Remembering Sidney Lumet (1924-2011)

Since Sidney Lumet, one of the best film directors of the 1970s, died over the weekend (he made many great films before and after that decade as well), I thought I would simply tell this one story about how I saw "Serpico" (1973) at an outdoor Turkish cinema in the resort Kushadasi in 1985, some 12 years after the film was released in America.

In Turkey, the film was actually "Serpiko," and it was dubbed in Turkish! Today, virtually all foreign films are shown in their language of origin with subtitles in Turkey. I had assumed that was now the practice in every country except India until I went to Azerbaijan in 2008 where I saw a Russian-dubbed version of the Will Smith action comedy "Hancock" that I could not understand.

Thankfully, I can speak Turkish so even as awkward as it was to see Al Pacino, who is very popular in Turkey perhaps because he is in a lot of violent/gangster films, I could undertand the film about the plight of a New York police officer Frank Serpico (b.1936) ok. Though several years later, I was happy to see the film again on video, and it is among the films I have wanted to rewatch again (this was even before Lumet's passing).

The cinema was quite packed that humid night in Kushadasi where mostly men were watching the film, and few of them seemed to have any dates. As is custom whenever someone in Tukey sees an American film with a lot of violence or grit, the spectators asked me 'Amerika hakikaten, oyle mi?/Is American really like that?"

Of course, many people here have asked me if Turkey is like "Midnight Express."
(1978, d. Alan Parker), I respond to the later by saying: "I've never been to a Turkish prison." And, I tell people who see American films like "Serpico" that New York is a lot different than Roanoke, Va.- my hometown.

I learned from the IMDB, that "Serpico" was shot in 104 different locations in New York. And, the film was shot in reverse order with Pacino starting off with a beard and long hair, and then ending up clean shaven.

The director and tandem would team up again in "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975), and then Lumet directed "Network" (1977) with actors like Robert Duvall and William Holden. Some have suggested that "Network" predicted the rise of televanglism and the Tea Party movement.

Hmmmm.....if we get a chance, we'll ask Noam Chomsky what he thinks!

But, in all seriousness, virtually film buff except the somewhat notorious David Thomson (who I recall disdaining Lumet for some reason or another), will assuredly miss Lumet, but we have many films to remember him and his exceptional work.