Dog Day Afternoon

Last night was probably the first “night off” I’ve had from sitting in front of the computer, writing, for nearly a month. Considering I tend to hit my stride in the evenings, that’s when I seem to get most of my work done. Sad to say, but I’d actually been looking forward to seeing Dog Day Afternoon for the entire week – both for the movie itself, and for the break it would afford.

Made in 1975, Dog Day Afternoon is based on events that took place on August 22, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. Two friends, Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale), hold up a bank one summer afternoon. Sonny is desperate to raise the funds for his partner, Leon’s (Chris Sarandon) sex change operation and already in debt, feels this is the only way to do it.


From the opening minutes of the film, you sense that their mission is likely to end badly. Sonny and Sal’s early awkwardness in the bank, the information that comes to the light as the gum-chewing teller Miriam empties the bank vault, the mass deployment of busloads of armed police, enormous media throng and eager crowd of onlookers surrounding the bank, all border on pure farce. Laughs aside though, it doesn’t take long before you begin to sympathise with both robbers – the volatile, spirited Sonny and the morose, tense Sal. From the way they treat the bank workers, led by the mouthy and fearless teller, Sylvia (Penelope Allen), and the reserved manager, Mulvaney (Sully Boyar), you get the feeling that despite Sonny’s macho talk of “throwing bodies out of the building”, he realistically wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Al Pacino is mesmerising to watch – his striding and ranting outside the bank, as he very nearly incites a riot, is hilarious. You seriously feel like cheering him on, along with the crowd of onlookers who he quickly wins over. Even the way he orders the police to drop their weapons while he negotiates is so strangely reasonable, yet unfathomable. Could you see this happening in real life?? Sonny’s frustrations and feelings of sheer hopelessness are also conveyed beautifully, and become all the more pointed and painful to watch during the tense phone calls to his wife Angie, and Leon. Unfortunately, since Sonny is the mastermind of the heist and the dominant personality, we never get to find out that much about Sal, who remains the relatively silent partner throughout the whole film. Sensing his anxiety and naivety though, you can’t help but feel for him.


Although you realise that a happy ending is unlikely, you still find yourself wishing for it right up to the very end – even when the shifty FBI agent Sheldon (James Broderick) takes over negotiations. He and his sidekick Murphy (who strangely reminded me of Tony Abbott, hence no wonder I thought he was dodgy) are two truly repulsive pieces of work. I guess Dog Day Afternoon is the classic film where the audience is won over by the “anti-hero”, a bit like the way you find yourself favouring Ralph Fiennes’ character in Quiz Show, even though strictly speaking, he’s in the wrong.

There’s something about that era of films made in the 1970s that seems to have been lost since then. I think it’s got something to do with the characters themselves and the way they’re developed. These days, they just don’t seem to make you feel such strong empathy (or antipathy for that matter) for them. Still, it was great to go out last night and still be thinking about the film now.