A True Filmmaker - Adieu Sidney Lumet

Legendary filmmaker Sidney Lumet has passed away. Lumet, who directed such Hollywood classics as "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Network," was 86.

With more than 50 films (including the African American classic "The Wiz") to his credit over the last six decades, one of his best was his first, the 1957 courtroom drama "12 Angry Men." It portrayed 12 jurors as they tried to reach a verdict in the trial of a young Hispanic man wrongly accused of murder.

Lumet's films often depicted the grittier side of New York, such as "Dog Day Afternoon," the true-life story of two social misfits who tried to rob a bank on a hot summer afternoon. Another film, "Serpico," explored the corruptibility of New York police officers.

Critics often said his most memorable film was "Network," a scathing view of the television business. American film aficionados can often recall a memorable line from the movie, when a crazed newscaster, played by actor Peter Finch, exhorted his audience to open their windows and shout, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Lumet received four Oscar 'Best Director' nominations but never won. Lumet's films were smart and cleverly turned the mirror straight onto America and the financiers of the white picketed fenced dreams.

Mr. Lumet was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2005 for "brilliant services" to screenwriters and actors over the years, however it is the American public and the world who will forever has a more insightful view of American mores forever captured and brilliantly documented in his works.