Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

	Directed by: Sidney Lumet	COUNTRY USA GENRE Drama/Comedy NORWEGIAN TITLE Het ettermiddag RUNNING TIME 130 minutes
	Produced by: Martin Bregman Martin Elfand
	Written by: Frank Pierson

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Sonny	Al Pacino	½
Sal	John Cazale
Sergeant Moretti	Charles Durning
Leon	Chris Sarandon	½
Sylvia 'Mouth'	Penelope Allen	-
Mulvaney	Sully Boyar	-
Angie	Susan Peretz	-
FBI Special Agent Murphy	Lance Henriksen	-
Jenny 'The Squirrel'	Carol Kane	-
Margaret	Beulah Garrick	½

Review

With a slick media satire running as an undercurrent, Dog Day Afternoon brings us along to an intense, sweaty New York City afternoon in the mid-1970s, a time when the streets were full of litter and animated people, many of whom led a hand-to-mouth existence. In a desperate, only half-thought-through move, Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale) decide to rob a small savings bank, which quickly escalates into a hostage situation and stand-off with law enforcement, who flock outside the bank alongside news reporters and frenzied crowds. Sidney Lumet's direction is raw and unsentimental, probing the robbers' predicament with an unbiased zealousness. Sonny and Sal's basic simplicity is contrasted with the story's multifaceted nature, indicative of the filmmakers’ modern humanitarianism more than any political agenda. Unlike a message movie, Dog Day Afternoon stands firmly in its unpreachy belief system, which helps the story – and the character of Sonny in particular – become more fleshed-out and authentic the closer we get to the resolution. Al Pacino carries the film with a complete performance that makes Sonny’s complexity clear rather than cluttered. There's fine supporting work from Cazale, Charles Durning, and Chris Sarandon, as Pacino’s transgender lover.

Quotes

Sonny: "So what country do you wanna go to?"
Sal: "Wyoming!"
Sonny: "Sal, Wyoming's not a country!"