JohnDoe
Bryn
BrentonDog Day Afternoon (1975) - Footage Included
October 26th 2007 00:02
2 Disc Special Edition available in Australia
Writer:Frank Pierson
Starring:Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning
“No, I don't want to be paid, I don't need to be paid. Look, I'm here with my partner and nine other people, see. And we're dying, man. You know? You're going to see our brains on the sidewalk, they're going to spill our guts out. Now are you going to show that on television? Have all your housewives look at that? Instead of As The World Turns? I mean what do you got for me? I want something for that.” – Sonny
Based on a true story, Dog Day Afternoon is cinema verite that lets you invest in the characters because of an unblinking fly on the wall reality. This crackling bank robbery thriller with a dramatic back hander is the stuff of legend, to be discussed and dissected.
It’s looks like a typical summers day in New York City 1972, as the camera gives us a tour of the city that ends in Brooklyn when we meet Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale).
“Uh, no. Doing what? You know if you want a job you've got to be a member of a union. See, and if you got no union card you don't get a job.” – Sonny
Screwed by the system and struggling they have decided to rob a bank in broad daylight. Sonny is the kinetic man with the plan. Sal is the volatile ingredient required to make sure the hostages take notice.
As the police surround the area and the news crews turn up a media frenzy erupts. The captured bank employees and customers begin to see that they may get out alive.
“At the airport. We get on the plane, check it out, and if it's all okay we'll send them out. Except one.” - Sonny
As the day progresses the two gentle meaning crooks nervous energy rises. Sonny talks to the police, the media and his captives as he tries to survive, but nobody could see where this perspiring tension was going to end.
“So what country do you want to go to?” - Sonny
'Attica, Attica, Attica, Attica'
John Doe says:
As the vice slowly gets turned and the automatic weapon has its safety switched off this creatively engineered story drags you into its gritty realism dowsed in an atmosphere of claustrophobic suspense.
Observant and comedic at times, the man with his hands on the ratchet is Director Sidney Lumet who caresses us through the powerful drama with dashes of blue black real life absurdity.
Air tight execution means that the sincere attention to detail just pulls you in further. The long silent pauses benefit from a lack of any background music other than what is in the frame. The viewer is allowed to subjectively perceive the sometimes improvised moments that come out of Frank Pierson’s (Cool Hand Luke, The Anderson Tapes) Oscar winning screenplay.
The documentary cinematography brings out the carefully tapered performances that unconditionally convince. Edited to an organic rhythmn as the seconds tick away the complex and involving lead characters gain a hyper real honesty.
Al Pacino had already created unforgettable characters as a young Michael Corleone, and in uncorruptable cop Frank Serpico when he took on the part of Sonny. His dynamic inhibition free portrayals that fearlessly remain morally conflicted are his best and in Director Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon his performance confirms his reputation in the 70’s.
Unfaltering, John Cazale had such a tragically short career and life, but what a resume. If your only going to star in 5 feature films let them be Francis Ford Coppolla’s The Godfather I & II, The Conversation, Michael Cimino’s the Deer Hunter and Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon!
Al Pacino has never been better as a tightly compressed panther inverted by Cazales jittery hyena with an itchy trigger finger and together they are combustible on screen.
This is a film where John Doe struggles to breathe as the oxygen is taken from his lungs with each passing tick of the clock. The acting is free and loose yet deliberate and everything around it follows suit. Dog day Afternoon matches any thriller of ever made because it captures the one thing special effects can never do, intellectual gut emotions that is true.
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Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
Michaelie
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I would be hard pressed to find a better example of Pacino's skill and the fact this film is masterfully handled means it should be high on your must see list.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
In two: Fucking Brilliant.
In three: Damn Fucking Brilliant.
They don't make 'em like this anymore.
I know David Fincher would like to though.
Lean, mean review too dude.