A low-key, based-on-a-true story psychological crime movie (it may be the only recreation of a 1963 news event to feature no top ten hit of the period in the soundtrack) scripted and produced by cop auteur Joseph Wambaugh from his own novel.
The opening parallels two sets of partners, cops John Savage and Ted Danson and crooks James Woods and Franklyn Seales, but the meat of the film comes after the latter have kidnapped the former and Danson has been shot, as Savage slowly cracks up from survivor guilt and endless legal complications, while the crooks play the system to string out their trials for years. Intensely acted, especially by Savage and Woods, but a little too flat in concluding that crooks have too many rights.