A small masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2009)

The problem with a lot of modern movies is that have a message, is they tend to really whack you over the head with it. Either that or they are hopelessly obscure.
No such problems with Dog Day Afternoon. It doesn't even have a "message" necessarily, but its still one of the most thought provoking movies ever made. It's also probably one of the saddest, and the funniest.
I could give endless praise to everyone involved ( except for Chris Saradon sort of struck a wrong note with me ), I could say how brilliant John Cazale is (RIP), and Charles Durning and every one of the hostages. But I really can't think of anything I could say to give everyone their due. They are portraying individual people, but they are all also saying something about people in general and how we operate and communicate with each other. They are perfect.
And there is nothing I can really say about Al Pacino here. All I can give you is that this is probably one of the greatest performances of all time. Thats going to sound funny to those who have seen it because its not that kind of performance. Its almost a small performance, actually. Sonny's just not that kind of person. He doesn't draw attention to himself, but you can't take your eyes off him. He is a small spark of manic energy and constant movement. He lights up the screen, but he doesn't fill it up. This isn't something Marlon Brando or Jack Nicholsen or somebody like that could have done in a million years. The extent to which he makes Sonny exist, that he shares his nerve endings, as I like to say, is simply extraordinary. People always love to say ,"you can't see them acting". Here it's really true.
Pacino and his costars also seems to share with the screenwriter a mischievous appreciation of the absurd and an understanding of the overwhelming pathos, joy and humor of normal, unimportant little things. And its precisely those little things that make the movie.
It did have its big-scale effect though. Besides laying out a pattern for most bank heist movies today, it also gave Pacino his first opportunity to exercise his vocal chords on camera. American cinema would never be the same.
Dog Day Afternoon is certainly one of the best movies of the seventies. its as good in its way as some of the most beloved movies ever made. But while most great movies seem to share a certain sweeping, epic feeling, Dog Day afternoon feels personal, real and unpolished and thats what makes it so fascinating and wildly entertaining.