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Dog Day Afternoon movie review and analysis in film criticism course forum for advanced ESL students based on the English immersion program.
Dog Day Afternoon movie review
When inexperienced criminal Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino) leads a bank robbery in Brooklyn, things quickly go wrong, and a hostage situation develops. As Sonny and his accomplice, Sal Naturile (John Cazale), try desperately to remain in control, a media circus develops and the FBI arrives, creating even more tension. Gradually, Sonny’s surprising motivations behind the robbery are revealed, and his standoff with law enforcement moves toward its inevitable end.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
Dog Day Afternoon movie trailer
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Dog Day Afternoon movie analysis
There’s a point midway in “Dog Day Afternoon” when a bank’s head teller, held hostage by two very nervous stick-up men, is out in the street with a chance to escape. The cops tell her to run. But, no, she goes back inside the bank with the other tellers, proudly explaining, “My place is with my girls.” What she means is that her place is at the center of live TV coverage inspired by the robbery. She’s enjoying it.
Criminals become celebrities because their crimes provide fodder for the media. Many of the fashionable new crimes — hijacking, taking hostages — are committed primarily as publicity stunts. And a complex relationship grows up among the criminals, their victims, the police, and the press. Knowing they’re on TV, hostages comb their hair and killers say the things they’ve learned on the evening news.
Source: Roger Ebert
Dog Day Afternoon is not just a film for entertainment. To me, it is more a documentary than a film because this masterpiece depicts what exactly happened three years earlier. I pondered over the title of the movie and found out that there must be a link between the dog at the outset of the movie and the chain of events in the story, especially when the inexperienced robbers who were acting like a bunch of bulls in a china shop did not make a good start, and then persisted in continuing and fulfilling the robbery ominously anyhow.
This lack of attention to one’s sense of grim foreboding or early sings of misfortune reminded me of the film, The Shining, in which the characters, except for the little child, disregarded the early signs of bad luck.
The film is a mixture of tragedy and comedy which was brilliantly orchestrated by Sidney Lumet and so many actors, particularly Al Pacino. It was extremely comic and hilarious from this perspective that the characters had a strong desire for publicity and adventure. This strong desire made some bank clerks stay in the bank voluntarily and the people on the street applaud the bank robbers.
The ending of the film was so fascinating, grim and professional. I had to watch the scene in which the robbers were shot dead and arrested for over 10 times as it was absolutely perfect. All the actors were doing their jobs so perfectly and harmoniously.
I found this movie very interesting. The fact that it was based on true events made it even more thrilling for me. The movie had its own way of comedy which was funny, for instance, the scene where the detective told the bank employee she could stay but she wanted to go back in there. The hostages felt somehow safe with the criminals. The ending was shocking and hear-rending.
I really liked the way Sonny was treating the hostages. But the end of the movie broke my heart. He was brave, kind and he just wanted Lyon to be happy and live the way he wanted. Al Pacino really did a good job playing this movie.
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