Richly detailed account of a bungled bank heist - one of the great movies of American cinema.

Rating: 10/10 (18 August 2011)

Dog Day Afternoon is a film of surprises. At no point does it play out like you expect it to. I came to the film anticipating it was going to be good, but expecting it to be good as a hostage siege thriller, or a heist caper, or maybe a typically gritty 70s crime drama. It isn't any of those things. In fact, it's hard to categorise Dog Day Afternoon at all, because it so skilfully fuses a vast array of conventions and themes, resulting in a film that is endlessly watchable and hugely rewarding. If it sounds like I'm using a lot of superlatives here that's because I am; Dog Day Afternoon is one of the great films of American cinema. As great as Lumet's masterpiece, Twelve Angry Men, I hear you ask? I'd have to say yes; both films pretty much equal each other in their brilliance.
On a hot August afternoon, a trio of men enter the First Savings Bank in Brooklyn and proceed to rob the place at gunpoint. During the early moments of the heist, young Stevie (Gary Springer) loses his nerve and bails out, leaving Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale) to continue with their audacious raid. However, what should have been a lightning-fast robbery rapidly descends into a catalogue of errors. Firstly, the hapless robbers learn that there is almost no money in the bank as everything in the vault has already been collected. Then, Sonny attempts to burn some of the bank's paperwork only for the smoke to raise suspicions in the neighbouring businesses and it isn't long before the police arrive. Before they know it, Sonny and Sal are surrounded by hundreds of heavily armed police officers and their plight looks utterly hopeless. With a handful of oddball bank staff as hostages, the robbers attempt to negotiate with Det. Sgt Moretti (Charles Durning). As the evening wears on, more and more curious onlookers come along to watch the event as it unfolds, many of them chanting their support for Sonny and Sal, especially when it becomes clear that Sonny only ever wanted the money to pay for his gay lover's sex change operation. What was meant to be a straightforward crime suddenly becomes a media circus, and the two men at the centre of it are swept helplessly towards their fate.
Dog Day Afternoon is impressive on so many levels, but probably best of all is the acting. Pacino is mesmerising as Sonny. His semi-improvisational dialogue, his jittery body language and those incredibly expressive eyes combine to create a remarkable screen character. In fact, throughout the entire film the characterisation is richly detailed and wholly believable, and all the actors come off exceptionally well. Lumet gets across the immediacy of the situation brilliantly, with moments of tension, despair, folly, bravado and even some absurdist humour. It has a relatively thin plot when you stop to think about it, but very early on in Dog Day Afternoon the importance of the story is sacrificed in favour of detail and character and beautifully understated social commentary. The whole film is a joy to watch – edgy and exciting film-making at its finest. In a decade that saw some truly amazing films, here's one that can hold its place with the best of them.