I'm Going Right to the Board of Bar Overseers About You Today, Fella: The Sidney Lumet Poll

Damn, what a filmography!

Really want to vote for The Pawnbroker or Dog Day Afternoon, but I'm a man of my word, so Network it is.

1. Dog Day Afternoon
2. Long Day’s Journey Into Night
3. Serpico
4. The Pawnbroker
5. 12 Angry Men
6. Fail Safe
7. Q & A
8. Network
9. The Hill
10. Running on Empty
11. The Verdict
12. The Group

I haven’t seen a lot of these but it’s either gonna be Network or Dog Day Afternoon

Or The Wiz

Deathtrap is hilarious: Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve in thick early '80s cardigans being bitchy-gay in the Hamptons.

It'll probably be between these three:

12 Angry Men
Dog Day Afternoon
Network

Network is a bit preachy but damn it blew my 15 year old mind like no other movie when I first saw it

I know its not popular on this forum but Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is one of my favourites of his too. Great performances from PSH and Ethan Hawke.

By the time he was in his last decade of filmmaking his insistence on putting the camera in the wrong place was touching.

prince of the city and Q&A were the cussingest movies i had EVER SEEN when i first saw them :o

a lot of camp classics on this list

no, it isn't that Child's Play, in case anyone else is thinking of finding out

I didnt realise he directed The Wiz. That sticks out like a sore thumb in his filmography (I do remember liking it as kid tho tbf)

Think one thing you can see from this list is that there's really no such thing as a typical Lumet movie

https://i.imgur.com/x2EwFNG.jpg

I mainly think of him as cop/crime thriller guy but yeah looking at the total filmography, its quite varied

With a lot of scene chewing method-y acting.

histrionics would be the connecting theme

ah Tom just beat me to it yeah

... though not so much in The Wiz, I imagine... haven't seen it

Not exactly many standout roles for women either.

Network works as both film and prophecy.

Not exactly many standout roles for women either.

― Monthly Python (Tom D.),

Not in the aggregate, but I think of Katherine Hepburn in LDJIN, the ensemble in The Group, and Christine Lahti in Running on Empty.

Faye Dunaway?

1. Serpico
2. DDA
3. The Hill

Thought I was going to be the designated Network defender here, but seems other people are surprisingly on the team too (surprisingly because I've only ever seen it get hate on ILX) so let me say what I don't like about it instead - the whole Ecumenical Liberation Army subplot tips much too far into farce, especially the rights negotiation scene, which is funny but works against the film as a whole, it could be a decent SNL sketch or something instead.

far too much of it descends into /too much/ but really aint that part of the fun also?

Serpico was ok but I felt like it could have been more emotionally involving. Needed to be angrier imo.

Ned Beatty's speech to Peter Finch is completely OTT and utterly unforgettable.

1. The Verdict
2. Long Day's Journey Into Night
3. Twelve Angry Men
4. Dog Day Afternoon or Serpico or Prince of the City--I like about half of all three

Pretty bad: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Night Falls on Manhattan

Period curiosity: Network

I really want to see The Group for some reason.

xxp I dunno, I can enjoy it as farce and I can enjoy it as a serious film but I can't do both at the same time

I must watch his Sean Connery movies

The Offence is pretty much all shouty scenery chewing. Ian Bannen > Connery > Trevor Howard.

I've only seen three, and it pains me that I'd be voting for Network as the best. Special demerit to 12 Angry Men for tossing in a shot of the murderer...played by a wide-eyed round-faced kid of about 11. Sorry, you've tipped the scales too far.

Please tell me that one of these films features Michael Caine shouting "it's a bloody deaftrap!"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Anderson Tapes is a great Connery/Lumet joint.

Voted Pawnbroker.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The verdict is...not The Verdict (which I did vote for).

If anybody deserved a hung jury, it's the director of The Verdict and 12 Angry Men. We now need to get the 12 people who voted for the co-winners into a room.

Nope, 6 out of 7 is enough for a civil trial which I think this is

Poor Fail-Safe

Completely forgot that he directed the remake of Gloria and kinda want to give it a negative vote

I didn't vote, but Nick Nolte is an absolute monster (in multiple senses of that word) in Q&A and I would probably have voted for that.

Dog Day Afternoon is kind of a perfect film. Not sure what you could do to make it better? I also love Network but there are many aspects of that I could criticize.