Sidney Lumet

It's late on a Tuesday night and I'm settling in. The Cubs are in the process of being crushed by the Astros while the Bulls are playing the Knicks in a "good-Lord-please-don't-let-Derrick-Rose-get-hurt" game as the regular season winds down. Since that leaves a less-than-scintillating sports menu for this evening, my thoughts drifted.
     On April 9, film director Sidney Lumet passed away. He was 76 years old and his last film "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," was a fairly forgettable crime drama from 2007. Despite this, a look back at his career reveals a man with some impressive credentials and some odd twists in his career.
     He started out about as well as one can. His first feature was the brilliant courtroom drama, "12 Angry Men" starring Henry Fonda. If you haven't seen this one, do yourself a favor and check it out. It is a true test for a filmmaker, especially one making his first big movie. There are no chase scenes, no violence at all actually. The entire movie takes place in a jury room as the title group hash out a verdict in a murder case. At first, it looks like it will be a quick conviction, but Henry Fonda has some questions. As Fonda's doubts are examined and some jurors' opinions begin to change, the pressure builds. Lumet does a tremendous job slowly ratcheting up the tension in the room as suppositions, evidence and even some predjudices clash. It's the subtlety of Lumet's touch that shines through here. As the movie goes on Lumet uses different lenses to make the walls of the room look like they are starting to close in slowly on the men, who have the defendant's life in their hands. It's not an easy movie to make, filming 12 people in one room and making it fascinating, but Lumet keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.
     The odd part is after making such a strong first feature, he passes the next 16 years making a lot of movies no one remembers. It looked as though he was a one-hit wonder, that is until the 1970's. It was then he directed a young Al Pacino in the title role of "Serpico." This 1973 film seemed to ignite Lumet, as over the next four years he rolled off the following classics, almost consecutively: "Murder on the Orient Express" ( a terrific 1974 Agatha Christie whodunit), "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975 classic) and then simply one of the sharpest social commentary satires ever filmed, "Network."
     In fact, "Network" is so good it not only holds up well after 35 years, it may even be more true today than it was then. Lumet's tale of a trusted network news anchor who goes insane and decides to end his career by publicly announcing he will commit suicide on his last broadcast to boost ratings (while also rallying his viewers  to open their windows and shout the famous line "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" rings eerily true with the onslaught of, and the utter desperation of, the trash reality TV we're subjected to today. It's not that difficult to see something like what happens in "Network" happening in modern times. In some ways, with TMZ-style celebrity stalking meshing with "news," it already has. I won't go into too many details in case you haven't seen it. If you haven't, see "Network." If you have, see it again. I'm telling you, it's an incredible movie.
     So a classic from 1957 and then, a decade and a half later, a hot streak like few directors have ever known. In all, five movies I would call must-see. If there's a rainy weekend coming up or a "sick" day in your near future, I heartily recommend settling in for a Sidney Lumet film festival on your DVD player with the movies I mentioned earlier. You'll be glad you did.