one of those movies that, in a strange way, is almost TOO good

Rating: 10/10 (1 September 2005)

We've seen this story before, but then again maybe not. This is the attitude that director Sidney Lumet takes (as he did with films like 12 Angry Men and Serpico, the later also starring Al Pacino) with Dog Day Afternoon. Bank robbery films are a staple in cinema since The Great Train Robbery filmed in 1903. However this story (not even saying based on a true story, just saying 'this is a true story' is enough) is set in 1972, and filmed a couple of years later, at a time when attitudes in society were changing, as was storytelling. Lumet here could get away with things he couldn't get away with if he tried this in the 50's; with unapologetically homosexual (but truthful is the key) characters, one of them the lead character; surprises that add to the unconventionality of the style of the film; and an ending that will keep you guessing. Lumet did a lot of good with this movie, and in a small way some not so good; people would look at many bank-robbery pictures that would come after this and size them up to this, as it was almost transparently influential (the 'Attica, Attica' tirade is something a child knows years before he actually sees the film).
But its the honesty in the truth of the story and problems of the main characters, and in fact the lead up to the robbery and the (unsuccessful) robbery has truth out of it. It is manipulative in a sense, as it is so truthful artifice is almost excluded entirely from the picture. Take when Sonny (Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale) first whip out their guns in the bank. Their friend can't take it and wants out. This is a great moment, and the film has them scattered about. In some ways these great parts and scenes make up for the fact that beneath it all is a story that we have seen too many times (the robbers faced with intense media attention, wanting a plane to take the hostages, etc), or maybe not; maybe one has to put the film into context of the period. But a scene, for another example, when Sonny talks to his 'friend' on the phone. This is one of those moments where Pacino is of course as always 'Pacino', but also totally immersed in the character and the situation. Lumet lets this play for painfully real results.
Dog Day Afternoon is one of Lumet's grittiest successes, as he takes the city he's made most of his films in, New York, and gives it the right tone, inside the bank and out, for this story of eventuality to unfold. The opening montage, with an Elton John song in the background, really has little relevance to the rest of the film, except to set up mood, and style, and it is a wonderful style (interestingly, the rest of the film aside from this opening is without music, another touch of the gripping realism). In a way, as I mentioned, its almost TOO intense, and too spectacular in the power that it has. This is Al Pacino in his prime, after all, off the heels of Serpico and The Godfather films, with his Sonny loaded with vigor and ambition and delusions of grandeur. John Cazale's Sal, by the way, is equally convincing in his own right, bringing a level of sanity to some of Sonny's over-the-top ideas. This film, and its actors and characters and Dede Allen editing, is almost a blue-print for how many other films that would come after this would take. One almost wonders what's the point of all of it, but when it makes its moments to shine, its dynamite.