Plodding and predictable

Rating: 5/10 (10 August 2011)

Dog Day Afternoon, in which Michael and Fredo Corleone rob a bank. Just a year after The Godfather: Part II Al Pacino and John Cazale are together again. This time they play two bank robbers, Sonny and Sal respectively, whose robbery does not go at all according to plan. With Pacino in the lead role casting Cazale was probably a mistake. For as great an actor as Cazale was when you see him with Pacino your mind can't help but go to Fredo. Again Pacino's the star while Cazale plays the quiet, somewhat dim-witted supporting figure. It's Fredo all over again and thinking about that takes you out of the experience of enjoying this movie. Then again there isn't necessarily all that much to enjoy here. The fact that Cazale's presence may lead you to think of the Godfather movies is not Dog Day Afternoon's biggest problem. This movie disappoints in other ways. Ultimately, despite a very good performance from Pacino, it proves to be quite a letdown.
So the robbery goes horribly bad and Sonny and Sal find themselves trapped in the bank, surrounded by police, holding a bunch of unfortunate bank employees hostage. And then...nothing. Nothing much of consequence anyway. The movie plods along, incredibly slowly paced, rather devoid of drama. A crowd shows up, television broadcasts the unfolding events live and Sonny becomes an unwitting media star while Sal whimpers in the back of the bank. The story doesn't really move forward. Sonny and Sal are trapped...and they're still trapped...and they're still trapped...and can I get this two hours of my life back? There's a sense of inevitability to the whole thing. Once the situation has been established there are very few potential outcomes. This is all based on a true story but even if you know absolutely nothing about the real-life events it's not hard to guess how this is all going to turn out. Really the only twist in the tale comes when Sonny's wife shows up, revealing the motivation for the robbery. And well, that's quite a twist. So bizarre you wouldn't believe it if it weren't actually true. If it weren't true any screenwriter trying to pitch it would be laughed out of the room. If nothing else at least this provides for a bit of story and character development after all the time spent with Sonny staring at the cops and the cops staring at Sonny and absolutely nothing actually happening. Aside from the introduction of the wife the movie is a rather monotonous, predictable crawl towards the finish line. Pacino is very good but he doesn't have much material to work with. There's not much story here and what little story we have is hard to believe even if it is true. The robbery fails. The movie largely does too.