Obituary Corner - Sidney Lumet (Director) (From Your Local Guardian)

Obituary Corner - Sidney Lumet (Director)

2:40pm Wednesday 20th April 2011

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Director, producer and screenwriter Sidney Lumet died of lymphoma on April 10 at the age of 86. The name Sidney Lumet may not be one quite as memorable as a Scorsese, Coppola or Kubrick but he is certainly up there with the best of them. It was said that Lumet was one of the most prolific directors of the modern age.

For me Lumet’s best work was in the 70’s maybe because that was my era, my teenage years, misspent sitting in dark movie theatres eagerly anticipating the magic about to come to life. There appeared to be more movies with proper stories to tell back then, for instance Lumet’s classic films such as Serpico (73), Dog Day Afternoon (75) both starring Al Pacino one of the most sort after actors of his time following the success of The Godfather (72). There was also the film Network (76) starring Peter Finch and Robert Duvall which won 4 Oscars, one of which was a posthumous best actor award for Peter Finch, born in England but brought up in Australia from the age of 10. The only other posthumous Oscar ever handed out was to another Aussie Heath Ledger for The Dark Night.

Lumet was one of the first Directors to make the transition from TV to films. Most of his films were set in New York and always had that added grittiness and edge. It was well known that he detested Hollywood and was quoted as saying "New York is filled with reality; Hollywood is a fantasyland."

Many of his films also took on a moral message and were often set in modern times. His first film ’12 Angry Men’ (57) starring Henry Fonda, was a court room classic with the story of a jury that can’t agree on the fate of a young defendant charged with murder and has since been copied and spoofed a hundred times. ‘Serpico’ (73) follows the true story of Frank Serpico a uniformed New York cop who bravely exposed corruption within the police department almost costing him his life. Another story on corruption in the NYPD was ‘Prince of the City’ (81) starring Treat Williams as the only straight cop (allegedly) in the force. Although this was based on a novel and is fiction the story is just as hard hitting. ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (75) is a film that’s rarely shown on TV these days so I would recommend that you try to purchase a copy on DVD. This is Al Pacino at his over acting best. He plays Sonny an ex-Vietnam veteran who holds up a New York bank with partner in crime Sal (John Cazale). This is another film based on a true story where the hostages empathised with their captors who acquired pop star like status with the crowds that gathered outside the bank. Their popularity is also aided by the 24hour TV crew. However, it turns out that the main reason for the hold-up is to fund a sex change operation for Sonny’s boyfriend despite the fact that Sonny also has a wife and family at home. The character of Sal seems to be along just for the ride and looks very close to the edge and is a time bomb waiting to explode.

Sidney Lumet made over 50 movies in his life time and I’d love to say that they were all great movies but alas I have to mention The Wiz (78) an awful, awful musical film based on The Wizard of Oz stories starring Diana Ross as Dorothy (Yeah...at the age of 34!), Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow and Richard Pryor as the Wizard. Don’t be fooled by the mention of the genius that was Michael Jackson, this film is best kept in the vault. I suppose every great Director is allowed at least one turkey. RIP Sidney.