Sidney Lumet is one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived. Period.
I was seriously bummed to hear of his passing a couple of days ago–when I was in film school at San Francisco State University, his book Making Movies was like The Bible to me. His insights into the creative and collaborative filmmaking process were absolutely fascinating. He was a true actors’ director, which is evident by the stellar work from the casts of his films. New York was also a character in almost everything he did. I hungrily ate up his body of work, curating a nearly complete section of his films for the indie video store I was an assistant manager at. He cut his teeth directing live TV dramas alongside directors like John Frankenheimer, and made his leap to the big screen with the Henry Fonda classic 12 Angry Men. In that spirit, here are twelve of my favorite films that he made.
12 Angry Men (1957)
Lumet’s debut also earned him an Academy Award nomination, a rare feat for a first time director. It’s well-earned, though. His deft hand guides this Henry Fonda chamber piece, a fascinating look inside the jury room where one man has just enough of a doubt to open up discussion on a murder trial on a sizzling New York summer day. The cast is uniformly superb–including Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley, Jack Warden, Jack Klugman, John Fiedler and E.G. Marshall. There’s tension throughout, and the film just flies by.
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Rod Steiger is tremendous as Sol Nozerman, a Jewish pawnbroker in a poor New York neighborhood, haunted by memories of Nazi concentration camps. Lumet transitions brilliantly between his flashbacks and his present day situation, bringing out Sol’s internal struggle in a fantastic way. It’s powerful, no-holds-barred filmmaking.
The Hill (1965)
Lumet and Sean Connery did a series of amazing movies together, this being their first collaboration, and it’s a doozy. Connery plays Roberts, sentenced to a North African military prison during the second world war for disobeying an officer. He’s up against sadistic guards, especially Staff Sergeant Williams (Ian Hendry), who marches the prisoners up and down a prison-yard hill in the scorching heat. Connery is restrained and marvelous, and Ossie Davis gives one of his best performances here. The cinematography by Oswald Morris is supreme.
The Anderson Tapes (1971)
The second teaming of Lumet and Connery, this is a cool caper flick with Connery playing a recently-paroled thief who can’t resist getting up to his old ways, robbing an apartment building with the help of a young psychotic Christopher Walken. Of course it goes bad, as these things often do. It features an experimental soundtrack by Quincy Jones, and was a pre-cursor to genre flicks like The Hot Rock.
The Offence (1972)
A year after The Anderson Tapes, Connery and Lumet made this creepy psychological cop thriller, with Connery hot on the heels of a child molester who may or may not be Ian Bannen. The opening sequence sets the stage; slow-mo mood, going in and out of focus while an interrogation goes wrong in a police station. A little slow in spots, but really trippy and well-acted.
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
In my opinion, this is Lumet’s masterpiece–a bank heist actioner that’s also an incredible character study. Al Pacino and John Cazale give career performances (and that says a lot, considering The Godfather), as does Chris Sarandon as Pacino’s lover. The scene where Pacino talks to Sarandon on the phone was done in one long take, and the first take is the one they used. Tragic and endlessly entertaining.
Network (1976)
The much-acclaimed multi-Oscar winner penned by Paddy Cheyefsky, it’s a seering take on broadcasting and the news and is one of the best examples of what Hollywood can produce when all things truly come together. The cast is aces–Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway, Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight and William Holden all excell here. It’s required viewing in film school, and rightly so.
Prince of the City (1981)
A brilliant, epic character study of a cop stuck between internal affairs and his shifty department–Treat Williams headlines the picture, which also features Jerry Orbach, Lindsay Crouse, Bob Balaban and James Tolkan. You can feel how this influenced things to come, like HBO’s The Wire.
The Verdict (1982)
Paul Newman got an Oscar nomination for his performance as boozy ambulance-chasing lawyer Frank Galvin, who, through one case, finds redemption as a lawyer and a man. James Mason also was nominated, as was Lumet, and the crackling dialogue is thanks to playwright David Mamet.
Running on Empty (1988)
Every time I see this, I am saddened that we lost River Phoenix so early–a tremendous talent, this is truly his picture. The son of a family constantly on the move due to their actions protesting the Vietnam War, Phoenix finds himself at a crossroads–to continue running, or start a life of his own and never see his parents (Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch) again. Best use of James Taylor music ever.
Night Falls on Manhattan (1996)
Lumet continued his exploration of police corruption with this criminally underrated drama, featuring one of his best casts (Andy Garcia, James Gandolfini, Richard Dreyfuss, Ian Holm, Lena Olin, Colm Feore, Ron Liebman, Dominic Chianese, Paul Guilfoyle, Vincent Pastore and Jude Ciccolella).
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)
Lumet’s last picture, it showed how he was still at the top of his game well into his eighties. Opening with a shocking sex scene, the film constantly keeps you off balance, as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play brothers who botch a jewelry store robbery. Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Amy Ryan, Michael Shannon, Bryan F. O’Byrne, and Rosemary Harris round out the excellent cast. A strong final film from a true master.
What are some of your favorite Sidney Lumet movies? Let me know in the comments!
–Cole
