated assistant district attorney and the son of Liam the wounded detective, to prosecute Washington. Passing over the more experienced executive assistant Elihu Harrison (Colm Feore), Morganstern deliberately picks Casey due to Harrison's opposition of his political rank and candidacy in the upcoming election for New York County District Attorney. Defense attorney Sam Vigoda (Richard Dreyfuss) agrees to defend Washington, while another constituent of his legal team Peggy Lindstrom (Lena Olin), begins an affair with Casey.

During the trial, Vigoda does not dispute his client's guilt, but postulates that the police were specifically looking to murder Washington. The defendant corroborates this theory by revealing that he had been bribing certain officers, including one called Kurt Kleinhoff, in return for protection while dealing drugs. Vigoda theorizes that when a rival dealer named Carlos Alvarez offered the officers more money, Washington refused to match it, thus becoming a target. Although inexperienced, Casey mounts a strong argument questioning Washington's credibility. Casey wins the case, as Washington is sentenced to consecutive life terms without parole.

Morganstern is incapacitated by a heart attack. The mayor suggests new hero Sean Casey be the party's candidate for DA. He wins the election, is in love with Lindstrom and wonders aloud if the many wonderful things suddenly happening in his life can last. They can't. The decomposed body of Kleinhoff is discovered floating near a maritime dock. An address book is found by the authorities containing the names of several officers from precincts who responded to the Washington shooting. After several interrogations, a number of officers confess about their entanglement in the bribery and narcotics scandal.

Allegretto admits he initially lied about his involvement; accepting bribes while also plotting to murder Washington. Berated as "scum" by Sean Casey for his conduct and unwilling to face jail, a depressed Allegretto commits suicide. Liam discloses to his son Sean that he and Allegretto were not legally authorized to arrest Washington due to an expired search warrant. Liam concedes that he forged a judge's signature with a new warrant.

Following an admission of guilt by Liam about the forgery in a private consultation with Judge Dominick Impelliteri (Dominic Chianese), the judge decides to fill out a new warrant and purposely obviates the technicality. He also suggests to Sean that he destroy the invalid warrant. The film ends with Casey giving the introductory lecture for a new class of assistant district attorneys; urging them to approach their job with diligence.

Read more about this topic:  Night Falls On Manhattan

Famous quotes containing the word plot:

    After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.
    Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)

    There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.
    Charles Dickens (1812–1870)