In the flesh

Rating: Null/10 (23 October 2002)

I love movies since I was a kid. I think I even loved them more when I was a kid because it was easy for me to abstract myself from reality. Watching a movie was like being inside it, and that was extra-cool.
Of course, time goes by and you grow up, and as you change you learn to watch and value films in different ways. It's not just a roller-coaster anymore. You admire the actors, you appreciate the direction, the story, you try to look at the details, there's a lot to learn by watching a movie. But now and then, a movie comes by that makes you be a kid again. You forget all about yourself and when you realize you're shaking, you're nervous and scared about what's going to happen to this guy, like your very own life depends on it.
Dog Day Afternoon is like that.
You know what I'm talking about. Those movies that make you stop and realize that this is why cinema is a great form of art. In the times we live in it's like there's a pop-video infection out there, all movies have to be slick and fast, no time to talk no time to think, it's all action and boom, there you go again... Moviegoers are becoming addicts to this new visual style. All action movies must look like Matrix to be cool. Hell, I loved Matrix, but let's get real now okay. We even have a `matrixized' version of the three musketeers for that fashionable new look. What the hell! Let's rewind please...
I'm not going to bother you with the story. It's a bank robbery but it's so much more than that. It's the story of a desperate man trying to set things straight when all has gone wrong. It's about the media exposure, it's about politics, it's about sexuality and incomprehension. It's about a society that has no answers for you and me man, a machine in motion with no soul and no forgiveness (and what a contemporary view of the world it still is today). And if you have doubts on why Al Pacino is a fantastic actor, just look at this! I don't care who you are, this man is great and always will be!
Finally, if I were to choose my favorite directors I probably wouldn't remember Sidney Lumet at all. Still, Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico stand, to me, as two monuments of that big american movie-making legacy we all grew up with. A reference and a lession that movies should, at their core, be about people and the complexities of the human spirit.
So, let's rewind...