One of the greats. Sound off by selecting what you think is his best.

This is so tough, but since he, like Elia Kazan, possessed that great directorial skill of getting the most out of his actors, I'm going to go with the film of his that I think has the greatest performances...Dog Day Afternoon.

An obvious choice, but for good reason.

Love, love, love Dog Day Afternoon. I'd have to put it in a top ten of my favorite movies ever. So, I pick that one.

this should be a poll....but my choice (and this was a VERY hard choice) is 12 ANGRY MEN

I just double checked Lumte's filmography. Apparently I've only seen two of his films (12 Angry Men and Serpico). Yikes. That's embarassing. I guess my choice would be 12 Angry Men.

I created a poll. So many good ones that I allowed it so that you can pick multiple choices.

The Wiz, for sure

Seriously, it's hard to pick between his masterpieces. If forced, I'll go "Network" ... astonishing how much tv crap that movie saw coming decades ahead its time.

I recently saw "The Pawnbroker" for the first time and was blown away. Incredible performance by Rod Steiger (hard to believe its even the same actor that did "In the Heat of the Night" just a couple years later). Like "Network", way ahead of its time (very much having a mid-70s vibe and explicitness).

It's amazing how many times I actually do this. But, I selected one option before finding out I could select multiple choices so here are my Top 5 Lumet films:

1. Dog Day Afternoon
2. Serpico
3. Network
4. 12 Angry Men
5. Before the Devil Knows Your Dead

SERPICO, hands down. One of the very best police dramas ever made and the only Lumet film I've seen multiple times (more than twice).

To many fantastic movies from one of the greatest directors of our time, but my alltime favorite will always be Network.

As much as I love Network, I can never shake hearing Lumet refer to it as Paddy Chayefsky's movie. I was fortunate enough to attend a Lumet Q&A later in his life. He basically spoke about how Network was all Paddy and there is no getting around that script, it is amazing. I don't think another script has ever so accurately predicted where a culture was heading like Network.

Another fun fact, according to Lumet, when he met Kurosawa, all Kurosawa wanted to talk about was how Lumet got the rain to show up on film like he did during the chase scene in Prince of the City.

Don't sleep on Prince of the City.

Don't know which one is the best, but Running on Empty is my personal favorite.

I picked Serpico.

Damn, what a list!

I voted for 12 Angry Men but you can't really argue about any of the choices.

I'm in the minority but the only film of his that I don't care for is Dog Day Afternoon. I can appreciate its merits but I just didn't care for it, personally.

I choose Fail-Safe as my favorite.

Maybe it's because I saw it fairly recently, but I voted for The Hill.

Great filmmaker.

I voted for my favorites:

12 Angry Men
The Pawnbroker
Serpico
Murder on the Orient Express
Dog Day Afternoon
Network
Q & A

But there are another half dozen that could also receive my votes. What a career.

There's so many of his movies I haven't seen. Although I have seen the Vin Diesel one. And I remember I actually thought it was good.

Yeah, I like Find Me Guilty. I love that he did a film each for the jury (12 Angry Men), the plaintiffs/prosecutors (The Verdict), and defense (Find Me Guilty) perspective over the course of his career.

Network, easy.

I'll give the personal edge to The Verdict, but it was not an easy choice. That is one hell of a run he had.

Voted Prince of the City, a terrific film.

12 Angry Men since it's my favorite film of all time.

I tried really hard (since this thread popped up) not to vote for Network because of it being the obvious choice. But in the end, I succumbed.