Dog Day Afternoon

Sidney Lumet helms another classic with Dog Day Afternoon (1975). A bizarre tale of a bank robbery-turned-media circus, it would be completely outlandish if it weren't so closely based on a true story.

On a sweltering summer day, a pair of crooks, Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale), hold up an NYC bank. The first stages go off perfectly, but the inept robbers get trapped by an army of police. As reporters and civilians gather, Sonny poses as an anti-Establishment hero, spouting slogans and riling up the crowd. It comes out that Sonny is hoping to steal money for his gay lover's (Chris Sarandon) sex change operation, but Sal is disgusted when *he's* labeled as a homosexual. Things remain at an impasse until the FBI tricks the robbers into a rigged deal.

Dog Day Afternoon is a clockwork thriller. Never the most dynamic director, Lumet's docudrama driection and frantic editing make a perfect fit. Frank Pierson provides a perfecty-structured script, building absurdities into a unique storyline. By focusing closely on his protagonists, Lumet undermines much of his thematic posturing re: the media and social discord. Dramatically though it's the right play, allowing both a claustrophobic thriller and neurotic character study.

Lumet plays the robbery as a ludicrous farce. The bumbling crooks allow themselves to be browbeaten by their hostages, especially Sylvia (Penelope Allen), who resents the thugs menacing "her" girls. And yet Stockholm Syndrome sets in fairly fast, the crooks and hostages getting on swimmingly. Sonny's public performances ("Attica! Attica!") make him an unlikely hero; when the media "outs" him, gay activists show up to offer support. The befuddled cops are checkmated, Sonny's antics nearly sparking a riot by embittered New Yorkers. For all the silliness though, the stakes are deadly seriousness, as evidenced by the finale.

Al Pacino makes Sonny a perfect mixture of confusion, cockiness and hair-trigger temper. Pacino builds his broadly-sketched character into a complex, pitiable loser without ingratiating ham. John Cazale provides solid support, and Chris Sarandon has some choice scenes playing Sonny's befuddled "wife." Charles Durning gets a meaty role as a sympathetic policeman. Carol Kane and Lance Henriksen feature in smaller parts.

Dog Day Afternoon is a top-notch thriller. Perfectly structured and impeccably acted, it's at turns funny and tense, an interesting approach to a played-out genre.