Death of a film giant

Renowned film director Sidney Lumet died yesterday at age 86. He will be missed. As the New York Times wrote, Lumet preferred “the streets of New York to the back lots of Hollywood and whose stories of conscience … became modern American film classics.”

For me, those classics read like a who's who of my all-time movie favorites: “12 Angry Men” (Fonda), “Serpico” (Pacino), “Dog Day Afternoon” (Pacino), “The Verdict” (Newman), “Network” (Finch), and “Fail-Safe” (Fonda). Lumet once wrote: “While the goal of all movies is to entertain, the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and sets the mental juices flowing.”

Some memorable lines:

12 Angry Men
Juror #3: You're talking about a matter of seconds. Nobody can be that accurate.
Juror #8: Well I think that testimony that can put a boy into the electric chair SHOULD be that accurate.

Serpico
Tom Keough: [to Serpico] Frank, let's face it, who can trust a cop that won't take money?

Dog Day Afternoon
Sonny: [Addresses cops moving toward him] What's he doing? Go back there man! He wants to kill me so bad he can taste it! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA!

The Verdict
Maureen Rooney: [about lawyers] You know you guys are all the same. You don't care who gets hurt. You're a bunch of whores. You'd do anything for a dollar. You got no loyalty ... No nothing ... You're a bunch of whores.

Network
Howard Beale: But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

Fail-Safe
Gen. Stark: You're talking about a different kind of war.
Prof. Groeteschele: Exactly. This time, *we* can finish what *we* start. And if we act now, right now, our casualties will be minimal.
Brigadier General Black: You know what you're saying?
Prof. Groeteschele: Do you believe that Communism is not our mortal enemy?
Brigadier General Black: You're justifying murder.
Prof. Groeteschele: Yes, to keep from being murdered.
Brigadier General Black: In the name of what? To preserve what? Even if we do survive, what are we? Better than what we say they are? What gives us the right to live, then? What makes us worth surviving, Groeteschele? That we are ruthless enough to strike first?
Prof. Groeteschele: Yes! Those who can survive are the only ones worth surviving.
Brigadier General Black: Fighting for your life isn't the same as murder.
Prof. Groeteschele: Where do you draw the line once you know what the enemy is? How long would the Nazis have kept it up, General, if every Jew they came after had met them with a gun in his hand? But I learned from them, General Black. Oh, I learned.
Brigadier General Black: You learned too well, Professor. You learned so well that now there's no difference between you and what you want to kill.

“I don’t think art changes anything,” Lumet said in The Times interview. So why did he make movies? “It’s a wonderful way to spend your life,” he said.