A Different Kind of Afternoon ***1/2

Rating: 9/10 (25 January 2006)

Al Pacino's mesmerizing performance highlights this action filled movie which is a true analysis of character.
The film is "Dog Day Afternoon." Pacino, the bank robber, is doing this to pay for an operation for his homosexual lover. This is certainly a new one for perpetrating bank robberies. I wonder what Bonnie and Clyde would have said?
The robbery goes awry and quickly becomes a hostage situation.
Carol Kane, as one of the bank tellers, produces an hilarious line. With the robbery in progress, she gets a phone call from her boyfriend. The latter asks her how long this is going to take? There was such laughter when she said this by the audience, I did not hear Pacino's response.
Plenty of foul language goes around especially by Charles Durning, who plays the police detective.
John Cazale is a Pacino cohort who invariably winds up shot to death for his "day's" work.
An off-the-wall film that succeeds because of its dealings with human emotions, even when the latter are not deemed normal by society. Why has this great film become a cult legend? It deals with many societal problems and we see Pacino, the late Cazale and others as merely societal problems. Charles Durning, as the police officer, is magnificent here. He is brutal and yet can show some compassion as he learns about Sonny's twisted life. Pacino was totally memorable here and should have tied with Jack Nicholson for the best actor Oscar that year in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Ditto for the movie. Where was Durning's nomination in the supporting category? He was surely robbed here.