70s classic

Rating: 9/10 (14 September 2008)

For me, this movie represents everything that was magical about 70s American cinema: good direction, acting, and writing mixed with social awareness and a finely tuned, engaging narrative plot. Before studios learned the wrong lesson from Star Wars and decided that special effects blockbusters were the way to go (not totally incorrectly), American movies managed to have their cake and eat it too, as far as entertainment value AND thought were concerned.
The story is of a botched robbery involving Sonny (Al Pacino) and the shady, quiet Sal (John Cazale), an event already gripping but increased by the pervading influence of media and mob mentality, counter-cultural undertones rumbling through the streets and alternative sexuality, friendly hostages, pizza deliverers and cab drivers. By all means, what sets this movie apart from any other heist movie is the crowd, which acts almost as a Greek chorus inciting the drama of the plot as they simultaneously cheer for Sonny as a hero for the under-represented and heckle the cops for representing the authority. Under the PR knowledge that the cops can't shoot Sonny or risk a scene reminiscent of Attica, and they can't very well arrest him while Sal is inside the bank, slowly getting more distraught, instead the authorities are basically forced to give Sonny the stage to figure out his life and rant at society as a whole.
Danger is always vibrating beneath the surface of every scene, building like an escalating earthquake, but Dog Day Afternoon is most often remembered for Sonny's cries of "Attica! Attica!", a similar quotation in ways to Network's "I'm ****ed off and I'm not going to take it anymore!" in expressing the sentiment of the time. This movie is almost a cathartic response to the social situation of the time, except of course for the main narrative concerns involving the robbery proper and the ultimate justice that the audience (nor the diagetic crowd) want to recognize: that this is not going to end well.
In other words, its a classic of cinema from a time when making classics meant something and making a point was often respected and listened to. There are always closed-minded people out there who thumb their noses at anything they deem to be "old movies", which essentially means any movie that came out before Fight Club (and even now that movie's starting to fall into the obscurity of "my parents liked it so it must not be good"), but for basically everyone else in the world, this is a pretty essential classic that shouldn't be missed.
--PolarisDiB