The death of Sidney Lumet at age 86 marks the passing of the last of the truly great directors of his generation. Lumet, who succumbed to lymphoma in his Manhattan home Saturday, was widely considered one of the most important American directors and deservedly so. His filmography was filled with such classics as 12 Angry Men (1957), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976), and The Verdict (1982).
Although Lumet made many great films, my favorite is Dog Day Afternoon, the exhausting, often funny story about a real-life 1972 Brooklyn bank robbery that turned into a media circus, with Al Pacino giving possibly his best performance. Lumet captured all of the heat, tension, and danger of the situation in a movie that grabbed you by the throat and did not let go until the final frame.
12 Angry Men, his feature debut, is an incredibly well-made actors’ showcase that still holds up today, although I still have the same problem with the film I did when I first saw it – I believe the kid really was guilty and think it totally absurd to believe one do-gooder juror can sway eleven others. But it’s only a movie, and as such, it’s great entertainment. Network may have seemed like a far-flung premise when it came out 35 years ago but who knew television would actually become the freak show it has.
One of my very favorite Lumet films is 1988′s Running on Empty, a heart-wrenching drama about a couple of ’60s radicals on the run and the impact their past actions have on their young sons. Lumet got powerhouse performances from Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch, and River Phoenix, who was Oscar nominated. It’s a beautiful film that leaves you in tears.
Like another great director, Stanley Kubrick, Lumet’s last film also happened to be among his best. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) is a taught, utterly engaging thriller about a heist gone horribly wrong. The film is so slick and pulsing with adrenaline that you never would have guessed it was made by a director in his 80s.
Sidney Lumet never won a competitive Oscar, despite five nominations (and I still think it’s a joke that John G. Avildsen won for Rocky over both Lumet for Network and Pakula for All the President’s Men). In 2005, however, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences gave Lumet a long overdue honorary Oscar.
Lumet had among the best reputations in the industry. In a business where 18-hour days are the norm, he allegedly always finished shooting by 5:00 p.m. so he, his cast, and crew could enjoy their evenings and have some down time.
That’s my kind of director.
