It features an ensemble cast including Charles Durning, Louis Gossett Jr., Randy Quaid, and James Woods.

Los Angeles police officers experiencing various pressures at work unwind at night with drunken get-togethers (a.k.a.

"[10] Aldrich said the book "doesn't go far enough for me" for instance not showing them to be racist, taking bribes or wanting to be stormtroopers.

And Wambaugh can't face that problem, so it's never touched in the book.

[9] He took out a full page advertisement complaining about what had happened to his book and sued to get his name taken off the credits of the final print.

Aldrich said the film showed how police dealt with pressures but "it won't be all grim, though; there will be some hysterically funny sequences coming out of the love they have for each other.

"[14] Charles Durning said he based his character on Aldrich, "one of the brightest guys I know and who never forgets he's the boss.

Vincent Canby's review in The New York Times described the film as "cheap and nasty" as well as "a stylistic and narrative mess".

[17] He then bought back the rights to The Onion Field and Black Marble to have more control, because of what happened to The Choirboys.

[19] In Peter Straub's 1983 novel Floating Dragon, an all-police screening of The Choirboys is a major plot point.