THE PRINCE OF NEW YORK: SIDNEY LUMET (1924-2011)

Nicely done, Dre.

Did you ever see DANIEL? It's pretty much forgotten, and was never particularly well reviewed, but I feel like it's his most underrated. A flawed diamond. Also, always loved THE MORNING AFTERl.

The man was not just a great director, but he wrote the book on film production.

Damn, I thought I was the only that really liked Find Me Guilty. Lumet has been one of the few people to try something new with Diesel(Who is talented and very charismatic) and he was fantastic in it.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead is amazing and a great neo-noir.

Thanks for that.  Seems like you touched on the stuff that needed to be said.  Best thing I've read yet on his passing.

Terrific write-up, Dre.

One other fella I might include in that peer group along with Frankenheimer, Penn, and Lumet is Norman Jewison. 

Dog Day Afternoon is just about the perfect movie all around. I love it so much.

I keep going throughthe list of movies he made. And damn, just damn. So many are great films. 

Really nice piece. You are doing a fine job sir.

I love that Lumet's last movie, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, was shot digitally. I think it's amazing that he embraced new technology at his age, although he did start off in TV, so it may have been like coming home for him.

Marvelous, Damon. 

"Workman" seems like a slight these days, but I long for a world where "workman" always means someone of Lumet's caliber.

Thanks for that link, Burnin...

Lvoed the piece, Damon.

I hate the fact that so many obits floating around are full of "despites" and "even ifs". The man reallly never really got his due credit because of his reputation of a workman, but there's really no counting how many good-to-excellent films he has delivered trhoughout five decades - not many directors have been so good for so long. The coolest thing about Lumet is that there's always a great film by him that you have somehow missed.

Echo the praise for a terrific article.

Started off with one of the greatest films of the 50's, includes at least three of the defining films of the 70's, and apparently ended with a really solid swan song as well (which I still need to check out). That career speaks for itself, but that was a very nice obit. I'd never heard of his book, I'll definitely have to track it down.

12 Angry Men, was in fact, the first Sidney Lumet film I ever saw when I was a kid, before I was familiar with him. Then I checked out his CV, which looked like a wannabe director's fantasy CV of all the stuff he wish he'd made. The Pawnbroker and Serpico tend to battle it out for the number two spot, but the aforementioned 12 Angry Men, with it's powerful simplicity, will always be number one for me. Great article, man.

Ebert's write up parallels mine in a lot of ways: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110409/FEATURED/110409988

"They're good, Norm. But you're better."

If you're doing a Lumet retrospective, throw The Verdict into the DVD player.  At the end of the film, when the jury has given their decision and the judge is instructing them about the award, look over Newman's right shoulder when the camera zooms in on him.  You'll see a familiar smirk in the gallery...