Movie Ninety Four
In simple terms, Dog Day Afternoon is a film about a bank robbery. When the layers start peeling back, however, we see a much bigger picture. Truly one of the great films by the master, Sidney Lumet.
Dog Day Afternoon is a film without a backstory. It opens with the bank robbery and unfolds from there. Things do not go as planned from the start, which is actually riveting. As we learn more about Sonny (Pacino) and his accomplice, Sal (John Cazale), the more we root for them. I don’t wish to spoil a major portion of the plot, but the reason for Sonny’s robbery was enormously progressive for 1975 and would still make headlines today. In fact, the story is based on real events taken from a Life magazine article from a 1972 bank robbery
What is undoubtedly his best performance in my eyes, Al Pacino carries Dog Day Afternoon to great heights with the assistance of Lumet and the rest of the cast. He is charismatic, smart, charming, and keeps a mostly cool head while things crumble beneath him. Considering how much goes awry from their plan, I was rooting for his escape even though I feared it was unlikely. The ending keeps you guessing until the very end, though.
In Lumet’s book, Making Movies, he states that much of the dialogue is improvised and in certain scenes I think that shows more than others. Particularly the scenes between the negotiator and Sonny, we rarely see movie stars fumble words but in this context it’s an added sense of realism and humanity to the characters.
Dog Day Afternoon should be the movie people look to Al Pacino’s career for, not Godfather or Scarface, though he is excellent in both. Pacino IS Sonny in this film. When a performance that great comes along, it ends up being the rest of the movie that has to play catch-up, and Dog Day Afternoon keeps the pace.
I give it 5 “Attica!”s out of 5.
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Great movie – nice review. Been a while since I’ve seen it, but Pacino was great in it.
It’s A True-Blue CLASSIC, Fo SHO, Sir!
Nice Choice!
-BRAD
Sidney Lumet the greatest action director of all time? Maybe…
i have not seen the movie since about when it came out. i took a screenwriting class about five years after seeing it, and the teacher referred to “dog day afternoon” as one of the tightest scripts ever written. he said it really contains only 12 scenes, they’re just longer than most scenes but extremely well developed. i should watch it again.
Great Review Andy. I re-watched this myself not long ago and it’s class never fades. A true 70’s classic and as you say, it may well be Pacino’s finest moment.
A great film. Pacino gives a performance that rivals his from The Godfather. This is definitely one of those movies I think most people overlook.
AMAZING movie. This is my favorite Pacino performance as well.
I still have not seen this…adding it to my rental list. Thanks!
I hope you like it!
Such a good film. Definitely my favorite Pacino performance.
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Another film that seems to evaded me, after reading your review it is going on my watchlist .
It sporadically hits Netflix Instant Watch if you use that service. Definitely one to see in your lifetime and no other film quite like it.