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Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

Frayed Knot Apr 10 2011 08:52 AM

Director of, among others, 'Twelve Angry Men', 'Network', 'Serpico' and 'Dog Day Afternoon'

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Apr 10 2011 12:11 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

I never really think of Lumet as one of my favorite directors, 'cause his stuff's never showy or visually quirky. But then I look at a list of my favorite movies, and of the seventies stuff, virtually all of them but Jaws, Nashville and the Godfathers/Star Warses are his. A master craftsman who always worked to serve the story, with a defter touch than most working today.

Edgy MD Apr 10 2011 01:34 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

Also worth considering: There's Pacino (a fine actor), Pacino with DePalma (a cartoon), and Pacino with Lumet (a revelation).

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Apr 10 2011 08:30 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

Or, hell, Newman and Lumet, or Treat Williams and Lumet, or Phoenix and Lumet, or Hawke and Lumet. He didn't just keep working, he kept working. Before The Devil... is airtight caper/character study, and stands among his best.

Vic Sage Apr 11 2011 04:05 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

Sidney Lumet – a selected filmography Sidney Lumet was not the visual stylist that Marty Scorsese was, nor was he funny and romantic about NY like Woody Allen, but he was an actor’s director, and a keen-eyed chronicler of the evolving New York landscape, who ended up having directed as many great movies as any filmmaker of his generation. 1950s-60s: He was born to actors, and started as a stage actor himself, before becoming one of the top directors of the new television medium in the 1950s. Many of his early films were either based on plays or looked like filmed plays, underlining his commitment to film as “literature + actors”, and not as “cinema” per se. But they were powerful works none the less, especially his auspicious debut film, 12 ANGRY MEN [indent]• 12 Angry Men (1957) – A jury, in a hot sweaty room, stumble toward justice. It still holds up as a powerful courtroom drama, with incomparable Henry Fonda. Lumet starts off his film career with a bang and an Oscar nomination. He’d have to wait nearly 20 years for another one. • Stage Struck (1958) – A pale remake of the Hepburn movie, but we get to see Lumet deal with NYC as a character for the first time. • That Kind of Woman (1959) – Another mediocre remake, with Sophia Loren. • The Fugitive Kind (1960) – Interesting, but unsuccessful, adaptation of Tenessee Williams’ disturbing ORPHEUS DESCENDING, with Marlon Brando. • Vu du pont (1962) – Arthur Miller’s A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, in an obscure French-Italian co-production • Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) – Lumet finally gets this play-adaptation thing right (for maybe the only time in his career), with this award-winning version of the O’Neill play, with Katherine Hepburn. • Fail-Safe (1964) – Henry Fonda as the president, in a tense nuclear-armageddon thriller that is effective on its own terms, but was rendered immediately obsolete by DR. STRANGELOVE, which was released just before FAIL-SAFE and made all the same points, but with Kubrick’s biting satiric wit and visual panache. • The Pawnbroker (1964) – Rod Steiger’s oscar-nominated performance dominates an otherwise heavy-handed tale of a holocaust survivor in NYC. • The Hill (1965) – Lumet leaves NY to shoot a WWII prison film in North Africa with Sean Connery. This is a powerful, brutal, underrated little movie that allowed Lumet a chance to spread out a bit, both narratively and visually. And Connery is terrific. By the mid-late 60s, however, Lumet did not adapt well to the a-changin` times and struggled for an arty hipness that utterly alluded him. • The Group (1966) – upper class woman in the 1930s; melodrama with socio-political overtones. Feh. • The Deadly Affair (1966) – This adaptation of LeCarre’s 1st “Smiley” spy novel with James Mason used some cinematic techniques to amp the atmospheric qualities, and Quincy Jones jazz score, but it’s talky and lifeless. • Bye Bye Braverman (1968) – NYC black comedy about a funeral. It’s hard enough for Woody Allen to make a good “Woody Allen film”… for Lumet, it’s impossible. Sydney was to comedy as dancing is to architecture. • The Sea Gull (1968) – James Mason and Vanessa Redgrave in this obscure, flat adaptation of the Chekov play. • The Appointment (1969) – Omar Sharif and Anouk Amee in another of Lumet’s European “art” films; melodramatic, tedious. • Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970) – a minor Tenessee Williams 1-act is crapped on by Gore Vidal, and the resultant turd is given a polish by Mr. Lumet.[/indent] 1970s: After the TV/theater-based films of the late `50s/early `60s, and his arty sojourns in the late `60s, Lumet was about to hit his peak in the 1970s. [indent]• The Anderson Tapes (1971) – Surprisingly effective caper film shot on the streets of NY, with Connery at the height of his powers, and young Chris Walken just starting out. • Child's Play (1972) – Another flat, talky play adaptation; a single-set acting exercise for James Mason and Robert Preston. Pass. • The Offence (1972) –A taut, psychological thriller shot in the UK, with Sean Connery as a brutal cop interrogating a suspect Connery did his best work for Lumet (but so did a lot of actors). Overlooked, underrated. Sure, it’s stagey, but it works here (like it did for 12 ANGRY MEN). • Serpico (1973) – one of the all time best cop movies, with Pacino in a ground-breaking performance. Lumet’s mastery of the grim and gritty streets of NYC in the `70s makes this film unimaginable in other hands. It was a huge commercial and critical hit, and while Pacino had already become a star in THE GODFATHER, this one made Lumet bankable in a way he had never been before. * Lovin' Molly (1974) – if there was a director less suited to adapting a Larry McMurtry “good ole boy” novel, I can’t imagine who it might be. • Murder on the Orient Express (1974) – Lumet goes totally Hollywood in this all-star Agatha Christie “who-dunnit”. The “closed space” location is a totem of Lumet’s style, and he had developed the chops for thrillers, so I guess this one made sense. It’s not one of my faves, but it was a huge hit for all concerned. • Dog Day Afternoon (1975) – Lumet and Pacino top themselves in their 2nd NYC-based true-crime story. For my money, neither of them was ever this good again. Lumet got his 2nd Oscar nom, but lost out to CUKOO’S NEST/Milos forman. • Network (1976) – Lumet’s satire was heavy-handed, but damn if he and Paddy Chayevksy weren’t right on the nose with this one. Oscars for everybody… except Lumet, who lost in his 3rd nomination to Avildson for ROCKY. I wouldn’t blame him if he were mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore….[/indent] The run Lumet was on was too good to last and he finished the decade with 3 turkeys of varying degrees of flopitude. [indent]• Equus (1977) – Like so many of his other theatrical adaptations, this one didn’t work. Lumet’s naturalism seemed to work against the inherently theatrical nature of the play, and made literal what should have remained metaphorical. • The Wiz (1978) – Turning the Broadway musical into a love-letter to NYC might have seemed like a good idea on paper, but on celluloid this is a total freakin’ disaster. • Just Tell Me What You Want (1980) – Let me say try this as an SAT question -- Lumet: Comedy / Hippopotamus: Ballet.[/indent] 1980s Having established himself as NY’s poet laureate of urban naturalism, and now an elder statesman, Lumet showed now signs of slowing, kicking off the `80s with one of the best films of his career. [indent]• Prince of the City (1981) – harkening back to the corrupt cops of his SERPICO days, this is another true crime adaptation with all kinds of complex notions of guilt and responsibility that had become a hallmark theme of his work by this time, with the complicated morality tale played out in naturalistic terms against Lumet’s beloved NYC backdrop. His 1st Oscar nom for writing, but no nom for directing? Boo! • Deathtrap (1982) – Lumet consistently heard the siren’s song of the stage, but was consistently unable to do anything cinematic with his stage adaptations. • The Verdict (1982) – Paul Newman + Mamet script + Lumet at the height of his powers = all-time classic courtroom drama. Lumet did not always offer his characters redemption, but when he did, it was profoundly moving.[/indent] But after THE VERDICT, his 5th and last Oscar nominated work, Lumet’s career slide began. Although still productive, he had few notable upticks along the way to the finish line. [indent]• Daniel (1983) – a slow, talky adaptation of Doctorow’s historical novel; feh. • Garbo Talks (1984) – a cute, slight, romantic comedy. It’s watchable, but nothing special. • Power (1986) – while most of Lumet’s films have socio-political dimensions or themes, few have been purely political thrillers. This one reminds us that probably was a good thing for audiences everywhere. • The Morning After (1986) – 30 years after her dad got an Oscar nom working with Lumet, Jane Fonda got one for de-glamming as an alchie in this decent, but unexceptional, thriller. She retired (for a while) after this one. Sydney did not. • Running on Empty (1988) – the third of Lumet’s `80s trilogy about kids with pinko-commie parents is by far the best, with another great oscar-nominated performance, this time the young River Phoenix. • Family Business (1989) – The Lumet/Connery team finally came up empty with this “gangster family” heist/comedy/something-or-other. • Q & A (1990) – the 3rd of Lumet’s “NYC cop corruption” stories, it was pretty damn good and pretty damn tough; an underrated movie. But perfs of Nolte and Hutton not up to Lumet’s usual standards.[/indent] 1990s-00s After Q & A, Lumet had very little left in the tank, but he stayed in there, swinging. [indent]• A Stranger Among Us (1992) – this Hasidic take on WITNESS was a disaster. • Guilty as Sin (1993) – pointless courtroom drama • Night Falls on Manhattan (1996) – the 4th, last and least of Lumet’s cop corruption movies. Andy Garcia is no Al Pacino. He’s not even Nick Nolte. • Critical Care (1997) – Lumet takes on the health insurance industry in this toothless satire. • Gloria (1999) – why on Earth would he remake that terrific Cassavettes film? And with Sharon Stone, yet? Oh, Sidney, Sidney…[/indent] The Academy finally gave Lumet a lifetime achievement award in 2005. But he wasn’t quite done yet. [indent]• Find Me Guilty (2006) – leave it to Lumet to elicit a decent performance from Vin Diesel in a non-action movie; but it’s an otherwise bland courtroom drama. • Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) – Sidney goes out with a bang, with his best film in nearly 20 years (since Q&A), with a taut, tough “heist-gone-wrong” thriller / family melodrama. It’s not hard to get a great performance out of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but Ethan Hawke? That takes some doing. Lumet was 83 at the time, and probably figured “I don’t need this shit anymore”. And so this was it.[/indent] Sidney Lumet was no film-school virtuoso; he was an old-school storyteller with a big liberal heart and a tough-as-nails aesthetic, who didn’t pay much attention to what lens to use. While his talents didn’t range wide, they drilled down deep and he hit nerves near the bone that nobody else even knew were there. S’long, Sid, and thanks for all the fish. LUMET’S TOP 12: 12 Angry Men (1957) Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) The Hill (1965) The Anderson Tapes (1971) The Offence (1972) Serpico (1973) Murder on the Orient Express (1974) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Prince of the City (1981) The Verdict (1982) Q & A (1990) Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Edgy MD Apr 11 2011 06:47 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

Vic Sage wrote: • The Morning After (1986) – 30 years after her dad got an Oscar nom working with Lumet, Jane Fonda got one for de-glamming as an alchie in this decent, but unexceptional, thriller. She retired (for a while) after this one. Sydney did not.) That's casting. We're making a film about a blackout alcoholic. Let's cast the woman who is worldwide known to be the healthiest female on the planet. Vic Sage wrote: • A Stranger Among Us (1992) – this Hasidic take on WITNESS was a disaster.) It's like he asked himself, "What's the greatest challenge a director of actors can give himself? Melanie Griffith, undercover cop. No, wait. Melanie Griffith, undercover cop among the Hasidim. There we go."

Vic Sage Apr 11 2011 09:39 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

the last 25 years of his career are littered with such head-scratching decisions.

Frayed Knot Apr 12 2011 06:30 AM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

I always found: Melanie Griffith = Actress to be a big enough stretch.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Apr 12 2011 07:16 AM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

The Mets as usual missed a giant opportunity to say thanks to a great New Yorker and excite their fans when they didn;t play the 'Network' clip on the big screen to pump the fans up, preferring instead some lame Kevin James scene-chewing. I scored that as another error for the home team and the 8th inning rally fell short. They don't play that scene anymore at all. I mean, you can't spell Sidney Lumet without M-E-T-S.

Edgy MD Apr 12 2011 07:20 AM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

The Wiz is crazy. Cassting a mid-30s Diana Ross as the sweet young innocent fantasy voyager is a tough enough row to hoe, but finding a way to balance Lumet's 1970s urban realism with the surreal fantasy of a Wizard of Oz musical adaptation is a whole tough field. But it's not without it's graces and it's surprisingly watchable to me. Re: Sidney Lumet at Shea. That would be great, but that's the sort of mindfulness I would hardly expect of any team's PR department, and the Mets (they invited Pete Best to come by Shea on the anniversary of the first Beatles concert) are probably as good as most.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Apr 12 2011 07:27 AM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

The thing is, they used to play it all the time until they found out it co$t something.

MFS62 Apr 12 2011 09:11 AM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

Edgy DC wrote: Vic Sage wrote: • A Stranger Among Us (1992) – this Hasidic take on WITNESS was a disaster.) It's like he asked himself, "What's the greatest challenge a director of actors can give himself? Melanie Griffith, undercover cop. No, wait. Melanie Griffith, undercover cop among the Hasidim. There we go." I guess it wasn't your beshert. Later

Vic Sage Apr 12 2011 09:35 AM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

"it"? you mean the movie? or Melanie Griffith? i don't think a movie can be anyone's "beshert", and i think Melanie might by Don Johnson's beshert, or Antonio Banderas', but i guess that's for them to decide. As for me, i've liked Melanie only rarely: * BODY DOUBLE is typical DePalma pseudo-Hitchcock, but she's a hot young thing; * SOMETHING WILD is quirky fun; * WORKING GIRL is standard Hollywood rom-com, but its got high production values; * NOBODY'S FOOL gives her a small solid supporting role; otherwise, she's an albatross around a movie's neck.

RealityChuck Apr 12 2011 11:18 AM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

I tend to agree with Andrew Sarris's assessment of him: Strained Seriousness. His films just tried too hard and nearly always left a bad taste in my mouth. He was Stanley Kramer's more talented twin: I have a MESSAGE and here is the MESSAGE. Other than The Anderson Tapes and Dog Day Afternoon, his films were never anything I looked back at with delight. And some -- like Network and The Verdict -- are badly overrated. A good director, certainly, but he never achieved greatness.

themetfairy Apr 12 2011 11:47 AM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

I love Network. We sat down with the boys and introduced them to it recently. Imperfect, but visionary. 12 Angry Men indeed holds up over time - we also watched that one recently with the boys.

Vic Sage Apr 13 2011 11:33 AM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

I tend to agree with Andrew Sarris's assessment of him: Strained Seriousness. His films just tried too hard and nearly always left a bad taste in my mouth. He was Stanley Kramer's more talented twin: I have a MESSAGE and here is the MESSAGE. Other than The Anderson Tapes and Dog Day Afternoon, his films were never anything I looked back at with delight. And some -- like Network and The Verdict -- are badly overrated. A good director, certainly, but he never achieved greatness. Yeah, except that Sarris' assessment of Lumet as "Strained Seriousness" was by way of including him in that category in his brilliant book AMERICAN CINEMA... written in 1968! His view might have been premature, don't you think? And as much as i love Sarris' work, and that book in particular, he missed the boat on a bunch of guys, including Billy Wilder. So don't just throw him around to vindicate your lack of respect for Lumet. If you don't like Sidney, you don't like him. But lets leave Mr. Sarris out of the discussion. and once you described NETWORK and THE VERDICT as badly overrated, you lost me anyway. Heavy handed? Dated? Yeah, maybe. But the first was absolutely prescient about our culture, and the 2nd packs an emotional wallop that has not gone away. And while it's certainly possible for a merely good director to make a great movie... how about 2 great movies? 4? 6? maybe 10? At some point, one must acknowledge that the one and only criteria for a director to be great is for him/her to have made a number of great movies. Lumet has made at least a few, and so is in the discussion, at least. He is often dismissed because his filmmaking wasn't particularly "cinematic" (i.e., not much razzle, and short on dazzle), and long on performance and theme (often pooh-poohed as stagey), and perhaps his strengths would've been better served in the theater than in film, but he was a pretty darn good storyteller, and that's the name of that tune.

batmagadanleadoff Apr 13 2011 12:12 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

Vic Sage wrote: • Bye Bye Braverman (1968) – NYC black comedy about a funeral. It’s hard enough for Woody Allen to make a good “Woody Allen film”… for Lumet, it’s impossible. Sydney was to comedy as dancing is to architecture. • The Anderson Tapes (1971) – Surprisingly effective caper film shot on the streets of NY, with Connery at the height of his powers, and young Chris Walken just starting out. Nice job, Vic. I watch the mostly unwatchable Bye Bye Braverman at least every two years. It's an awful movie -- tedious -- a humorless comedy. Imagine your least favorite Woody Allen movie, but three times as bad. But I'm mesmerized by the late 60's on location NYC scenery. I'd guess that more than half the movie is filmed outdoors -- as the main characters set out on a wild goose chase trying to locate the precise funeral home that's hosting the services for their late friend, Braverman (the premise of this movie). I'm gonna make it a point to watch The Anderson Tapes, a first for me, thanks to your synopsis.

Vic Sage Apr 13 2011 01:25 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

we had a thread at one time about movies shot in or about NYC... if you're hard up enough for such views to sit thru BRAVERMAN, there are probably some better alternatives to consider. as for ANDERSON TAPES, RealityUpChuck's endorsement of it leaves me second-guessing myself. I haven't seen it in over 20 years (at least) so it may not be as good as i remember, but it probably is. Let me know if you think it's any good. I always have enjoyed a good caper film.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Apr 13 2011 01:33 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

He is often dismissed because his filmmaking wasn't particularly "cinematic" (i.e., not much razzle, and short on dazzle), and long on performance and theme (often pooh-poohed as stagey), and perhaps his strengths would've been better served in the theater than in film, but he was a pretty darn good storyteller, and that's the name of that tune. This. And it's because of this that the films of his that I like/love only grow in my esteem as I get older and less married to spectacle/flash. If Garcia had been a LITTLE less shitty/miscast, Night Falls On Manhattan would've worked a lot better. I'm now morbidly curious about Bye Bye Braverman.

batmagadanleadoff Apr 13 2011 02:01 PM Re: Sidney Lumet -- 1924-2011

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I'm now morbidly curious about Bye Bye Braverman. Here's the most thorough review I could find on the web. The cast includes Jessica Walter, whom I know you know as the matriarch of the Family Bluth. Auto accident at the corner of Eastern Parkway and Bedford Avenue Big Daddy's Restaurant, Coney Island Avenue