FIND ME GUILTY: Blu-ray debut for a Sidney Lumet gem boasting Vin Diesel's best role

TrustMovies first saw FIND ME GUILTY -- the penultimate film from the late, great Sidney Lumet (shown below) -- back in 2006 when it was first released.

He enjoyed it immensely then and found it just as much fun again now, thirteen years later. Though he must also say that this "take" on the longest federal trial in American history -- which might, back in 2006, have seemed to favor those adorable Mafia hoods (who were up on multiple charges) over the somewhat nasty-appearing government prosecutors -- looks a bit different today.

Now, with a lot more understanding of the damage the mafia does to every society with which it interacts, audiences may be a bit more likely to glom onto the lengthy and passionate speech delivered by the leading prosecutor (played quite well by Linus Roache), as he highlights, oh, so specifically, the costs to society -- from protection rackets to drugs to multiple murder -- of Mafia interference.

Of course, it's the mob "wise guys" -- one in particular played to a fare-thee-well and with great good humor by Vin Diesel (below) -- who prove the most fun, just as they did to the jurors who served on the actual trial, but Find Me Guilty is smart enough to understand and appreciate the immense and unsettling societal costs of an unchecked Mob that makes and lives by its own laws.

Mr. Diesel plays a real-life fellow named Jackie DiNorscio who, fed up with his fairly useless attorney, fires the guy and asks the court to allow him to defend himself in this famous trial that had more defendants than you could shake a stick at. The judge said OK, but I'll bet succeeding judges in Mafia trials went out of their way not to let this happen again.

How DiNorscio charmed the jury, even as he riles the biggest mob boss on trial (played with his usual strength and style by Alex Rocco, above, right), makes up most of the movie's two-hour running time. Much of DiNorscio's in-court dialog comes directly, we are told at the film's beginning, from court records. However, Mr. Lumet, never being a stickler for the truth over a good story, is, as co-writer here, up to his usual and much-appreciated tricks.

In the supporting cast are an interestingly used Peter Dinklage (above) playing one of the mob attorneys who occasionally helps out our "hero," and an even more unusually-used Raúl Esparza (below), as Jackie's drug-addled, turncoat cousin. In the role of the judge, Ron Silver has a few juicy, well-played scenes and moments, too.

Yes, as with most mob movies, this one's guy-oriented, though Annabella Sciorra has one good scene as Jackie's put-upon wife (her husband was a non-stop cocksman, it seems), and Marcia Jean Kurtz makes the most of her small screen time as one of the prosecutors.

It is Sidney Lumet's love of New York City and its denizens, however, together with his ability for smart pacing, sharp dialog, and just-plain-good-storytelling, that tops it all, making Find Me Guilty a pleasure that proves anything but guilty. See it if you haven't as yet -- or maybe once again, if you already have.

From MVD Visual and part of its Marquee Collection, the Blu-ray and DVD hit the street this past Tuesday, September 17 -- available now for purchase and (I hope) rental. Among the relatively minor Bonus Features is a very nice five-minute conversation with Mr. Lumet.

BY SIDNEY LUMET: Nancy Buirski's first-class doc is yet another fine one about a filmmaker

Joining two other recent and terrific documentaries -- Hitchcock/Truffaut and De Palma -- that both herald and open up the work of great filmmakers, BY SIDNEY LUMET, the new documentary from Nancy Buirski (who also gave us the excellent Afternoon of a Faun and The Loving Story), reminds us of a wonderful filmmaker who died five years back and whom you might not immediately stick on your list of favorite directors. Watching Ms Buirski's incisive new film should place Lumet up there with the best, while giving you all the reasons why.

Buirski (shown at right) accomplishes this in the simplest of ways: She lets Mr. Lumet talk, while intercutting examples of his work, his history, and a bit of the history of the USA along the way. That is all the movie is, and that's all it takes to make it about as perfect -- intelligent, gripping, eye-opening, surprising and entertaining -- as you could want or need.

Aside from Lumet, there are no other talking heads that ramble on about the man and/or his work. Nor does there need to be. Mr. Lumet, it turns out, was extremely cogent and well-spoken. Not humble, neither was he full of himself. He had, it would seem, an excellent understanding of his abilities, as well as of some of the things that he lacked.

Ms Buirski begins her documentary with Lumet telling a tale of his time in WWII, in Calcutta, on a train, when a group of soldiers swept up a young Indian girl from the station platform, and then passed her around among them to be raped. Lumet is dumbstruck and wonders what he should do. We leave this tale in mid-stream and return to it only at film's end.

In between, Lumet talks of his family life, his time as a child actor (at left), his difficult father, and a contract with (I believe) MGM that somehow hinged on another young actor, Freddie Bartholomew. We learn a lot about his early years as a television director -- and in passing also learn that Yul Brynner, too, in his early years, was a very fine director! It will not surprise movie fans to learn that justice and the search for same is a hallmark, probably the main theme, of Lumet's work. (That's Sean Connery, below, in one of Lumet's least-seen and -appreciated movies, The Hill.)

And yet, what a versatile director he was in terms of projects (some of which he chose, others that were chosen for him). As we view scene after scene, from one film after another, I suspect that you, as I did I, will exclaim under your breath: "Oh, my god: He made that movie, too?" (During the final credit sequence, we get a list of all of the films directed by Lumet, and it's a humdinger: long and mostly good, even if it leaves out the excellent work he did for television.)

From 12 Angry Men (his first film, above) through The Verdict to his penultimate movie Find Me Guilty, Lumet was often in the courtroom, though just as often perhaps in the police station (Serpico, Prince of the City, and Q&A) and most definitely on the street a lot -- as in what many consider his best movie, Dog Day Afternoon. (How amazingly current this one seems, as much now and when it was made. That's Sidney, below, with his star Al Pacino.)  What Lumet says about New York City, its streets and its ravishing winter light, is -- as so much else he tells us -- pointed, well-said, and true.

It's seems a rather stunning discovering that just a man speaking, together with some of his visual history and a lot of his films (the clips from which are very well chosen and wonderfully edited into the documentary) could be this thoughtful and riveting. Well, of course: It all depends on the man and the movies. And, in this case, the documentary filmmaker: Thank you, Ms Buirski! You have sent us back to Lumet with newly opened eyes -- and a huge desire to see many of his movies again: some of his early work that features icons like Marlon Brando (below in The Fugitive Kind) and Sophia Loren (That Kind of Woman),  and especially, Daniel, his adaptation of the E.L. Doctorow book.

By the time this amazing and wonderful doc comes to a close, you will understand much more fully, thanks especially to that World War II/Calcutta reminiscence, why Mr. Lumet proved so interested in justice and the search for it against so many odds. (Yes, that's Peter Finch, in another of Lumet's memorable movies, Network, below)

By Sidney Lumet, running 103 minutes, opens tomorrow, Friday, October 28, in New York City (where else, so far as Sidney was concerned?) at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and the following Friday, November 4, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal. Elsewhere? Hope so, but I don't know. Seeing as the movie is part of the American Masters series, you'll certainly be able to view it eventually via Public Television.