Dog Day Afternoon

Genre: crime drama

With: Al Pacino (Sonny Wortzik), John Cazale (Sal), Charles Durning (Det. Sgt. Eugene Moretti), Chris Sarandon (Leon Shermer), Sully Boyar (Mulvaney), Penelope Allen (Sylvia Benson), James Broderick (Sheldon), Carol Kane (Jenny), Beulah Garrick (Margaret), Sandra Kazan (Deborah), Marcia Jean Kurtz (Miriam), Gary Springer (Stevie), John Marriott (Howard Calvin), Susan Peretz (Angie)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Screenplay: Frank Pierson (from an article by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore and a book by Leslie Waller)

Release: 1975

Studio: Artists Entertainment Complex, Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution

Rating: R

MBiS score: 8.7/10 

 

If Everything Else Fails, Improvise   

 

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Story-line: Brooklyn, a sultry day in August, 1972. One after the other, Sal, Sonny and Stevie enter a bank just before closing time and their intentions become abundantly clear when Sal draws a machine gun in full view of the manager. Yes, this is a holdup… but not the kind you would normally expect.      

Pluses: one of Al Pacino’s strongest performances ever, great support from John Cazale, Charles Durning, James Broderick, a splendid cast and a feisty crowd, a dramatic and suspenseful screenplay that doubles as a dark comedy of errors with its clumsy robbers and malevolent cops, tight helming that keeps things tongue-in-cheek and stokes tension relentlessly, appropriate production values and a potent ending.

Minuses: the language used is frequently foul but certainly adds realism to the story.  

Comments: this extraordinary picture, which is based on an actual event, turns its premise into a poignant illustration of human misery as Sonny and his gang, far from being hardened criminals, are basically decent guys facing desperate prospects in life. DOG DAY AFTERNOON, another landmark work from the golden 70s in American cinema, may depict a lousy heist but stands as a perfect movie.

MBiS 

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