The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

A sad loss to the film world today, as legendary director Sidney Lumet dies at 86. He was sometimes tagged with the reputation of a mere workmanlike filmmaker, and he never achieved the intense cult following of some of his contemporaries, but how many directors would kill to have at least one or two of these films in their oeuvre:

12 Angry Men
Fail-Safe
The Anderson Tapes
Serpico
Dog Day Afternoon
Equus
Deathtrap
The Verdict

And, of course, Network (pictured above), one of my personal favorites and a film that grows more relevant with each passing year.

Kudos to you for giving a shout out to Deathtrap. I know it's weird comparing it to all of the classics he made, but I consider it my favorite of his. I felt like the oddball today with everyone tweeting their favorite Lumet films. Call me kooky.

By far, Christopher Reeve's finest performance in his unfortunately short carreer. I'm sure that Lumet had something to do with that.

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

To anyone with aspirations of being a filmmaker: Lumet's book, Making Movies, is a great read! Heck, even if you don't want to be a director someday, but just have a passion for film, I'd recommend this book.

And, while we're on the topic of his oeuvre, let's not forget his last film, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead - 83 years old, and he still had it!

Lumet was one of the fine directors of our time. He was one of the pioneering live TV directors who continued on to films. Just a listing of some of his titles alone should suffice to most Marathoners: 12 ANGRY MEN, SERPICO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON (my favorite), MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, NETWORK, THE VERDICT etc..
Lumet also made some films that were more underrated by some like PRINCE OF THE CITY, RUNNING ON EMPTY and the stunning Sean Connery feature THE OFFENCE about a very bad cop that makes TRAINING DAY seem like a trainee. At an age when most of his contemporaries had passed on or long retired, Lumet had a late in career success with the oily BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR DEAD with Marissa Tomei and Philip Seymour Hoffman (I also found his FIND ME GUILTY with Vin Dielel as an amusing mob comedy). His SF and Fantasy genre films were few - FAIL SAFE, THE WIZ and parts of NETWORK - but it doesn't matter. Incredibly, Lumet is also one of the great directors who NEVER won a Directing Oscar (he finally got an honorary one).

Lumet was an original, and he could be brutally honest. In the 80s his career hit a low ebb and he quipped that he could still keep making films if he had a success once out of three tries. About THE WIZ, he said later that a week or two into filming, he knew the movie wasn't going to work and doomed to failure. He said that his professionalism got him through the project, but admitted how hard it was to go through.

He and his work will be sorely missed.

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas