Analysis after first time viewing of Dog Day Afternoon

Rating: 9/10 (1 October 2012)

Films starring Al Pacino tend to involve heavy criminal activity, and the 1975 film, Dog Day Afternoon, is no exception. Moving from the surface, upon reflection, the Lumet-directed film is less about a bank robbery gone awry, and rather focused on anti-establishmentism and a rebellion against cultural expectations. Sonny (Pacino) breaks both tangible laws and social laws by leading a bank robbery, holding hostages, participating in homosexuality, and practicing polygamy.
The opening scene of the film is outside a bank where Sonny sits in the front seat of a vehicle and Sal (John Cazale) sits in the back seat. I perceived their seating order as indicating the roles of Sonny as a "leader" and Sal as a "follower". This aspect is heavily reinforced throughout the picture as Sal will only perform an action when Sonny instructs him to do so. Sonny himself conveys this to police negotiators by telling them, "I bark, Sal bites." Aside from these moments, Sal is intemperately in the background, influencing the viewer to perceive him as unimportant. In the final minutes of the film, Agent Murphy creates a diversion and swiftly shoots Sal in the head, then proceeds to arrest Sonny. Even in death, Sal is merely a casualty.
Bank robbery films always have a revelation scene where the robbery is announced, but Dog Day Afternoon delivers this scene unexpectedly. When Sonny and Sal enter the bank, Sonny carries the gun packaged in a white box with a lavender lace bow, resembling a delicate gift. Following this, Sonny attempts to reveal his gun, but he haphazardly fumbles and the box falls to the floor. This idiosyncrasy demonstrates Sonny and Sal's general unpreparedness. Though the act of robbing a bank is viewed by society as destructive and masculine, the core of Sonny is actually quite the sensitive man. This is demonstrated many times throughout the movie as Sonny intentionally waits for the woman and her child to leave the bank before he announces the robbery, and again when he spray paints the security cameras rather than smashing them. Perhaps the biggest demonstrations of his true nature are when he announces, "I'm a Catholic, okay? I don't wanna hurt anybody.", and his insistence of paying for the pizza he orders for the hostages.
The scene in which Sonny gains support from protesters by continuously chanting "Attica!", reveals the true focus of the film as anti-establishmentarianism. "Attica!" is referring to the Attica prison riot of 1971 wherein prison guards showered crowds with gunfire to control a prisoner uprising, thus killing the guilty and the innocent simultaneously. The prisoners initiated the rebellion as a demand for better living conditions. This chant indicates that Sonny and the crowd are against the oppressive nature of the cops, which in Dog Day Afternoon, represent societal norms.
Though most of the elements that profoundly impacted me were based on dialogue and action, there were also technical aspects that influenced my viewing experience. Towards the end of the movie when Sonny is outside negotiating with Agent Sheldon, there is a defined shadow from a telephone line that stays between the two characters as they speak. As the conversation continues, Agent Sheldon lurches closer and closer to Sonny, ultimately standing right behind the telephone line shadow, but never crossing it. The telephone line shadow demonstrates the clear gap between Sonny's values and "normal" society values. The element of shadowing is also used as an omen to foreshadow Sal's death. The billowing shadows casted over Sal's body during the limousine ride to the airplane indicate a heavy, dark experience in his near future. The other significant technical element I noticed was spacing. In many scenes of the film, Sonny is in the middle of a crowd of people, making him the center of attention as well as facing everybody else alone.
The viewing of Dog Day Afternoon also strengthened my ability to recognize broad film patterns. After watching the movie, I came to the realization that many films produced in the 1970s have a massive emphasis on irresolution, the concept of endings initiating more questions rather than tying up loose ends. Sal's death and Sonny's arrest in the last two minutes of Dog Day Afternoon demonstrate that the 1975 film does not fray from the aspect of irresolution. Other notable films that I noticed this trait in include: The Godfather (1972), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and A Clockwork Orange (1971).